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VIP: Hands Free Podcasting Jul 21, 2017

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This week Joel, Leo and special guest host from the AT Banter podcast Ryan Fleury get together to discuss the latest happenings in the world of accessible tech. Make sure to check out their site and download this week's VIP for all the fun CBT Banter. Articles This week Include the Following: Artificial Intelligence And Text Recognition Unite In Microsoft’s Latest IPhone App, For Free Everyone is talking about the new app from Microsoft called Seeing AI. Is it a revolutionary game changer for the blind or is it just a toy app? Find out what the guys have to say about the latest accessible app from Microsoft. Hands Free Typing: Dictate Speech Recognition For Microsoft Office Virtual assistants have come a long way in helping both the blind and sighted community with being able to do many tasks without the use of their hands. It seems that Microsoft may be starting a new trend on the PC with their latest Dictation add-on. Listen in to see if Leo, Ryan or Joel are going to start dictating all their emails and documents from now on. U.S. To Fund Advanced Brain-Computer Interfaces This week may seem like we're talking about a new plot for the latest spy-fiction best seller. However, there's no fiction in what a branch of the department of defense is looking to do with your brain. Tune in to see who's first on the show to get wired up with a neural-interface. Fan Feedback: We love it here at Cool Blind Tech when our listeners send us email. This week, CBT responds to questions about the accessible virtual DJ software. The company is called Algoriddim and the software is called DJay Pro for the Mac. Although the software works with several DJ consoles, the one that we recommend is the Pioneer DDJ SB2 which can be bought on Amazon or various musical instrument retail stores. Check out the podcast for more details on this incredible software. Update: During the show we mention that the Windows 10 version of DJay was in beta. It is no longer in beta and can be purchased through the Windows app store or downloaded from algoriddim as a demo. Stay tune to hear about first impressions for the windows version of this app. Cool Picks this Week Include: Old Time Radio Player Ryan tells us about an app he uses on his Android device to listen to some great radio dramas from the golden years of radio. Seeing AI for iOS This app is definitely going to be a Cool Pick for many over the next few weeks. However, Leo chose it first and so he gets to talk about it as his pick of the week. M-Audio Keystation 49 II Joel continues to try out all the cool things he can do with Reaper. The next step is working with midi and so he gets to show off this great midi keyboard that works quite well with Reaper.

Cool Picks: July 20, 2017 Jul 20, 2017

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The Cool Blind Tech team has some great fun discussing their Cool Picks. Make sure to download this latest episode or press play to listen along! Cool Picks This Week Include: Alexa can notify you when your Amazon packages are out for delivery Leo is hoping to use his Amazon Echo to inform him of the purchases he plans to make. This new skill will make a sound notification and will respond when you ask "Alexa, what did I miss?" JBL Charge 3 Nelson tells us about the latest acquisition to his audio equipment collection. All three team members give it there seal of approval for sound and features. Windows 10 Creators Edition Joel tries out an old sound card on Windows 10 and is surprised to see that windows recognized it and set it up with no problems. The team encourages everyone to upgrade to the latest version of windows and provides some great reasons on why you should.

Spotlight On Embro: Travel Like A Pro with the Walk Pro Jul 19, 2017

Show notes

Join Jessica Rickards for an exciting Spotlight with Ronit Williams, Head of Global Sales and Marketing for Embro, makers of the Walk Pro, WalkX, and the Keller Sight. Ronit explains how this company is developing products for a variety of abilities, from vision impairment to hearing and speech disabilities. A more in-depth discussion is explored about the virtual cane technology that was developed in the Walk products and what sets it apart from other products currently available, and the features available in each product. The WalkX and Walk Pro are both available for Pre-Order. To contact Embro, or if you have questions about their products, you can contact them. To follow Embro for the latest updates and developments, you can connect with Embro on Twitter. If you enjoyed this spotlight interview, don't forget to leave us feedback. We always enjoy hearing from our fans.

CBT Live! Partying it up with the Braille Sense Polaris Jul 17, 2017

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In this interview, Rachel Feinberg speaks with Dave Wilkinson from HIMS about the brand-new BrailleSensePolaris. this product was just launched, and Dave takes us through some of the spectacular features this Braille and Android tablet has to offer. However, he throws in a bonus at the end and shows us some of his own hidden talents. So stick around for the entirety of this one! Grab the popcorn and you will enjoy! Guaranteed!

VIP: Getting Back to Work Jul 14, 2017

Show notes

This week Joel is joined by Leo and Nelson to discuss the latest happenings in Accessible Tech. The Cool Blind Tech team has some great fun discussing the news and how to keep cool in this summer heat. Make sure to download this latest episode or press play to listen along! Support Actiview! Discussed in this week's show is a great app for iOS that has the potential to change how the blind enjoy the movie-going experience. You can find out more by reading this article or download the app to show your support. Topics This Week Include the Following: The Haptic Wave Is Helping Blind Audio Engineers ‘Feel’ Sound Waves Haptic feedback is all the rage right now in many fields. But, can it help the blind tackle a sound wave problem in the field of audio engineering? Listen in to see what the team thinks about this new prototype. Summer Academy Enhancing Independence For Blind And Low-Vision Students Summer may be a time for many to enjoy the beach, travel to new places or simply relax at the movies. But, for many young adults it's a time to acquire new skills and prepare for the future! Find out how as the team wishes they had these opportunities. Blind Programmer Develops Life-changing Software Think you can change how the blind use the internet with your coding skills? The team admires one such person who did and debate the pros and cons of companies being responsible for accessibility. Cool Picks This Week Include: Alexa can notify you when your Amazon packages are out for delivery Leo is hoping to use his Amazon Echo to inform him of the purchases he plans to make on Prime Day. This new skill will make a sound notification and will respond when you ask "Alexa, what did I miss?" JBL Charge 3 Nelson tells us about the latest acquisition to his audio equipment collection. All three team members give it there seal of approval for sound and features. Windows 10 Creators Edition Joel tries out an old sound card on Windows 10 and is surprised to see that windows recognized it and set it up with no problems. The team encourages everyone to upgrade to the latest version of windows and provides some great reasons on why you should.

Artificial Intelligence and Text Recognition unite in Microsoft’s Seeing Ai iPhone App Jul 12, 2017

Show notes

Not a month has gone by since We posted an article on Narrator including AI-driven image tags and Microsoft is back at it yet again, though with an older project which finally has made public fruition. Introduced at Build 2016, this project had a goal of bringing powerful image recognition technology which could be used to augment every day life, especially when combined with the power of the cloud. Today, The app is available in the iOS app store in the United States, Canada, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore, for free. In a post to the Microsoft Accessibility blog, Microsoft explains it in this fashion . The app uses artificial intelligence and the camera on your iPhone to perform a number of useful functions. Reading documents, including spoken hints to capture all corners of a document so that you capture the full page. It then recognizes the structure of the document, such as headings, paragraphs and lists, allowing you to rapidly skip through the document using voiceover. Identifying a product based on its barcode. Move the phone’s camera over the product; beeps indicate how close the barcode is – the faster the beeps, the closer you are – until the full barcode is detected. It then snaps a photo and reads the name of the product. Recognizing people based on their face, and providing a description of their visual appearance, such as their gender, facial expression and other identifying characteristics. Recognizing images within other apps – just tap Share, and Recognize with Seeing AI. In our experience, the app is able to even read computer screens in the short-text channel mode, and does so instantly as you move your arm towards and away from text. Reading coupons in a newspaper is more intuitive than having to wait for a picture to be snapped, and bar codes are often recognized in under 30 seconds thanks to the way it guides the user to it. Face recognition works well and can be taught to recall faces of loved ones after you take 3 pictures of them. Easily, this app rivals more expensive solutions and will become a must-have tool within any vision-impaired iOS user's arsenal. The incredible power of Seeing AI lies in not just the cloud, but also at being able to perform this recognition offline and in real-time. Turning airplane mode on during a page scan still kept up with scrolling printed text, however features such as bar code and face/scene detection will require one. Join Jessica to understand just how intuitive the app really is in this podcast and see for yourself what Seeing AI can do, as not even ten thousand words could give it full justification. She walks through the app, from the quick start guide to the various channels in great detail. The official tutorials for the app, comprised of 9 videos, can be found at this link of a YouTube playlist.

Cool Picks: July 12, 2017 Jul 12, 2017

Show notes

In this weeks Cool Picks, James, Jessica, and Nelson bring us some of the top technology from the AT world. Cool Picks Alexa Dungeon Adventure Skill Jessica goes old-school gaming with the latest tech. Listen as she demos a Dungeon and Dragons style game on an Amazon Echo device. MXL 770 Condenser Microphone As a veteran podcaster, Nelson has always sounded great on the air. Just ask him. He will tell you it is true. But even he can’t believe how good he sounds with this new microphone. Hulu It doesn’t have audio-description yet, but James just can’t stop binge watching all of the greatest shows on Hulu. How else will he be able to keep up with the Kardashians?

Spotlight ON Right-Hear: Indoor Navigation Made Accessible One Spot At a Time Jul 12, 2017

Show notes

Join Jessica Rickards for an exclusive spotlight interview with Idan Meir, co-founder and CEO of Right-Hear, an Israel-based company focused on providing an auditory indoor navigation solution to the blind and visually impaired. Right-Hear is a free iOS app and is also available free on the Google Play Store. Users are able to obtain information about an area through Accessible Spots installed by the individual businesses. For a full demonstration of how the app works, please watch the Youtube video Connect with Right-Hear on Facebook Follow Right-Hear on Twitter

CBT Live! Giving People Information with Innovative Products That Change Lives Every Day Jul 12, 2017

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Rachel chats with Dan Gardner, CEO of ViewPlus Technologies. For the past 18 years ViewPlus have been giving people access to information through innovative products that change lives every day. Innovations such as color and black ink with Braille, talking tactile graphics, fully accessible math, powerful graphics editing and translation software have provided access to information for their customers.

CBT Live! Megastore for the Blind and Low Vision Jul 10, 2017

Show notes

Rachel talks with Cody Mitchell, from Irie-AT. Irie-AT could possibly be the Amazon for the blind and low-vision with a long list of products such as: Braille and Tactile Graphics Magnifiers and Readers Computer Access Daily Living Aids Video Magnifiers Index Braille embossers Braille Embossers Braille Notetakers SuperNova Magnifier and Screen Reader Tactile Graphics Document Conversion Optics Daily Living Aids and much more… For more information check out the Irie-AT website.

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