WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.583
(gentle music)

2
00:00:04.140 --> 00:00:07.110
Welcome to, "Hadley Presents" episode one.

3
00:00:07.110 --> 00:00:11.010
I'm your host, Ricky Enger, inviting you to sit back, relax,

4
00:00:11.010 --> 00:00:14.070
and enjoy a conversation with the expert.

5
00:00:14.070 --> 00:00:16.350
For this episode, our conversation centers

6
00:00:16.350 --> 00:00:18.900
around using technology to gain access

7
00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:20.700
to visual information.

8
00:00:20.700 --> 00:00:23.850
And our expert is Jonathan Mosen from Aira.

9
00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:25.740
Welcome to the show, Jonathan.

10
00:00:25.740 --> 00:00:27.164
Hi Ricky, it's nice to talk to you and a

11
00:00:27.164 --> 00:00:30.180
special honor to be on episode one, so thank you for that.

12
00:00:30.180 --> 00:00:33.330
Absolutely, and we'll be super gentle with you

13
00:00:33.330 --> 00:00:36.090
'cause I understand this is like your first time ever

14
00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:37.473
in front of a microphone, right?

15
00:00:37.473 --> 00:00:39.308
That's right. I'm very nervous.

16
00:00:39.308 --> 00:00:40.141
Yes.

17
00:00:40.141 --> 00:00:40.974
(both laughing)

18
00:00:40.974 --> 00:00:41.883
Quite nervous.

19
00:00:41.883 --> 00:00:43.980
(both laughing)

20
00:00:43.980 --> 00:00:46.980
That might be a slight bit of an exaggeration.

21
00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:49.470
You might've maybe done like a couple

22
00:00:49.470 --> 00:00:51.540
of other things in front of a microphone.

23
00:00:51.540 --> 00:00:54.600
Why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are

24
00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:55.860
and what you do?

25
00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:56.820
Once or twice, yes.

26
00:00:56.820 --> 00:01:00.480
Well I have been a podcaster

27
00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:03.210
and internet broadcaster for a long time.

28
00:01:03.210 --> 00:01:06.030
Recently I just celebrated my 20th anniversary

29
00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:07.860
of doing live internet radio,

30
00:01:07.860 --> 00:01:09.303
which is crazy stuff.
Yeah.

31
00:01:09.303 --> 00:01:11.970
I've worked in assistive technology a bit.

32
00:01:11.970 --> 00:01:15.000
Worked at HumanWare managing blindness products there

33
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:18.330
for three years and then had a long stint

34
00:01:18.330 --> 00:01:19.650
at Freedom Scientific

35
00:01:19.650 --> 00:01:21.870
and I've also run my own consultancy company

36
00:01:21.870 --> 00:01:23.550
called Mosen Consulting.

37
00:01:23.550 --> 00:01:26.970
But I joined Aira on White Cane Day last year,

38
00:01:26.970 --> 00:01:29.250
October 15th, 2018.

39
00:01:29.250 --> 00:01:33.210
And I'm their VP of Explorer Communications

40
00:01:33.210 --> 00:01:35.580
and also for Australasia, which is Australia

41
00:01:35.580 --> 00:01:36.750
and New Zealand.

42
00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:38.070
How cool is that?

43
00:01:38.070 --> 00:01:42.840
So for people who don't know what Aira is, what's kind

44
00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:47.722
of the quick elevator pitch as to what the Aira service is?

45
00:01:47.722 --> 00:01:52.650
Aira connects you 24/7 through smart glasses

46
00:01:52.650 --> 00:01:56.580
or a smartphone app with professionally trained agents

47
00:01:56.580 --> 00:01:58.650
who give you visual interpretation.

48
00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:02.750
So anything visual that's out there and there's a lot

49
00:02:02.750 --> 00:02:03.605
of visual stuff out there.

50
00:02:03.605 --> 00:02:04.442
I'll say.

51
00:02:04.442 --> 00:02:06.484
That you need turned into audio,

52
00:02:06.484 --> 00:02:07.625
we can do that for you.

53
00:02:07.625 --> 00:02:09.390
And the whole point of Aira is

54
00:02:09.390 --> 00:02:11.670
that our agents are professionally trained, they go

55
00:02:11.670 --> 00:02:13.170
through quite a rigorous process

56
00:02:13.170 --> 00:02:15.750
and we only take on, oh gosh, I think we're down

57
00:02:15.750 --> 00:02:18.870
to about less than 3% of the people who apply

58
00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:21.420
and we act as a pair of eyes, not a brain.

59
00:02:21.420 --> 00:02:23.850
So you are in absolute control.

60
00:02:23.850 --> 00:02:26.730
So you used the phrase visual interpretation,

61
00:02:26.730 --> 00:02:28.530
and this is gonna come up a couple

62
00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:30.990
of times I think throughout the conversation.

63
00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:32.070
It's not something

64
00:02:32.070 --> 00:02:35.760
that we hear all the time necessarily a visual interpreter.

65
00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:40.563
Visual interpreter services. What exactly does that mean?

66
00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:45.870
It really means, I think that when you consider

67
00:02:45.870 --> 00:02:50.160
what the disability of blindness actually is, it's a lack

68
00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:53.550
of access to certain sorts of information.

69
00:02:53.550 --> 00:02:56.610
And if a blind person had access to braille

70
00:02:56.610 --> 00:03:01.380
or talking signage, if the material that we wanted

71
00:03:01.380 --> 00:03:04.260
to read was in braille or in some other form

72
00:03:04.260 --> 00:03:06.390
that we could access, then blindness wouldn't be

73
00:03:06.390 --> 00:03:07.890
a disability at all.

74
00:03:07.890 --> 00:03:11.940
So society has created this barrier.

75
00:03:11.940 --> 00:03:13.860
Vision is a very dominant sense

76
00:03:13.860 --> 00:03:15.900
and so if you have vision, it's natural

77
00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:17.580
to want to depend on it.

78
00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:21.390
So what we do is we interpret all this visual information

79
00:03:21.390 --> 00:03:24.210
into something that a blind person can access.

80
00:03:24.210 --> 00:03:26.040
Now usually that's audio,

81
00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:28.050
but sometimes it might be actually braille

82
00:03:28.050 --> 00:03:30.900
if you're using our smartphone app with a braille display.

83
00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:33.300
And this is particularly the case for people

84
00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:34.860
who are deaf blind.
Right.

85
00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:36.480
Or it could be the case if you're

86
00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:39.713
in a conference situation and it's not appropriate

87
00:03:39.713 --> 00:03:44.100
for you to speak with or hear an agent

88
00:03:44.100 --> 00:03:46.350
because you might be focusing

89
00:03:46.350 --> 00:03:49.290
on the conference presentation, then you might want braille.

90
00:03:49.290 --> 00:03:52.560
So we convert all this visual information

91
00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:56.070
into the most accessible useful form for you.

92
00:03:56.070 --> 00:03:57.330
And that's incredible.

93
00:03:57.330 --> 00:04:00.870
I mean there are so many different uses for this

94
00:04:00.870 --> 00:04:05.310
and especially the idea that you can be anywhere

95
00:04:05.310 --> 00:04:09.420
at any time and essentially 24/7

96
00:04:09.420 --> 00:04:13.560
because no one says, well I only need access

97
00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:16.260
to visual information 8:00 to 5:00 and anything

98
00:04:16.260 --> 00:04:18.690
that happens after that, no, I'm cool.

99
00:04:18.690 --> 00:04:22.230
It's nice to have that 24/7, right?

100
00:04:22.230 --> 00:04:24.380
It is and sometimes the way that

101
00:04:24.380 --> 00:04:25.260
one might pay for

102
00:04:25.260 --> 00:04:27.630
that will vary depending on the time of day.

103
00:04:27.630 --> 00:04:31.320
So we do for example, have an employer program

104
00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:34.290
and Airas now a pretty attractive accommodation

105
00:04:34.290 --> 00:04:36.540
for many employees who are blind.

106
00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:40.620
And so employers will sometimes fund Aira so that you have

107
00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:43.830
that professionally trained sighted assistance on demand

108
00:04:43.830 --> 00:04:46.050
and that's a real huge productivity boost.

109
00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:48.930
And you're finding Aira popping up in more workplaces.

110
00:04:48.930 --> 00:04:53.190
But after hours you might want to pay for Aira yourself

111
00:04:53.190 --> 00:04:55.920
through a minute plan, like a cell phone plan

112
00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:58.860
where you buy a set number of minutes every month.

113
00:04:58.860 --> 00:05:02.310
Or alternatively, there are many locations now

114
00:05:02.310 --> 00:05:04.110
where Aira is available for free.

115
00:05:04.110 --> 00:05:06.990
So Aira's app is actually a free app

116
00:05:06.990 --> 00:05:08.370
and you can download it.

117
00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:10.500
And even if you don't choose to use any

118
00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:13.440
of our premium tier plans, it's kind of like Spotify,

119
00:05:13.440 --> 00:05:16.830
you can use it for free for a whole range of tasks.

120
00:05:16.830 --> 00:05:18.390
And free is always nice.

121
00:05:18.390 --> 00:05:20.520
That's kind of like the four letter word

122
00:05:20.520 --> 00:05:22.385
that everyone loves. (chuckles)

123
00:05:22.385 --> 00:05:23.280
(Jonathan laughs)

124
00:05:23.280 --> 00:05:24.760
I like free, yeah. (chuckles)

125
00:05:24.760 --> 00:05:26.043
Yeah, good stuff.

126
00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:30.690
So we mentioned earlier that there is a ton

127
00:05:30.690 --> 00:05:34.320
of visual information out there and we want

128
00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:38.490
as many ways to access this stuff as possible.

129
00:05:38.490 --> 00:05:40.950
And I mean this has kind of been a need

130
00:05:40.950 --> 00:05:43.230
for a very, very long time.

131
00:05:43.230 --> 00:05:47.640
And while Aira and various other services like Be My Eyes

132
00:05:47.640 --> 00:05:50.490
or even seeing AI providing access

133
00:05:50.490 --> 00:05:52.620
through artificial intelligence,

134
00:05:52.620 --> 00:05:56.493
those things are relatively new on the scene.

135
00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:00.330
There have been other things that have come before that.

136
00:06:00.330 --> 00:06:01.350
What would you say is

137
00:06:01.350 --> 00:06:05.100
like the first time you ever used a piece of technology

138
00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:08.223
to access any kind of visual information?

139
00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:11.130
I suppose the first piece

140
00:06:11.130 --> 00:06:14.490
of technology I would've used was in the old days

141
00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:15.630
at the School for the Blind,

142
00:06:15.630 --> 00:06:17.880
we had a Kurzweil Reading Machine and that thing was

143
00:06:17.880 --> 00:06:19.950
like a washing machine and it would sound

144
00:06:19.950 --> 00:06:23.970
like a jet engine taking off when you switched it on.

145
00:06:23.970 --> 00:06:26.550
But it was amazing because I remember just getting this

146
00:06:26.550 --> 00:06:28.680
print book and putting it on the scanner

147
00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:30.090
of the Kurzweil Reading Machine

148
00:06:30.090 --> 00:06:32.940
and realizing, wow, this is just huge.

149
00:06:32.940 --> 00:06:37.200
But I also remember Ricky, back in the Symbian days,

150
00:06:37.200 --> 00:06:42.200
I made a 3G video call to my then little girl.

151
00:06:43.260 --> 00:06:46.050
She's all sort of married now an an electrical engineer,

152
00:06:46.050 --> 00:06:47.460
but she was about eight or nine then.

153
00:06:47.460 --> 00:06:50.005
And I remember she was describing

154
00:06:50.005 --> 00:06:53.010
to me what she could see through the camera

155
00:06:53.010 --> 00:06:56.130
and even back then, and we're probably talking about 2005

156
00:06:56.130 --> 00:06:59.550
or so, I thought, wow, there's some real potential here.

157
00:06:59.550 --> 00:07:01.927
Exactly, I remember mine aside

158
00:07:01.927 --> 00:07:06.927
from the Opticon in the olden days that

159
00:07:07.451 --> 00:07:12.451
that definitely gave access to print visual information.

160
00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:15.390
I remember getting my iPhone

161
00:07:15.390 --> 00:07:18.180
and there was this program, I think it was called OMobi

162
00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:20.070
or it was something similar.

163
00:07:20.070 --> 00:07:22.710
And my thing that I wanted an answer

164
00:07:22.710 --> 00:07:25.680
to then was I wanna be able

165
00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:29.340
to identify I products easily.

166
00:07:29.340 --> 00:07:33.510
And so when I saw this program called OMobi,

167
00:07:33.510 --> 00:07:37.770
and it was, I think it was using artificial intelligence

168
00:07:37.770 --> 00:07:41.730
along with OCR and so it would look at a product

169
00:07:41.730 --> 00:07:46.730
and try to decipher the text and if it saw any logo

170
00:07:46.950 --> 00:07:49.680
or a portion of the logo, it would try and recognize that

171
00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:51.900
and tell you what the product was.

172
00:07:51.900 --> 00:07:54.530
And I thought that was just the coolest thing.

173
00:07:54.530 --> 00:07:59.010
It was kind of slow and not always accurate.

174
00:07:59.010 --> 00:08:03.453
But like you, I thought this has a lot of potential.

175
00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:06.330
Yes, and I think it's a natural progression

176
00:08:06.330 --> 00:08:07.440
what's happened with Aira

177
00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:09.690
and I really just can't speak highly enough

178
00:08:09.690 --> 00:08:13.797
of the thought process that Suman Kanuganti Aira's CEO put

179
00:08:13.797 --> 00:08:16.350
into putting this product together.

180
00:08:16.350 --> 00:08:20.610
Because you're right, we could see the revolutionary nature

181
00:08:20.610 --> 00:08:22.920
of this technology, but it could still be frustrating.

182
00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:25.920
You just had to get the picture of the product

183
00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:29.070
in exactly the right place to get a good view of it.

184
00:08:29.070 --> 00:08:29.903
Yes.

185
00:08:29.903 --> 00:08:31.252
Or maybe if you were checking barcodes

186
00:08:31.252 --> 00:08:32.094
it could be

187
00:08:32.094 --> 00:08:35.820
a really big challenge to try and just get the barcode fully

188
00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:37.740
in the view and all that sort of stuff.

189
00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:42.690
So there are certain things where trained sighted assistance

190
00:08:42.690 --> 00:08:45.690
can just make a process so much easier.

191
00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:47.820
I've been able to in hotel rooms

192
00:08:47.820 --> 00:08:50.400
for a long time now use various products

193
00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:53.490
to identify the shampoo from the conditioner for instance.

194
00:08:53.490 --> 00:08:55.860
But it might take me three minutes

195
00:08:55.860 --> 00:08:58.560
or more depending on the bottle and the lighting

196
00:08:58.560 --> 00:09:00.240
and various other factors.

197
00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:02.520
It's something I can get done with Aira

198
00:09:02.520 --> 00:09:06.450
in about 15 seconds and I kind of think my time is just

199
00:09:06.450 --> 00:09:08.220
as valuable as anyone else's.

200
00:09:08.220 --> 00:09:11.790
So Aira's really making a kind of a pragmatic decision

201
00:09:11.790 --> 00:09:14.670
that sure artificial intelligence is going to get better

202
00:09:14.670 --> 00:09:17.820
and better, but sometimes you can't beat the combination

203
00:09:17.820 --> 00:09:20.370
of augmenting that artificial intelligence

204
00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:22.920
with some human interaction.

205
00:09:22.920 --> 00:09:25.140
Exactly. And it's so easy.

206
00:09:25.140 --> 00:09:28.830
It's easy enough that you talked about being in a hotel

207
00:09:28.830 --> 00:09:32.280
and getting things identified like you, I've done this

208
00:09:32.280 --> 00:09:35.991
before with other products, but when it's early

209
00:09:35.991 --> 00:09:39.390
in the morning at a conference and I've had a late night

210
00:09:39.390 --> 00:09:42.990
and it's time to find which is the decaf so I can avoid it

211
00:09:42.990 --> 00:09:47.990
and which is not, it's way easier to call the Aira agent

212
00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:53.100
and mumble at them to assist to find which

213
00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:55.950
of these is caffeinated and which isn't.

214
00:09:55.950 --> 00:09:57.437
Yeah, for sure. Yes.

215
00:09:57.437 --> 00:10:01.143
One of many wonderful uses for this kind of thing.

216
00:10:02.100 --> 00:10:06.300
When you heard about Aira, was it a thing

217
00:10:06.300 --> 00:10:10.320
that you immediately said, I wanna try it right now?

218
00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:12.843
And what was that first experience like?

219
00:10:13.800 --> 00:10:15.180
Yeah, when I heard about Aira,

220
00:10:15.180 --> 00:10:17.430
I was actually doing an interview about it

221
00:10:17.430 --> 00:10:19.950
for the podcast that I was running at the time.

222
00:10:19.950 --> 00:10:24.060
And intellectually I thought, this is really interesting.

223
00:10:24.060 --> 00:10:26.944
I have worked in technology for a long time

224
00:10:26.944 --> 00:10:28.410
and I think what happens

225
00:10:28.410 --> 00:10:32.550
to you is you get a little bit immune to technology.

226
00:10:32.550 --> 00:10:34.830
And somebody once told me when I first got

227
00:10:34.830 --> 00:10:36.960
into this industry that the two things

228
00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:39.660
in life you don't wanna see being manufactured are sausage

229
00:10:39.660 --> 00:10:40.860
and software.

230
00:10:40.860 --> 00:10:42.570
And I think that's probably quite right.

231
00:10:42.570 --> 00:10:45.690
So, I don't know, I thought Aira might

232
00:10:45.690 --> 00:10:47.010
be a little bit of hype.

233
00:10:47.010 --> 00:10:51.150
And then I went to CSUN last year

234
00:10:51.150 --> 00:10:54.960
and they were offering Aira access there, which meant

235
00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:57.420
that it was available to try for free.

236
00:10:57.420 --> 00:11:00.352
All you had to do was download the free app and sign up

237
00:11:00.352 --> 00:11:02.730
and then take it for a spin.

238
00:11:02.730 --> 00:11:07.020
So I thought I would do this and see what happened.

239
00:11:07.020 --> 00:11:08.880
Now one thing I should add here is

240
00:11:08.880 --> 00:11:10.800
that I also have a hearing impairment.

241
00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:14.280
I wear hearing aids and I have found,

242
00:11:14.280 --> 00:11:16.200
because my hearing loss is degenerative,

243
00:11:16.200 --> 00:11:18.903
that over the years I've been starting to withdraw

244
00:11:18.903 --> 00:11:21.892
from challenging noisy situations

245
00:11:21.892 --> 00:11:25.411
and they don't come more challenging or noisy than CSUN.

246
00:11:25.411 --> 00:11:26.244
Yeah.

247
00:11:26.244 --> 00:11:28.140
Especially, you know, when you're

248
00:11:28.140 --> 00:11:31.380
in the exhibit hall or when you're moving through those

249
00:11:31.380 --> 00:11:32.730
really crowded lobbies.
Yes.

250
00:11:32.730 --> 00:11:34.590
And the hotel that CSUN used

251
00:11:34.590 --> 00:11:37.620
to be at at San Diego was pretty cavernous.

252
00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:39.840
So I thought, well, I'll give it a go.

253
00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:42.810
I wasn't expecting a lot and I called an Aira agent

254
00:11:42.810 --> 00:11:45.480
and I said, you know, I allowed a lot of time

255
00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:47.185
'cause it normally took me a lot of time to do this

256
00:11:47.185 --> 00:11:50.280
and said I want to get to the exhibit hall.

257
00:11:50.280 --> 00:11:51.660
And the thing about Aira is

258
00:11:51.660 --> 00:11:53.529
that when you call them, they, not only the video

259
00:11:53.529 --> 00:11:56.550
from your camera, that camera could be

260
00:11:56.550 --> 00:11:59.820
from Aira's smart glasses if you've purchased them,

261
00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:02.820
or it could be just from the iOS or Android app,

262
00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:06.480
but they also augment that information with other things.

263
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:08.790
So on the special dashboard software

264
00:12:08.790 --> 00:12:12.870
that Aira has written in house, an agent can get map data,

265
00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:14.820
they can get your GPS location,

266
00:12:14.820 --> 00:12:16.530
they can bring other information up

267
00:12:16.530 --> 00:12:18.990
that is related on the web.

268
00:12:18.990 --> 00:12:20.640
So they have a dashboard full

269
00:12:20.640 --> 00:12:22.230
of information that can assist you.

270
00:12:22.230 --> 00:12:27.150
And they had map data about the hotel on their dashboard.

271
00:12:27.150 --> 00:12:29.790
And the agent started directing me.

272
00:12:29.790 --> 00:12:31.110
I got in late the night before,

273
00:12:31.110 --> 00:12:33.173
so I couldn't even remember where the elevator was.

274
00:12:33.173 --> 00:12:34.006
(Ricky laughs)

275
00:12:34.006 --> 00:12:35.970
I was pretty jet lagged after a 12 hour flight

276
00:12:35.970 --> 00:12:37.050
from New Zealand.

277
00:12:37.050 --> 00:12:40.860
And we got down the elevator and then hearing the agent

278
00:12:40.860 --> 00:12:43.860
in my hearing aids, she navigated me

279
00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:48.030
through this very, very crowded, busy lobby,

280
00:12:48.030 --> 00:12:50.100
which I would have hated before

281
00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:53.130
because the sound was just bouncing everywhere.

282
00:12:53.130 --> 00:12:54.536
She gave me some really clear instructions.

283
00:12:54.536 --> 00:12:57.990
For example, you're just coming up to a group of people

284
00:12:57.990 --> 00:13:00.000
who are standing talking in the middle of the lobby.

285
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.430
If you move left you will avoid them.

286
00:13:02.430 --> 00:13:04.304
And so it was kind of like a mix

287
00:13:04.304 --> 00:13:07.860
of kind of the experience you get with working

288
00:13:07.860 --> 00:13:10.350
with a guide dog actually where sometimes the guide dog

289
00:13:10.350 --> 00:13:13.140
avoids obstacles without you knowing it.

290
00:13:13.140 --> 00:13:16.552
So we got there to the exhibit hall far, far earlier

291
00:13:16.552 --> 00:13:19.920
than I had anticipated and the door was still closed.

292
00:13:19.920 --> 00:13:23.753
And for me the icing on the cake was, she said,

293
00:13:23.753 --> 00:13:25.890
"The door is closed in front of you,

294
00:13:25.890 --> 00:13:27.780
but on your left I can see a counter

295
00:13:27.780 --> 00:13:30.960
and it has a sign that says Exhibit Hall Services

296
00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.210
and there's a man behind that counter

297
00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:36.720
and I will guide you to him."

298
00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:38.460
At that point, I must confess

299
00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:39.870
that's when I burst into tears.

300
00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:43.020
'Cause I've never used a piece of technology

301
00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:44.430
before that it made me cry.

302
00:13:44.430 --> 00:13:48.832
And I just realized this has changed everything for me.

303
00:13:48.832 --> 00:13:50.610
I think that what Aira is doing is

304
00:13:50.610 --> 00:13:52.020
the most significant thing to happen

305
00:13:52.020 --> 00:13:54.090
to blind people since braille itself.

306
00:13:54.090 --> 00:13:56.474
And I was just absolutely stunned

307
00:13:56.474 --> 00:13:59.550
and at that point I knew that I had to take it home

308
00:13:59.550 --> 00:14:00.383
For sure.

309
00:14:00.383 --> 00:14:04.310
And I think that your story exemplifies

310
00:14:05.970 --> 00:14:07.920
kind of a common theme in

311
00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:12.720
that is having, this is life changing in that

312
00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:17.720
for some people you specifically talked about withdrawing

313
00:14:17.730 --> 00:14:21.660
a bit and not wanting to be in really noisy situations

314
00:14:21.660 --> 00:14:24.330
because it was difficult for you to navigate

315
00:14:24.330 --> 00:14:25.380
in those situations.

316
00:14:25.380 --> 00:14:30.000
Or people who may not feel fully comfortable

317
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.770
with travel or people like me who I travel

318
00:14:34.770 --> 00:14:39.660
and I kind of feel like, well I need to have a plan A

319
00:14:39.660 --> 00:14:42.360
and plan B for every scenario and how I'm going

320
00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:46.620
to figure out what's happening in the world

321
00:14:46.620 --> 00:14:50.340
and have a contingency and all of that

322
00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:51.720
before I walk out the door.

323
00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:56.400
And sometimes just that is a little bit overwhelming.

324
00:14:56.400 --> 00:14:59.670
And for some people they just make the decision not

325
00:14:59.670 --> 00:15:02.520
to step out, but having access

326
00:15:02.520 --> 00:15:07.170
to this very valuable visual information

327
00:15:07.170 --> 00:15:09.810
that sighted people can look around

328
00:15:09.810 --> 00:15:14.700
and get, now you're on equal footing with anyone else

329
00:15:14.700 --> 00:15:19.680
and you don't necessarily have to plan in the same way for,

330
00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:22.470
you know, do I have to have every single thing written down

331
00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:24.873
and what if this happens, then what do I do?

332
00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:29.490
You have the ability to kind of function in the world

333
00:15:29.490 --> 00:15:32.130
and gain information as it's presented.

334
00:15:32.130 --> 00:15:34.980
So that to me is wonderful.

335
00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:36.271
Yeah and even if you

336
00:15:36.271 --> 00:15:38.310
do have really good travel skills

337
00:15:38.310 --> 00:15:40.650
and you don't have a hearing impairment,

338
00:15:40.650 --> 00:15:42.570
you can still get information from Aira

339
00:15:42.570 --> 00:15:44.070
that augments the experience.

340
00:15:44.070 --> 00:15:46.740
And when you go through the onboarding process

341
00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:50.040
as a new Aira explorer, you are asked kind

342
00:15:50.040 --> 00:15:51.930
of like setting up a screen reader,

343
00:15:51.930 --> 00:15:55.020
how much verbosity do you want when you travel?

344
00:15:55.020 --> 00:15:56.430
So if you are the kind of person

345
00:15:56.430 --> 00:15:58.350
that has your wits about you

346
00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:00.480
and you've got really good travel skills,

347
00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:02.070
you will still benefit from Aira

348
00:16:02.070 --> 00:16:03.483
because they can tell you, you know,

349
00:16:03.483 --> 00:16:05.820
they can describe people walking past

350
00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:07.710
or the stores that you're passing

351
00:16:07.710 --> 00:16:10.230
or the colors of the cherry blossoms

352
00:16:10.230 --> 00:16:12.120
or whatever it is you want really

353
00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:14.850
to kind of augment that information

354
00:16:14.850 --> 00:16:17.070
to really help you appreciate what's around you.

355
00:16:17.070 --> 00:16:20.040
And I've, I've learned a lot more about routes

356
00:16:20.040 --> 00:16:21.960
that I thought I really knew well

357
00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:24.330
because of all that additional description.

358
00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:27.000
Right, and were you surprised by things,

359
00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:30.990
like I, for one, was surprised by just how much signage

360
00:16:30.990 --> 00:16:33.570
or how much print is out in the world.

361
00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:35.160
You're walking down the block

362
00:16:35.160 --> 00:16:38.010
and there are signs everywhere.

363
00:16:38.010 --> 00:16:39.570
There's information

364
00:16:39.570 --> 00:16:42.840
that I just wouldn't have been aware of before.

365
00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:44.220
Yes, this is the second time

366
00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:45.600
in my life this has happened to me.

367
00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:49.050
The first time was when I started shopping online

368
00:16:49.050 --> 00:16:54.050
for groceries in the mid 1990s and I suddenly realized

369
00:16:54.300 --> 00:16:56.460
how many decisions sighted people were making

370
00:16:56.460 --> 00:16:58.560
on a daily basis about the most basic things

371
00:16:58.560 --> 00:17:01.411
like what loaf of bread or type of milk to buy.

372
00:17:01.411 --> 00:17:03.090
And there's just so much choice.

373
00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:05.250
And I really had no appreciation of that before

374
00:17:05.250 --> 00:17:08.280
because normally you just go into a supermarket

375
00:17:08.280 --> 00:17:11.764
and you would ask for your normal brand

376
00:17:11.764 --> 00:17:13.350
and get the job done.

377
00:17:13.350 --> 00:17:17.550
And using Aira was like that in a much greater way,

378
00:17:17.550 --> 00:17:19.920
just the amount of visual information information.

379
00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:23.301
But it also just allows you to do things

380
00:17:23.301 --> 00:17:25.170
that you might not have contemplated

381
00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:27.420
before, even if you do have blindness skills.

382
00:17:27.420 --> 00:17:29.615
One example is that my wife Bonnie

383
00:17:29.615 --> 00:17:32.850
and I now go to the farmer's market

384
00:17:32.850 --> 00:17:35.370
on a Sunday morning, we would not have done

385
00:17:35.370 --> 00:17:37.260
that without one of the kids before

386
00:17:37.260 --> 00:17:38.973
because you kind of get trapped.

387
00:17:39.870 --> 00:17:43.350
You walk up to a table at random, sometimes you can smell

388
00:17:43.350 --> 00:17:46.050
at a farmer's market what they're selling, but usually not.

389
00:17:46.050 --> 00:17:49.530
So you go up to a table and you say, what are you selling?

390
00:17:49.530 --> 00:17:50.820
And then you get this big spiel about

391
00:17:50.820 --> 00:17:52.978
how these are the greatest tomatoes

392
00:17:52.978 --> 00:17:54.300
that have ever been invented.

393
00:17:54.300 --> 00:17:55.470
I hate tomatoes, right?

394
00:17:55.470 --> 00:17:56.303
Me too.

395
00:17:56.303 --> 00:17:57.600
So I just wanna get away.

396
00:17:57.600 --> 00:17:59.473
But you're kind of trapped.
Yeah.

397
00:17:59.473 --> 00:18:00.656
But if you go to a-

398
00:18:00.656 --> 00:18:01.939
Walk away.

399
00:18:01.939 --> 00:18:03.044
Yeah. (chuckles)

400
00:18:03.044 --> 00:18:04.170
Yeah, but gotta be polite.

401
00:18:04.170 --> 00:18:07.290
If you go to a farmer's market with Aira though,

402
00:18:07.290 --> 00:18:10.140
you're looking around in the same way that anybody's looking

403
00:18:10.140 --> 00:18:11.797
around and the agent will say to you,

404
00:18:11.797 --> 00:18:14.730
"There's a store on your right selling tomatoes."

405
00:18:14.730 --> 00:18:17.733
And I'll say, "Well let's just walk past that right now."

406
00:18:17.733 --> 00:18:21.300
And we can move on, so it has opened up.

407
00:18:21.300 --> 00:18:23.370
Even for somebody with really good blindness skills,

408
00:18:23.370 --> 00:18:25.803
it's opened up a whole lot of new opportunities.

409
00:18:26.700 --> 00:18:30.300
Have you ever had anything strange or unexpected

410
00:18:30.300 --> 00:18:34.380
or just weird happen during an Aira recall

411
00:18:34.380 --> 00:18:37.590
or something that you expected to happen one way

412
00:18:37.590 --> 00:18:41.086
and things went a little differently for you?

413
00:18:41.086 --> 00:18:46.086
Hmm, one thing actually is that

414
00:18:46.427 --> 00:18:47.820
we recently went

415
00:18:47.820 --> 00:18:52.820
to a 50th birthday party and they decided

416
00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:55.170
that they would have a kind of like fireworks thing

417
00:18:55.170 --> 00:18:57.030
that they'd stockpiled fireworks

418
00:18:57.030 --> 00:18:59.520
from the last holiday where fireworks were

419
00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:01.620
on sale (chuckles) in preparation

420
00:19:01.620 --> 00:19:03.690
for this 50th birthday party.

421
00:19:03.690 --> 00:19:06.540
And it was actually Bonnie who said to me,

422
00:19:06.540 --> 00:19:09.599
'cause I've just become used to listening

423
00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.720
to fireworks displays and enjoying the sounds,

424
00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:13.947
actually.
Right. Yeah.

425
00:19:13.947 --> 00:19:15.446
And Bonnie said to me,

426
00:19:15.446 --> 00:19:17.610
"Hey, why don't we call Aira?"

427
00:19:17.610 --> 00:19:19.650
And it would never have occurred

428
00:19:19.650 --> 00:19:20.820
to me actually, I must admit.

429
00:19:20.820 --> 00:19:22.590
And so we called Aira

430
00:19:22.590 --> 00:19:25.565
and we got this most incredible real time audio description

431
00:19:25.565 --> 00:19:28.955
of all the different colors and the sort of shooting stars

432
00:19:28.955 --> 00:19:31.263
and different things like that.

433
00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:36.150
And it was a really telling example for me

434
00:19:36.150 --> 00:19:41.150
of the fact that, you might use Aira to introduce you

435
00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:43.860
to a whole different experience you never thought

436
00:19:43.860 --> 00:19:45.300
of doing before.

437
00:19:45.300 --> 00:19:47.280
That's it. Exactly.

438
00:19:47.280 --> 00:19:49.590
What about for everyday stuff?

439
00:19:49.590 --> 00:19:54.590
I know that for me being a happy Aira explorer,

440
00:19:54.990 --> 00:19:59.670
I still kind of struggle with remembering that it's there.

441
00:19:59.670 --> 00:20:03.600
I'm so accustomed to doing things

442
00:20:03.600 --> 00:20:07.140
without a visual interpreter on the other end

443
00:20:07.140 --> 00:20:10.680
that it's hard to remember this is in the toolbox.

444
00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:12.840
Do you find that was the case for you

445
00:20:12.840 --> 00:20:14.700
or did you jump right in and you use

446
00:20:14.700 --> 00:20:18.090
it kind of a lot more than you thought you would?

447
00:20:18.090 --> 00:20:20.310
Jonathan] I used to find that the case. Absolutely.

448
00:20:20.310 --> 00:20:25.310
And when I first got Aira, I almost saw using it

449
00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:28.320
as an admission of defeat in some way.

450
00:20:28.320 --> 00:20:30.840
So if I dropped some sort of crazy object

451
00:20:30.840 --> 00:20:33.180
or couldn't locate it.
Yep.

452
00:20:33.180 --> 00:20:35.340
I would happily sort of grope around

453
00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:38.040
and grovel around for 10 or 15 minutes looking

454
00:20:38.040 --> 00:20:41.490
for the thing and then I would kind of see it

455
00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:43.800
as a surrender, okay, I'm gonna call Aira and see

456
00:20:43.800 --> 00:20:44.633
if they can see this.

457
00:20:44.633 --> 00:20:48.540
And of course within 20 seconds they've the thing.

458
00:20:48.540 --> 00:20:52.624
And then I started to realize, look, my time is just

459
00:20:52.624 --> 00:20:56.070
as valuable as anybody else's

460
00:20:56.070 --> 00:20:58.860
and this is a new piece of technology.

461
00:20:58.860 --> 00:21:02.760
It's not a surrender, it's not an admission of defeat.

462
00:21:02.760 --> 00:21:05.310
And I think I also had to get over the idea

463
00:21:05.310 --> 00:21:09.690
that maybe I was bothering Aira with something trivial.

464
00:21:09.690 --> 00:21:13.890
'Cause I have sighted children and I'm always respectful

465
00:21:13.890 --> 00:21:16.740
of the fact that I'm the parent and

466
00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:21.740
if I ping them too much about tasks that I could do myself

467
00:21:22.590 --> 00:21:25.710
with a little bit of time and thought is kind of undermining

468
00:21:25.710 --> 00:21:27.720
that and taking advantage a little bit.

469
00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:31.170
So I had that mindset and then I realized, hang on,

470
00:21:31.170 --> 00:21:34.080
Aira actually wants me to consume their service

471
00:21:34.080 --> 00:21:36.030
so I'm not bothering anybody by calling them.

472
00:21:36.030 --> 00:21:38.010
I'm actually doing them a favor (chuckles)

473
00:21:38.010 --> 00:21:39.447
by consuming my minutes.
Yes.

474
00:21:39.447 --> 00:21:41.220
But it's a very new way to think

475
00:21:41.220 --> 00:21:43.890
that actually, here is a service

476
00:21:43.890 --> 00:21:47.220
that wants me to ask these things.

477
00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:48.360
And then I suppose you get

478
00:21:48.360 --> 00:21:50.160
onto the philosophical question,

479
00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:55.050
well are we all becoming a bit soft because of Aira?

480
00:21:55.050 --> 00:21:57.681
But, I have two answers to that, one is

481
00:21:57.681 --> 00:21:59.910
that one thing I've noticed

482
00:21:59.910 --> 00:22:02.580
as somebody who does have a hearing impairment

483
00:22:02.580 --> 00:22:05.070
and my directionality has suffered a little bit

484
00:22:05.070 --> 00:22:08.820
because of it, I noticed that if I do a route

485
00:22:08.820 --> 00:22:13.350
with Airas, say getting from the elevator on the floor

486
00:22:13.350 --> 00:22:18.350
that I land on to my hotel room, if I do that once or twice

487
00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:21.270
or three times with Aira and get it right,

488
00:22:21.270 --> 00:22:25.260
because Aira's going to get me there correctly every time

489
00:22:25.260 --> 00:22:28.230
I find that I build up muscle memory and by the third

490
00:22:28.230 --> 00:22:30.450
or fourth time I don't call Aira

491
00:22:30.450 --> 00:22:33.060
because it's been committed to memory

492
00:22:33.060 --> 00:22:36.180
in such a consistent sequence that I can do it now.

493
00:22:36.180 --> 00:22:40.050
So I find that Aira has enhanced my skills.

494
00:22:40.050 --> 00:22:43.080
I also think that we talked about

495
00:22:43.080 --> 00:22:45.150
how some people withdraw for various reasons,

496
00:22:45.150 --> 00:22:47.790
maybe they haven't unfortunately had access

497
00:22:47.790 --> 00:22:51.660
to appropriate rehabilitation training and that's dreadful

498
00:22:51.660 --> 00:22:52.920
and we need to keep advocating

499
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:54.150
to fix that.
Yes.

500
00:22:54.150 --> 00:22:56.703
But if they've had a taste of getting out there

501
00:22:56.703 --> 00:22:59.790
thanks to Aira, it lifts the bar.

502
00:22:59.790 --> 00:23:03.570
It makes them, makes people realize what's possible.

503
00:23:03.570 --> 00:23:07.110
And I think that can spur people on to perhaps realizing,

504
00:23:07.110 --> 00:23:10.620
look, I don't need to be cooped up anymore.

505
00:23:10.620 --> 00:23:13.020
I want to get additional rehab training.

506
00:23:13.020 --> 00:23:14.910
I want to do these things.

507
00:23:14.910 --> 00:23:19.170
So, I think Aira's a very positive development.

508
00:23:19.170 --> 00:23:21.840
And also I would observe that, look people have

509
00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:24.870
been lamenting the advancement

510
00:23:24.870 --> 00:23:27.809
of technology forever since the pocket calculator

511
00:23:27.809 --> 00:23:29.130
or you know, that's supposed

512
00:23:29.130 --> 00:23:31.110
to have eroded our brains with math skills

513
00:23:31.110 --> 00:23:32.163
or yeah.
Yep.

514
00:23:34.133 --> 00:23:36.780
So, we obviously it's good to just

515
00:23:36.780 --> 00:23:38.040
as people have always said,

516
00:23:38.040 --> 00:23:41.395
well you should have good slate and stylus skills.

517
00:23:41.395 --> 00:23:45.330
even though there were Perkins, Brailers and beyond now.

518
00:23:45.330 --> 00:23:47.190
The same is true, you should always make sure

519
00:23:47.190 --> 00:23:49.200
that you keep up your O&M skills

520
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:52.710
and your TDL skills even though you have Aira.

521
00:23:52.710 --> 00:23:54.930
But the fact is it just makes life

522
00:23:54.930 --> 00:23:57.870
so much more inclusive and easier.

523
00:23:57.870 --> 00:23:59.080
I think that's absolutely true.

524
00:23:59.080 --> 00:24:03.417
And your point about people who use Aira

525
00:24:03.417 --> 00:24:07.770
for a task a couple of times and then do it

526
00:24:07.770 --> 00:24:10.112
without Aira is a great example

527
00:24:10.112 --> 00:24:13.993
of just how this isn't necessarily an erosion

528
00:24:13.993 --> 00:24:17.850
of skills using a technology like Aira

529
00:24:17.850 --> 00:24:19.440
to accomplish some of these tasks.

530
00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:23.550
But rather it can give someone either the confidence

531
00:24:23.550 --> 00:24:26.940
to try new things or just

532
00:24:26.940 --> 00:24:29.700
if someone is watching you perform a task

533
00:24:29.700 --> 00:24:32.610
and giving you information about it, you're going

534
00:24:32.610 --> 00:24:37.610
to naturally pick up on things using what you do have

535
00:24:38.040 --> 00:24:43.040
and say, oh, well I can for example, use my spoon and tell

536
00:24:45.326 --> 00:24:47.490
that the pasta is floating in the pot.

537
00:24:47.490 --> 00:24:51.291
I don't need an interpreter to kind of tell me

538
00:24:51.291 --> 00:24:53.730
that anymore and I can do this on my own now.

539
00:24:53.730 --> 00:24:58.730
So I think that it can actually be an increase

540
00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:02.670
in independence in some instances.

541
00:25:02.670 --> 00:25:03.960
Yes, I think so.

542
00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:05.308
It's taking us a while

543
00:25:05.308 --> 00:25:10.290
to understand how this new kind of technology fits

544
00:25:10.290 --> 00:25:14.550
into our life, but for me it has really improved my quality

545
00:25:14.550 --> 00:25:15.810
of life immeasurably.

546
00:25:15.810 --> 00:25:19.838
And there are many people out there who have a disability

547
00:25:19.838 --> 00:25:22.050
in addition to blindness.

548
00:25:22.050 --> 00:25:23.580
And that's certainly the case for me.

549
00:25:23.580 --> 00:25:25.359
And it has just made a tremendous quality

550
00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:26.973
of life difference to me.

551
00:25:28.080 --> 00:25:29.836
Do you think there are differences

552
00:25:29.836 --> 00:25:33.990
beyond just simply not wanting to depend on friends

553
00:25:33.990 --> 00:25:36.617
and family to get access to some of this visual information?

554
00:25:36.617 --> 00:25:38.610
Are there differences

555
00:25:38.610 --> 00:25:41.820
in the kind of information you might get from Aira

556
00:25:41.820 --> 00:25:44.070
versus the kind of information that you might get

557
00:25:44.070 --> 00:25:46.560
from a friend or a family member?

558
00:25:46.560 --> 00:25:47.393
Yes, and I think

559
00:25:47.393 --> 00:25:49.920
that this is a really important distinction

560
00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:53.991
that you might make in terms of getting information

561
00:25:53.991 --> 00:25:56.100
from somebody who has not been trained

562
00:25:56.100 --> 00:25:59.310
to provide information to a blind person.

563
00:25:59.310 --> 00:26:02.370
This is one of the areas where Aira really shines

564
00:26:02.370 --> 00:26:04.590
because all of the agents at Aira have been

565
00:26:04.590 --> 00:26:08.730
through, firstly, a 30 day process of training

566
00:26:08.730 --> 00:26:11.100
after the initial interview that got them into

567
00:26:11.100 --> 00:26:13.530
that training in the first place.

568
00:26:13.530 --> 00:26:15.470
And then there's a kind of a vetting process

569
00:26:15.470 --> 00:26:16.303
at the end of that.

570
00:26:16.303 --> 00:26:17.220
So it's pretty rigorous

571
00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:20.520
before an Aira agent ever gets on the dashboard.

572
00:26:20.520 --> 00:26:22.890
And so some people are better

573
00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:25.582
at describing things than others, we know this.

574
00:26:25.582 --> 00:26:28.230
You know, you can ask somebody random

575
00:26:28.230 --> 00:26:32.220
on the street or even a family member who should know better

576
00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:35.190
about where something is and they'll tell you it's that way

577
00:26:35.190 --> 00:26:37.410
and you say, well, (laughs) or it's over there.

578
00:26:37.410 --> 00:26:39.160
That's another of my favorite ones.

579
00:26:40.140 --> 00:26:44.940
So Aira agents go through extensive about how

580
00:26:44.940 --> 00:26:49.671
to describe something and they are also trained

581
00:26:49.671 --> 00:26:51.450
to make sure that they understand

582
00:26:51.450 --> 00:26:54.360
that you are the person who was actually in charge.

583
00:26:54.360 --> 00:26:57.660
You're not surrendering any autonomy

584
00:26:57.660 --> 00:27:02.160
by using an Aira agent to get information.

585
00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:05.040
In the end you decide where you're headed,

586
00:27:05.040 --> 00:27:08.670
they're simply interpreting all this visual data for you.

587
00:27:08.670 --> 00:27:10.396
Sometimes family members can

588
00:27:10.396 --> 00:27:13.830
be a little over helpful, a little bossy.

589
00:27:13.830 --> 00:27:15.240
Just because they are family members,

590
00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:17.040
it doesn't necessarily mean they've been endowed

591
00:27:17.040 --> 00:27:22.040
with this gift to describe things in an objective way.

592
00:27:22.140 --> 00:27:25.020
And also I think sometimes, you know, family members can be

593
00:27:25.020 --> 00:27:27.330
a little impatient from time to time.

594
00:27:27.330 --> 00:27:28.163
Yep.

595
00:27:28.163 --> 00:27:31.006
So yeah, it kind of puts you in charge

596
00:27:31.006 --> 00:27:34.438
and it makes you realize that you're not imposing

597
00:27:34.438 --> 00:27:38.340
on anybody by getting this information from Aira.

598
00:27:38.340 --> 00:27:40.800
Yeah, I think it's having kind of this

599
00:27:40.800 --> 00:27:44.970
service transaction where you are paying for,

600
00:27:44.970 --> 00:27:49.110
or you have access to a service and it is meant

601
00:27:49.110 --> 00:27:52.650
to be transactional rather than kind of the lines

602
00:27:52.650 --> 00:27:55.937
being unclear about, well, I've done this for you,

603
00:27:55.937 --> 00:27:59.352
so now you owe me things or you don't owe me things.

604
00:27:59.352 --> 00:28:03.707
That level of distinction is nice to have as well.

605
00:28:03.707 --> 00:28:04.540
Yes.

606
00:28:04.540 --> 00:28:08.245
I mean, I'm frequently grateful still more

607
00:28:08.245 --> 00:28:10.290
than a year on when I use Aira

608
00:28:10.290 --> 00:28:12.600
and sometimes I have an experience.

609
00:28:12.600 --> 00:28:15.060
One that was quite recent for me, I was checking out

610
00:28:15.060 --> 00:28:19.680
of a hotel at 4:00 AM and (chuckles) I went down

611
00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:21.540
to the hotel front desk

612
00:28:21.540 --> 00:28:24.570
and the lobby was, it was the exact antithesis

613
00:28:24.570 --> 00:28:26.040
of the CSUN experience.
No way.

614
00:28:26.040 --> 00:28:27.356
It was completely silent.

615
00:28:27.356 --> 00:28:28.690
No one's there.

616
00:28:28.690 --> 00:28:32.315
There was no sound at all,

617
00:28:32.315 --> 00:28:33.840
no music playing, even.

618
00:28:33.840 --> 00:28:37.950
Nothing to guide me to where the front desk was.

619
00:28:37.950 --> 00:28:40.980
You know, I'd only been in this hotel sort of overnight.

620
00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:43.530
So I couldn't remember where the front desk was

621
00:28:43.530 --> 00:28:45.403
from the elevator.

622
00:28:45.403 --> 00:28:48.900
The agent guided me to the front desk and then we found

623
00:28:48.900 --> 00:28:50.490
that there was nobody there

624
00:28:50.490 --> 00:28:53.430
behind the front desk there were probably taking a nap.

625
00:28:53.430 --> 00:28:55.440
And so the agent was able to guide me

626
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:59.013
to where the bell was to press to get some attention.

627
00:28:59.850 --> 00:29:01.320
I may well have got there,

628
00:29:01.320 --> 00:29:03.073
but it would've taken me a lot longer

629
00:29:03.073 --> 00:29:08.073
to get those things done and maybe I would've been delayed

630
00:29:08.580 --> 00:29:11.070
from my flight or something like that.

631
00:29:11.070 --> 00:29:15.240
So frequently, things still happen to me where I'm grateful

632
00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:18.960
for Aira but I'm grateful for my phone too, you know,

633
00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:22.770
for my iPhone or JAWS or other technology that I use.

634
00:29:22.770 --> 00:29:23.603
Yes.

635
00:29:24.892 --> 00:29:27.450
It's different being grateful

636
00:29:27.450 --> 00:29:29.880
for something versus being beholden to someone.

637
00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:32.700
And I think that's the key point of difference.

638
00:29:32.700 --> 00:29:34.770
Sure. Absolutely.

639
00:29:34.770 --> 00:29:37.050
Well, we've talked a lot about humans

640
00:29:37.050 --> 00:29:40.267
and visual interpretation, not

641
00:29:41.749 --> 00:29:46.749
so much about the artificial intelligence aspect.

642
00:29:47.070 --> 00:29:50.340
There are apps like Seeing AI that try

643
00:29:50.340 --> 00:29:53.450
to interpret a scene sometimes

644
00:29:53.450 --> 00:29:57.060
with really inaccurate results.

645
00:29:57.060 --> 00:30:00.540
I'm not a 3-year-old girl, by the way.

646
00:30:00.540 --> 00:30:01.373
Thank you Seeing AI.

647
00:30:01.373 --> 00:30:02.206
Have you been called that by Seeing AI?

648
00:30:02.206 --> 00:30:05.470
Yeah, Seeing AI, I've been a three-year-old girl,

649
00:30:05.470 --> 00:30:08.520
and then I think I've been much, much older.

650
00:30:08.520 --> 00:30:13.520
So it's not always wanting to depend on AI

651
00:30:14.010 --> 00:30:17.040
to describe things exactly as they are,

652
00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:21.360
but it is a part of Aira's name even.

653
00:30:21.360 --> 00:30:24.181
And it's certainly a part of other technologies

654
00:30:24.181 --> 00:30:28.560
that are trying to provide useful information.

655
00:30:28.560 --> 00:30:30.300
Even Facebook is trying to do this.

656
00:30:30.300 --> 00:30:33.690
So what do you think about AI?

657
00:30:33.690 --> 00:30:35.430
You know, kind of where are we going?

658
00:30:35.430 --> 00:30:38.070
What things is it going to be great at,

659
00:30:38.070 --> 00:30:42.333
and what things are we still going to need humans for?

660
00:30:43.350 --> 00:30:45.180
Over time, I think you'll find

661
00:30:45.180 --> 00:30:48.060
that there will be more instances

662
00:30:48.060 --> 00:30:51.450
where machines can learn about the sorts of tasks

663
00:30:51.450 --> 00:30:54.600
that blind people are performing on a regular basis.

664
00:30:54.600 --> 00:30:56.460
There are some pretty obvious candidates

665
00:30:56.460 --> 00:31:00.030
for machine learning, like currency recognition

666
00:31:00.030 --> 00:31:03.531
and certain pretty simple tasks like

667
00:31:03.531 --> 00:31:07.110
that where a number of apps are doing pretty well.

668
00:31:07.110 --> 00:31:10.470
And our own artificial intelligence, courier's working

669
00:31:10.470 --> 00:31:11.910
on all of that kind of technology,

670
00:31:11.910 --> 00:31:15.540
optical character recognition, all those sorts of things.

671
00:31:15.540 --> 00:31:17.970
We are in a very fortunate position.

672
00:31:17.970 --> 00:31:22.170
We've clocked up over 3 million minutes now

673
00:31:22.170 --> 00:31:26.130
of agent service with Aira, which is a stunning achievement

674
00:31:26.130 --> 00:31:28.590
for a company that is so young. (chuckles)

675
00:31:28.590 --> 00:31:32.340
And with that, obviously we are gaining a lot

676
00:31:32.340 --> 00:31:35.490
of information about the kind of tasks that blind

677
00:31:35.490 --> 00:31:39.327
and low vision people like to use Aira for.

678
00:31:39.327 --> 00:31:41.220
And obviously that data is anonymized and aggregated,

679
00:31:41.220 --> 00:31:45.210
but it does mean that as machines get smarter,

680
00:31:45.210 --> 00:31:50.210
we have a really profound picture

681
00:31:50.310 --> 00:31:53.340
of the kinds of tasks that blind

682
00:31:53.340 --> 00:31:55.650
and no vision people like to perform.

683
00:31:55.650 --> 00:31:58.560
So we are tackling this in a number of ways.

684
00:31:58.560 --> 00:32:01.050
You may be aware that recently we announced

685
00:32:01.050 --> 00:32:03.990
that we had acquired the mobile assets of Sendero,

686
00:32:03.990 --> 00:32:06.870
which is a recognized name in GPS.

687
00:32:06.870 --> 00:32:09.180
So ultimately what you'll see, for example, is

688
00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:10.200
that you might be able to,

689
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:12.630
from the same app, take a walk

690
00:32:12.630 --> 00:32:14.070
if you are a competent enough traveler

691
00:32:14.070 --> 00:32:18.793
with Sendero, when you get to the last sort of 50 feet

692
00:32:18.793 --> 00:32:23.100
or 30 feet or so, that's the challenge for GPS technology,

693
00:32:23.100 --> 00:32:25.320
finding the particular door,

694
00:32:25.320 --> 00:32:27.840
and then once you're inside the navigation.

695
00:32:27.840 --> 00:32:29.070
So we'd like to be able

696
00:32:29.070 --> 00:32:31.140
to switch you ultimately seamlessly

697
00:32:31.140 --> 00:32:33.600
from your GPS experience if you're comfortable using

698
00:32:33.600 --> 00:32:37.080
that right onto an Aira agent who can then assist.

699
00:32:37.080 --> 00:32:40.380
Ultimately, we well be able to be

700
00:32:40.380 --> 00:32:44.040
in a position where we can map certain tasks indoors

701
00:32:44.040 --> 00:32:45.066
with artificial intelligence

702
00:32:45.066 --> 00:32:49.170
because of the machine learning that we're able to achieve.

703
00:32:49.170 --> 00:32:53.700
So clearly providing human trained

704
00:32:53.700 --> 00:32:56.340
professionals is not the cheapest solution,

705
00:32:56.340 --> 00:32:58.350
but it's the best solution right now.

706
00:32:58.350 --> 00:33:01.770
Ultimately, we may be in a position to transition more of

707
00:33:01.770 --> 00:33:03.840
that, but we will never do that in a way

708
00:33:03.840 --> 00:33:07.353
that compromises the outcome for the end user.

709
00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:11.098
Well, I, for one, welcome our robot overloads.

710
00:33:11.098 --> 00:33:13.765
(both laughing)

711
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:17.910
Yeah, it's exciting stuff.

712
00:33:17.910 --> 00:33:21.121
And when you consider 5G just along the horizon

713
00:33:21.121 --> 00:33:25.680
as well, because clearly sometimes cellular coverage

714
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:27.210
lets us down, right?
Oh yeah.

715
00:33:27.210 --> 00:33:28.950
If you're shopping somewhere

716
00:33:28.950 --> 00:33:32.490
and you don't have a good cell signal, that's frustrating

717
00:33:32.490 --> 00:33:34.050
and we appreciate that and it's something

718
00:33:34.050 --> 00:33:35.820
that's not within our control,

719
00:33:35.820 --> 00:33:38.400
but 5G will give better performance

720
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:41.670
and also 5G sales have to be much closer together.

721
00:33:41.670 --> 00:33:44.430
So we're anticipating good things there as well.

722
00:33:44.430 --> 00:33:48.180
Awesome, so as we unfortunately come

723
00:33:48.180 --> 00:33:49.980
to a close here,

724
00:33:49.980 --> 00:33:53.370
let's just quickly talk about a few interesting things

725
00:33:53.370 --> 00:33:54.203
that may not have previously come up

726
00:33:54.203 --> 00:33:59.203
in the conversation about how people are using Aira.

727
00:33:59.670 --> 00:34:04.670
A couple from me using Aira to describe clothing

728
00:34:04.950 --> 00:34:09.090
from clothing subscription boxes, that's a fun one.

729
00:34:09.090 --> 00:34:13.680
Also using Aira to connect to my computer

730
00:34:13.680 --> 00:34:17.850
and work with somewhat inaccessible software

731
00:34:17.850 --> 00:34:21.900
and just get past some of those really frustrating bits

732
00:34:21.900 --> 00:34:25.620
to get what I want to do actually accomplish.

733
00:34:25.620 --> 00:34:27.150
Yeah, they're both great examples.

734
00:34:27.150 --> 00:34:29.910
I use Aira with computer technology a lot,

735
00:34:29.910 --> 00:34:32.640
and I was working with a client last year

736
00:34:32.640 --> 00:34:34.950
and we had a router pop up in Korean,

737
00:34:34.950 --> 00:34:36.390
which sadly I don't speak

738
00:34:36.390 --> 00:34:38.460
and nor did my screen reader cope

739
00:34:38.460 --> 00:34:39.630
with it very well.
No. (chuckles)

740
00:34:39.630 --> 00:34:42.810
So, I would've come to a screeching halt

741
00:34:42.810 --> 00:34:45.068
helping that person were it not for the fact that Aira

742
00:34:45.068 --> 00:34:48.840
could remote in and help me to configure that router.

743
00:34:48.840 --> 00:34:52.320
So computer tasks are really profound.

744
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:56.100
We do have a really exciting offer available where

745
00:34:56.100 --> 00:34:58.650
if you operate your own small business,

746
00:34:58.650 --> 00:35:01.290
then you can use Aira for free actually

747
00:35:01.290 --> 00:35:02.940
in any English speaking country.

748
00:35:02.940 --> 00:35:06.000
Thanks to Intuit QuickBooks who sponsor this.

749
00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:08.940
So it could be getting to a business meeting,

750
00:35:08.940 --> 00:35:11.760
it could be using some sort of software

751
00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:13.650
or putting a PowerPoint presentation together

752
00:35:13.650 --> 00:35:16.110
for your next pitch or whatever it might be.

753
00:35:16.110 --> 00:35:19.230
You can actually use Aira free as a small business owner.

754
00:35:19.230 --> 00:35:21.720
This is one of the things I really love about working

755
00:35:21.720 --> 00:35:24.030
with Aira is we're passionate about trying to get

756
00:35:24.030 --> 00:35:25.620
that unemployment rate down.

757
00:35:25.620 --> 00:35:28.530
And if we can do that through providing free service

758
00:35:28.530 --> 00:35:30.120
in conjunction with our partners

759
00:35:30.120 --> 00:35:33.510
for small business operators, that's one way we can do that.

760
00:35:33.510 --> 00:35:35.400
Fantastic, so for people who want

761
00:35:35.400 --> 00:35:38.880
to learn more about Aira, where should they go?

762
00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:40.140
The website's the best place

763
00:35:40.140 --> 00:35:44.280
and it's Aira, spelled A-I-R-A.io,

764
00:35:44.280 --> 00:35:46.140
and there's lots of information there,

765
00:35:46.140 --> 00:35:48.030
including our audio training.

766
00:35:48.030 --> 00:35:50.160
So I've put together about six hours

767
00:35:50.160 --> 00:35:53.910
of audio training that describes not only how

768
00:35:53.910 --> 00:35:56.940
to use the app, which is basic tutorial stuff,

769
00:35:56.940 --> 00:35:59.130
but how do you incorporate this into your life?

770
00:35:59.130 --> 00:36:01.320
How would your life change thanks to Aira.

771
00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:03.630
So you don't have to be a current Aira explorer

772
00:36:03.630 --> 00:36:05.430
to access that material.

773
00:36:05.430 --> 00:36:07.393
It's just available in DAISY, MP3

774
00:36:07.393 --> 00:36:11.387
and online at aira.io/training.

775
00:36:11.387 --> 00:36:13.020
Great, and what about for people

776
00:36:13.020 --> 00:36:15.000
who wanna know what's going on in your world

777
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:18.180
in particular, where can people catch up with you?

778
00:36:18.180 --> 00:36:20.760
Well, these days probably email is the best.

779
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:23.820
I'm hosting Aira's podcast, which is called Airacast,

780
00:36:23.820 --> 00:36:27.786
and that's available wherever good podcasts are had.

781
00:36:27.786 --> 00:36:32.340
But you can also email me, I'm Jonathan.moen@aira.io

782
00:36:32.340 --> 00:36:34.530
and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

783
00:36:34.530 --> 00:36:35.868
How about Twitter or other social media?

784
00:36:35.868 --> 00:36:37.090
Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about that.

785
00:36:37.090 --> 00:36:40.260
Yeah, I'm JonathanMosen on Twitter, all joined together

786
00:36:40.260 --> 00:36:42.180
and I'm back on Facebook now

787
00:36:42.180 --> 00:36:44.203
because there was too much going on

788
00:36:44.203 --> 00:36:45.660
with Aira for me not to be, unfortunately.

789
00:36:45.660 --> 00:36:47.105
So I'm also on Facebook.

790
00:36:47.105 --> 00:36:49.590
(both laughing)

791
00:36:49.590 --> 00:36:51.480
Excellent, well, I wanna thank you so much

792
00:36:51.480 --> 00:36:53.430
for spending time with us today,

793
00:36:53.430 --> 00:36:55.863
and I really appreciate the conversation.

794
00:36:55.863 --> 00:36:57.660
It's been wonderful.

795
00:36:57.660 --> 00:36:59.010
It's been great talking with you, Ricky.

796
00:36:59.010 --> 00:37:01.530
I don't think we've ever done this before on any podcast,

797
00:37:01.530 --> 00:37:02.940
so it's great to talk to you at last.

798
00:37:02.940 --> 00:37:04.560
Yeah, we'll have to do it again.

799
00:37:04.560 --> 00:37:06.090
Yeah, I'd love to.

800
00:37:06.090 --> 00:37:07.884
Fantastic. Thanks for joining us.

801
00:37:07.884 --> 00:37:08.717
(gentle music)

802
00:37:08.717 --> 00:37:10.050
Got something to say?

803
00:37:10.050 --> 00:37:12.240
Share your thoughts about this episode

804
00:37:12.240 --> 00:37:13.800
of, "Hadley Presents",

805
00:37:13.800 --> 00:37:16.620
or make suggestions for future episodes.

806
00:37:16.620 --> 00:37:18.390
We'd love to hear from you.

807
00:37:18.390 --> 00:37:22.800
Send us an email at podcast@hadley.edu,

808
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:27.800
that's podcast@hadley.edu.

809
00:37:27.900 --> 00:37:30.877
Or leave us a message at 847-784-2870.

810
00:37:34.680 --> 00:37:36.434
Thanks for listening.

811
00:37:36.434 --> 00:37:39.017
(gentle music)