Sight and Sound Technology Podcast

In this milestone 100th episode of our podcast, Stuart celebrates seven years of the show by reminiscing about its origins and dipping into the very first episode from September 2018. Then its time to welcome back friend of the show Vanessa Viger, Chief Marketing Officer at Envision. Vanessa provides an overview of the new Ally Solos smart glasses, discussing their affordability, lighter design, and key features. The Ally Solos Glasses are designed to look like normal, lightweight everyday frames. They feature a camera on the left arm and battery-powered, removable stems that offer a 10-hour battery life with swappable arms for all-day use. They will be available in medium/large sizes and three colour options, complete with a folding case. The glasses are offered at an early bird price of £380, normally around £532. This price includes a 1-year Ally Pro subscription worth around £200. They connect via Bluetooth to a phone and can function as a headset for music and calls. They utilize existing Ally profiles/personalities across devices and employ multiple AI models for different tasks, focusing on accuracy over speed for safety. Unlike the hardware-focused Envision glasses, the Ally Solos adopt a software platform approach. Envision provides customer support, while Solos handles fulfilment. These glasses are built with an accessibility-first approach, distinguishing them from general market products like Meta Ray-Bans. Key scenarios include reading menus, food packaging and signs, getting real-time descriptions of what’s around you, checking your calendar and even finding out what the weather forecast. They are also prescription and tinted lens compatible and aim to target a broader market, including the elderly, individuals with cognitive needs, and those seeking general convenience.  Ally and Ally Solos Glasses users have complete control over their privacy since all Envision products are GDPR compliant and you are opted out of data sharing by default.

Welcome back to the Sight and Sound Technology podcast, where our General Manager and Head of Operations James Everson joins Stuart to clarify recent price and licensing changes for Vispero products (Jaws, ZoomText, and Fusion). James and Stuart discuss how new subscriptions, updated SMAs, and upgrade paths affect customers, and stress the need for existing SMA holders to renew by October 31st.

With Sight Village Central now less than a week away, Stuart is joined by our Head of Sales and Marketing Stefanie Davies to unveil some special, limited-time offers, which are available from July 1st and do not require attendance at the Sight Village event. These promotions include: 10% off all Envision Edition glasses (Read, Home, and Pro editions). 20% off Kapsys phones, including the MiniVision 2 Plus and both models of the Smart Vision 3. 20% off Selvas products in our portfolio, including the BrailleSense 6, SensePlayer, and Braille eMotion, and, there's much more!

We're continuing our catch-up with old friends in advance of this year's Sight Village Central event, in Birmingham. Stuart is having a long overdue chat with Jenny axler from Selvas. Jenny and the team have had an incredibly busy year and have lots of news about some current and soon-to-be released features for the BrailleSense 6, including a new web browser, offering modern Chrome functionality for shopping, embedded media, and form filling, while preserving the familiar Braille Sense interface and streamlining keystrokes for easier use. There's a significant update coming to the word processor, offering improved reliability and advanced formatting like bullets, numbering, tables, and footnotes, making it a true productivity tool that integrates well with Word. Selvas have also developed a new Braille Practice application designed to help users practice Braille at various learning stages, providing feedback and supporting phased Braille learning . Jenny also highlights new features such as shortcuts for global hotkeys for Android apps to improve efficiency, a video search application for easier YouTube navigation, and a new podcast AI search powered by ChatGPT. Stuart also sits down with our good friend Vanessa Vigar, Chief Marketing Officer with Envision. Vanessa tells us about Ally, Envision's powerful AI app that recently rolled out publicly. Ally is unique in leveraging multiple language models, ensuring it selects the best AI for tasks from visual descriptions to document reading. A key feature is the customization of Ally's personality and communication style, allowing users to input preferences for a highly personalized assistant experience. Vanessa explains how Ally now provides improved print reading with OCR, offering detailed audio feedback during the scanning process before reading the document, and enabling users to ask for summaries, translations, or specific information.

Welcome to another episode of the Sight and Sound Technology podcast. We're gearing up for Sight Village Central, taking place this year on July 7th and 8th in Birmingham, and, on this, the first in a couple of episodes that you'll hear over the next week, we're unveiling some new and exciting technology that will be on our stand during the show. We're delighted to be joined by friend of the show Pierre Kegels, and his colleague Karst Hoogsteen, who are with Stuart to talk about Luna Glasses. Designed by Karst, who has retinitis pigmentosa, these inconspicuous smart glasses offer a life-changing solution for night blindness and low-light vision. They use a special camera and in-lens projectors to display brighter, colourized reality in real-time, boosting confidence without stigma. Then, it's another friend of the show, when CEO of Kapsys Aram Hekimian makes a welcome return. Aram is with us to introduce KapX, a new wearable device for orientation and obstacle avoidance. Ideal for those needing confidence in outdoor navigation, KapX uses a lightweight headset with a camera and a pocket-sized computing unit. Its on-board AI provides real-time environment analysis, offering orientation guidance via TTS or 3D sound, notifying users of points of interest like crossings, and crucially, detecting and helping avoid hidden obstacles (like low branches or parked trucks) even if not specifically chosen by the user.

Liam Geschwindt is the co-founder of TouchPulse, who are developing Navis, the first personal navigation companion for the visually impaired.

Stuart re-connects with Joe Said, from Tactile Engeneering, the people behind the Cadence multi-line Braille Tablet.

Stuart catches up with /Dave Williams, RNIB's Inclusive Design Ambassador, to learn about his work and the work of the Inclusive design team.

This week Sight and Sound Technology are attending the 40th CSUN Assistive Technology conference in Anaheim, California. Stuart introduces the series and gives us a sense of what to expect.

February is a busy time for our friends at RNIB and specifically in their Northern Ireland team. Two events of note are running across two days. On Tuesday February 25th the RNIB Braille and Beyond library tour comes to Lisburn City Library, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. On Wednesday February 26th RNIB Northern Ireland's Technology Fair, now in its second year, will be taking place at the Lagan Valley Island, also in Lisburn, from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm. Stuart catches up with RNIB's Jackie Brown to find out more.

Welcome back to another episode of Sight and Sound Technology's podcast. This time we're talking all things AI. Envision have recently launched Envision Ally on their smart glasses as well as putting the Ally app for iOS and Android into public beta. Stuart is joined by Envision's co-founder and CEO Karthik Mahadevan to tell us more. You can give the Envision Ally app a spin on your platform of choice if you wish by using the links below. iOS: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ally.me%2Fbeta%2Fios&data=05%7C02%7Cstuart.lawler%40sightandsoundtechnology.ie%7C5e499efbe8454c7763e108dd317b730e%7C9d76d91d0dda48c3aa025a7a6056bfc0%7C0%7C0%7C638721128478320082%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=sAm8xDvDxd8kOTkfRFEHv%2BfJqXCbrxVMr%2Fh31YOKSlI%3D&reserved=0 Android: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ally.me%2Fbeta%2Fandroid&data=05%7C02%7Cstuart.lawler%40sightandsoundtechnology.ie%7C5e499efbe8454c7763e108dd317b730e%7C9d76d91d0dda48c3aa025a7a6056bfc0%7C0%7C0%7C638721128478347137%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=l0%2FOG72Jaaf3tvPpvZT02w3Ys1ObCQTB%2FeUxsr%2FTY4Y%3D&reserved=0 Our friends from Blazie Engineering have just released a new and exciting application called Blazie Agent, that allows you to use Chat GPT from anywhere on your computer, as long as you have the JAWS screen reader running. Stuart is joined by Blazie's Kelvin Duncan to learn more.

As we join in the world-wide celebrations of 200 years of Braille here at Sight and Sound Technology, we’re delighted to introduce another Braille device to our portfolio. Paige Connect transforms the classic Perkins Brailler for instant translation and gamified learning on any device. Stuart meets with Gregory Hargraves from Paige Braille to find out more. Alan Taylor has recently joined our Scottish team to head up our training function north of the border. Stuart meets Alan to find out a little about him and his role.

Bristol Braille Technology have been synonymous with the development of multi-line Braille technology for more than 10 years. We are very excited to unveil the Canute Console which is just entering our product portfolio. On this episode Stuart meets Stephanie Sergeant and Ed Rogers from Bristol Braille Technology to learn more about this device.

In episode 91, we introduced Will Carter, from our tech support team, who had produced a comprehensive audio tutorial for the SmartVision 3 mobile phone. This episode features the full tutorial for easy access.

There's less than two weeks to go before Sight Village Central, taking place at the East Side Rooms, in Birmingham. Stuart is joined by Priyanka Srivastava and Ferkan Metin from Envision, to tell us about some of their latest updates, and, Priyanka and Ferkan will also join us on the stand in Birmingham! Wil Carter from our technical support team has just produced a new audio tutorial for the SmartVision 3 mobile phone. Stuart catches up with Will and Ash Cross, our tech support manager, to find out about the tutorial and some of the team's future plans for content development.

The International Council on English Braille (ICEB) recently held it's eighth general assembly, in Auckland, New Zealand. This event, run once every four years, is an opportunity for Braille users, producers, researchers and technology companies to get together and explore all aspects of the Unified English Braille code, as well as other specialist areas such as Maths and Music. On this episode Stuart is joined by Matthew Horspool, Code Maintenance Officer with ICEB, to reflect on a very busy few days of Braille-related activities and discussions.

The very popular and much beloved Sight Village Assistive Technology exhibition is turning 30 this year. The event, which started its life on the Queen Alexandra College campus has evolved to be a major event and is a firm favourite in the calendars of blind and low vision users of assistive technology, as well as a host of assistive technology companies and charities providing services for people with sight loss. This year, Sight Village returns to the East Side rooms in Birmingham, for two days, on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th of July. To celebrate its 30th birthday, the event will also include an evening of entertainment and a very special Sight Village Assistive Technology museum. Stuart is joined by Paul Hopkins and Rose Woodall from Queen Alexandra College to give us all the details.

The Sight and Sound team are fresh back from the world renowned Sight City Assistive Technology show, which takes place annually in Frankfurt. This episode is all about glimpsing at some new technology, which will shortly enter our product line. We'll hear from Orbit Research, Harpo, Paige Connect, Next VPU and WeWalk. And, if that wasn't enough, there are some promotions on some of the technology featured in this episode that you will not want to miss out on!

Forrest Yoga is renowned globally as a powerfully physical, internally focused Ceremonial yoga practice that emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience from the yoga mat into daily life. On this very special and very different episode of our podcast, Stuart is joined by Sight and Sound Technology's Sharon Lyons, who took a month away from her life and work to go to  Barcelona to become a Forrest yoga practitioner.

Welcome into another episode of the Sight and Sound Technology podcast. Today's episode is all about an exciting new addition to our portfolio called SpeakSee. Speaksee is the first microphone system able to accurately transcribe group conversations. In addition, Speaksee shows what's being said in different colors for each person, In less than a second. Each speaker can have their own name corresponding with the microphone they are wearing. In this way a Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing person can distinguish who says what. This new and very exciting technology aims to make conversations accessible for all. Joining Stuart on the show is Adam Lee, Business Development Manager with SpeakSee in the UK to tell us more.