-: When you're using technology to get things done,
it can be hard to know which tool
to pull out of the toolbox.
In this episode, Steve Kelly
and Eric Boklage join us
to share tips on choosing the right tool for the task.
I'm Ricky Enger and this is Hadley Presents.
Welcome to the show.
-: Hey Ricky. Hi Ricky. Hi Steve. How are you?
-: It is wonderful to have you both back in the
same virtual room.
We did a podcast a bit ago
and talked about kind of those new services or
or vision professionals, things
that you should know about if you are new to vision loss.
And wow, did we ever cover a lot in that?
It's certainly worth going back to listen to
and this time I'm happy to have you both back
to talk about technology.
It's a place that we all sort of love to be
and could talk about it for hours, so we're really going
to have to struggle not to do that.
But before we get into that,
let's just get a brief intro from each of you.
So Steve, we'll start with you.
-: Thanks. I'm one of the practical help specialists here at
Hadley and and I do several discussion groups.
-: And Eric, your intro's gonna be a little different this
time than it was in your previous podcast.
Some things have changed for you.
So at that time you were on the way
to becoming a vision loss professional,
but perhaps I shouldn't steal your thunder. Go ahead Eric.
-: Thank you Ricky for those kind words.
So yes, a lot has changed.
I've recently acquired both my CVRT certified Vision Rehab
Therapist and C-A-T-I-S,
which is certified Assistive Technology Instructional
Specialist certifications.
I now work here at Second Sense, which is a vision rehab
agency here in Metro Chicago.
And I get to spend my day helping people learn how
to use the technology
that helps them thrive in their normal daily lives.
-: It is, so
as we were talking about putting this podcast together,
we were kind of going through the tools
that either we use personally
or that come up as we're talking to others
because I think we're all in that unique position
of both being on both sides of the desk, so to speak.
So we all work with people
who have vision loss and we are low vision
or blind ourselves.
And so we wanted to go through a lot of these tools
that we either use ourselves
or tell people about often both,
and figure out which one to use at any given time.
But I think what helps to get that conversation started is
to actually give a brief description of what each
of these tools actually is.
So now we get to practice our elevator pitch
and see just how concise
and accurate we can be as we describe each of these things.
So Steve, you get
to start us off seeing AI is our first tool in the
toolbox. What is that?
-: Seeing AI is an app that's made by Microsoft
that's available for both Android and the iPhone or iPad.
And basically it will read what it sees.
Not only does it read, but sometimes it will read labels
and it does some object identification based on artificial
intelligence ai.
And that's what it does. It's super handy.
-: And Eric, you have a tool
and that is be my eyes. Off you go.
-: Thank you. Yes, be My Eyes is also an app
that's available on both the Android and Apple platforms.
What uses the camera on the phone to allow you
to interact with what's around you.
Initially it was how do I call somebody for help?
Since then they've also added an AI function to it.
-: Yes, for sure.
And we actually have a podcast on Be My
Eyes and we have workshops.
So teaching you how to use seeing ai.
So we've got those resources for you.
And next up is my tool to talk about that is ira.
So AIRA is also an option
that can use your camera
and it works a little similarly to be my eyes in
that you are borrowing someone's eyes,
but the difference is that these are trained professionals
as opposed to volunteers
who might be answering your call on a lunch break.
So these trained professionals are able
to assist you in perhaps navigation
or anything that you can think of.
It also does have an AI component to describe images
that you send to it.
The human portion
of AIRA is a paid version
and the AI version is free.
Alright. And our next tool is Meta glasses.
And my goodness, do we ever get a lot
of calls about this?
And Steve, I'm gonna throw this to you first
because you've fairly recently gotten a pair of these
and so you get to speak from the newbie perspective.
What are these and what do they do?
-: Yeah, essentially they're RayBan glasses
and you can have your prescription lenses put in,
or in my case it's, it's a nice pair of sunglasses
and they have a, a camera on the right hand side of it.
They've got some great speakers inside of it.
They were designed by Meta
or Facebook for users to take pictures of
what is going on around them to put on Facebook
and you know, to listen to to, to various things.
They weren't really designed for folks with a vision loss,
although we of course discovered them
and said, Hey,
the artificial intelligence on these can do things like
describe a scene in front of us.
So they can be really handy in that regard.
And in terms of price, they're far less expensive than some
of the other smart glasses that we've used.
-: Right. And in addition to those features,
I appreciate the fact that they are open ears
so you can listen to whatever it is that you're listening
to, whether it is navigation instructions
or just music as you're strolling along,
you can still hear what's going on in your environment.
I also appreciate
that you can access both Be My Eyes
and AIRA from these glasses.
So it gives you a hands-free option to take advantage
of those services as well.
Eric, is there anything
that we didn't cover about meta glasses?
I know you're, you're fairly new to that as well,
but maybe you've had a client
or two mention something they really appreciate about them.
-: I think you, you hit on it when you said hands free.
The other three tools we've talked about are ones
that are primarily done through a cell phone.
And the fact that you can take the meta glasses
and utilize either Be My Eyes
or AIRA through the lens, if you will,
that's in the camera of the glasses instead of having
to hold your phone.
That sort of hands-free activity really helps.
So if you're trying to examine something, you don't have
to both hold the phone
and hold whatever it is you're trying
to examine all at the same time.
So it, it almost acts like a, if you will,
a multiplier effect or the Be My Eyes and the AIRA apps.
-: Before we go into specific things,
I'm wondering if there's like a general rule of thumb
that you tell people and believe me, I'm listening carefully
'cause I wanna know this.
How do people think in general about which
tool to choose?
Are there, are there criteria that you can mention
that might help in that decision making process?
-: So I, I think one of the key things is
that it's user dependent.
So each person's vision loss is their own and,
and how they need supports
and assistance is different from the next person.
And, and that's not just a function of
do they still have residual vision or not,
but all sorts of varieties in that.
Right? So what I recommend to my clients is
that they use each of these in different environments so
that they can see how well they work for them
and then use that experience of their own
to help define which tool they're gonna use
in what scenario.
Because sometimes people find one interface easier
to work than the other one,
or they may find
that their day-to-day usage needs require something
different from the other one.
So I, I have them explore each of these when they can
and make a decision from there.
-: I really like how you put that
because we all have these wonderful
conversations with those of you listening
and it tends to go something like what is the best
and then followed by whatever question it is.
And when the question comes up that way,
it implies that there is one right answer
and there really isn't.
There's one right answer for you.
And so that's why I think it's helpful
to explore this both figuring out
what these tools are and then doing exactly what Eric said,
trying them in your own environment
and seeing what you prefer.
So now we are at the point where I've
just put together a list of things
that we all do every day
and I wanna talk about where these tools might fit
with each of those scenarios.
So here is one of my least favorite jobs,
sorting the mail.
And just a, a brief tip from each of you,
which tool might you use for this
and kind of give why you chose that?
-: My go-to is a five x Bausch loam slide magnifier
that's about the size of a silver dollar.
I do not leave the house without it or,
or even it's, it's always with me
'cause I use it for everything that said.
However, there are a lot of times when I pick up a piece
of mail and it just doesn't do the trick.
So the next thing is I take the Android phone
and I'll just open the camera and just pinch it
and make it a little bit larger and, and read it that way.
The last thing I'll do is I'll go to like seeing AI
or Google Lookout and have it read it to me.
-: Eric, -: What
-: About you?
-: I really like being able
to use the Seeing AI read function.
So it, it would just read any kind of print that was in a,
a short concise form
-: And that is my answer as well as someone
who has no residual vision, I'm going to reach
for seeing AI every time
because it does exactly what I want it to do,
which is read the text precisely as it appears on
that envelope.
Now if I'm in a hurry I might say to the meta glasses,
you know, hey meta read what's in front of me
and it will give a summary as opposed to reading
that precise bit of text.
The same thing is true for Be My Eyes.
So seeing AI wins this one for me.
-: The thing that I would throw out there though is it,
it will also read script.
So I know this is spring as opposed to the holiday season,
but if it's holiday season
and people are getting in holiday cards as an example
or things of that nature that have handwritten
or hand addressed as the, if the writing's neat enough,
it can actually be identified by seeing ai.
-: And even if it's not,
my mom has notoriously bad handwriting
and seeing AI still gets it.
So our next little scenario is reading an important
document, so maybe I have to sign to get
that Publisher's Clearing House or whatever other scam
or it could be something legitimately important.
What are we going to use to read that important document?
Does your answer change from just sorting the mail?
-: Well I, I will start off by saying
that I think seeing AI is, is actually the tool to do that
because it's got an OCR optical character recognition
component that's built right into it.
And it will also help guide you to the point
of you hold the camera or the phone over the document
and it'll guide you how far up you need to go in order
to get all four corners in the picture
and which way you might need to shift your hands.
And then once you've got the full document, it's right there
for you to be able to read it.
And that includes multiple pages too
-: And you can save it as well, which is really nice. E
-: Exactly.
So it guides you through the process
and it facilitates you being able
to get the entire thing in very good precision
because if it can only see the left half of the page,
it's only gonna read the left half of the page.
So it wants to guide you to
where you get all four corners first.
-: That's right. So Steve, what about you?
Are you still gonna be using your little handheld
or are you gonna use something else to read a a larger page?
-: So what I'll do is I'll pull out the Bausch
and Loam, I'll look at it first word, second word,
then I'll move over to different lighting
and try to get the third word.
And then finally I'll do exactly what Eric suggests,
we'll pull out the seeing ai,
but I gotta go through the other steps first just to prove
to myself that I really can't read this
-: And that's gonna be a very relatable statement to many,
many people I think.
Okay, so how about you dropped something?
Now there are techniques that you can use
and in fact we have a workshop on how
to find things that you've dropped.
But let's say you've tried those things, you know,
you've kind of gotten down on the floor right in place
and you're using that grid pattern to find what it is
and it bounced somewhere.
What tool are you gonna use?
And I guess I should say, what tech tool are you gonna use
to find that thing?
-: You know, I, I do use the grid pattern
and I think at this point I'm accustomed to it so I,
you know, I'll systematically look in place.
The reality is if it, if it gets to the point I,
I will ask a human being That said,
however, I have used on occasion be my Eyes
and found that that was super helpful and,
and I'll probably use it a little bit more in the future
just because it, it's really good at
that having somebody look through the camera
and you know, just give you, you know,
some cardinal directions, you know,
-: And that is my answer as well is getting a human involved
and be my eyes is the perfect way to do that.
It's free and I think speaking for myself anyway,
and perhaps you as well,
it can feel a little awkward like,
I don't wanna bother someone to help me find this thing.
I'm the one who lost it, I should figure it out
or whatever it is.
And what I will say is, having spoken
to a number of volunteers for Be My Eyes,
they've put the app on the phone knowing two things.
One, I can answer
that call when I have time
and I don't have to, I'm not obligated to.
And two, the other thing they know is
this is really gonna help someone when I do pick up
that phone and do this brief little thing
and it makes me feel good too.
So it is for those people who have volunteered,
it's not out of a sense of obligation.
They genuinely wanna help
and it can sometimes be just
that quick 32nd call, oh here's the earring,
you know, now we move on with our day.
It's efficiency and everyone feels good at the end of it,
-: You know, hearing you both talk, you're,
you're talking about using the calling a volunteer
or in the case of Ira calling one of their representatives
so that the human beings using the camera on the phone.
But I've also known that on seeing ai, for example,
there is a Find my Things channel
and that find my Things channel can be programmed to look
for something that you find really important.
Like if you've got a a, a small pocketbook that holds all
of your credit cards and
and your main information, you can train it to know, to look
for just that thing so that you can then use the camera
to point it around, pan around the room, you know, it's in
that room somewhere and it will look for that item too.
-: Yes, you can train that to look for it
and it's a wonderful feature.
-: You know what's so interesting about this, this question
and, and maybe this is just for me too,
but I think that for those of us who are in relationships
or families and stuff where you have people who have,
you know, better vision, it can be really challenging,
you know, as you as a person asking
that family member repeatedly to find something or to assist
or something that, and it can get wearing on them as well.
-: Yeah. And we're all works in progress when it comes to
that kind of thing. And
-: You can say that again, -: But I do think it helps
to have these discussions not only just to bring
that out into the open
that maybe it is wearing on the people
around you if you do it too often
and then acknowledging, well if that's the case,
what other options do I have?
And so that's why we wanna explore these things.
So here's another one
that is something I struggle with
and this is probably one
that I will ask family members more often than
anything else.
What is this mystery box in the pantry
or you know, the mystery bottle in the fridge.
Is there a good way that the two of you have
for doing this using maybe one of these tech tools?
-: I do and it's, it's actually a two part answer.
So a lot of those products have either barcodes
or QR codes on them
that you can use the product identifier in seeing
AI to be able to see.
And if it will read that, then it works for you.
And if it can't read it, it'll tell you
that it can't read it well at
that point you can just switch channels
and use the read function
and it will read whatever is on
that particular container or box.
-: That's right. And seeing AI wins again
because this is
what I do when I feel like I have a little more than 10
seconds because sometimes it is a challenge to find
that barcode or to read the text on
that round can.
And this again goes back to efficiency.
Do you opt for the, I'm going
to do this with AI
or optical character recognition or what have you?
Or do I involve a human?
Now the one thing that I do is meta glasses
and this is something they're surprisingly good at
for a tool that was not built for this purpose,
it will use a combination of looking,
maybe it glimpses a part of the logo
and it glimpses a bit of the text
and it will put that together
to make a pretty good guess of
what this product is that you're holding.
So that would be just saying, Hey meta what's in front of me
or what product am I holding?
And the fact that it's hands free makes
that a really nice option as well.
-: You know, over the years I've used a, a number
of different code readers
and like you Ricky,
I think I found them challenging in the sense that you,
you either have to spin it around a couple of times,
you've gotta be able to see at least have a general idea
where the code is and they've gotten much faster again to
to, to repeat the usefulness of
that has been particularly good with that.
And like Eric was saying, just with the the read function,
you know, you catch a couple words
and boom, you know, it's a, it's a can of soup
and it's tomato soup.
-: So once you have figured out what this product is,
now you gotta figure out how to use it.
So product directions, and I'll take this one first.
This one is definitely one where I want a human
because while seeing AI can be used theoretically
anyway, read the product directions,
if you have scanned that code, it has a,
a more info area
and assuming that the manufacturer has included this
information, you can read the product
directions right there.
But if that's not available,
I would much rather have the assistance of a human
through be my eyes
or Ira telling me number one, this is
where the directions are.
Sometimes they're on the side,
sometimes they're on the back, sometimes it's on the front.
And also they can be written in columns
or there's additional texts that you pick up
as you're trying to read the directions
and for efficiency's sake,
or I'm really hungry, I wanna cook this thing now I'm gonna,
I'm gonna enlist the assistance of a human.
How about the two of you?
-: You know, Ricky, that that, that's so interesting
because you, you bring up a really good point, especially
with the, the column stuff.
So for example, when I'm looking at a product,
I can generally get an idea of
where I'm gonna find either the cooking instructions
or the ingredients, you know, and,
and of course what I'm looking
for is the cooking instructions.
Basically once I've, once I've gotten that, it used to be
that I would just use the, the camera to enlarge it,
but that was so slow
and that this is where seeing AI comes in and,
and Google lookout for me 'cause I'm an Android user,
but I've been using that primarily for product instructions
for quite some time because, you know, you snap a picture
and it begins reading it back to you
and there are times when it's like, oh gee,
I did get the instruc, I did get the ingredients instead
of the instructions or vice versa.
So yeah, you know, moving forward it might be helpful to,
to use something like Be My Eyes as a first step.
-: I would tend to, to piggyback on your point about the,
the way that the materials are printed on the packaging is
going to affect what you end up hearing being read to you.
I've seen a couple of scenarios and columns as one example,
but let's face it, the packaging is designed
by people in marketing.
They're trying to get your attention, right.
So certain words are gonna be in larger font than in others.
And, and you're trying to read a specific set of,
of instructional kind of pieces of information.
And a lot of times these days those instructions will also
include, I don't know if this is the right term,
pictographs, where they try to convey as much information
through a, a little stencil type of picture.
And that can be very difficult
and awkward for any tool that's AI driven to be able
to pick up and understand.
So I, I tend to agree with you that if if it's something
where you need to follow very specific instructions,
you're better off getting some human advice to go along
with whatever you might be able to see through the,
the camera view of the AI.
-: Makes a lot of sense.
Alright, so now we've decided I took too long figuring
out how to cook this thing in my pantry.
I just wanna go out to eat instead.
So now there's the issue of reading a menu
and it is worth mentioning that a lot
of menus can be viewed online
or you can use apps like Uber Eats
and DoorDash that do delivery as a part of that.
They have the menus listed
there in their apps.
So you can read it in whatever way is
comfortable on your phone.
But let's say that for whatever reason you can't do that,
you're in a restaurant, there's a printed menu in front
of you, what do you do?
-: If they do have residual vision,
then I often would recommend the magnifier app on their
phone because of the fact that you can modify the amount
of magnification you need, you can turn on the light
that's on the back of it as a flashlight.
So a lot of restaurants are dimly lit
and you can have the ability to turn that light on
to be able to give you additional lighting.
And you can also often change the, the video around.
So if you happen to be someone who has
to have things in reverse video,
white print on black background kind of things for your ease
of use, you can do those sorts of filters
or even color filters using magnifier apps.
Barring that there are backups.
But that would be my go-to for anyone
who has residual vision.
-: So I wanna talk a little bit about shopping
and for grocery shopping we do offer a number
of tips in our podcast about that
and we'll have that in the show notes.
I'm wondering if you're not using an app like
Instacart or shipped to have those things delivered
or to place your order
and then get transportation to pick that up,
maybe you're just going in for a couple of things.
Is that where you would typically your magnifier
or is there another tool that you think works if you kind
of have a general idea of, hey, I know where this is,
but I just need to make sure I grab the right
thing. What are you gonna use?
-: You know, generally speaking, I'm grocery shopping
with somebody if I'm not, if I'm just getting dropped off
to pick up a few things, I always say, okay, well you know,
give me some extra time
because it's true, it's gonna take a little extra time,
especially if the store is unfamiliar.
But I'm just remembering one time when I was there looking
for specific type of cheese for something
that we were gonna make and you know, I was by myself
and thank goodness the dental hygienist was walking down
down the aisle, saw me in the store
because I had, you know, both doors open
and I've got my face pressed up there and I'm looking around
and she's like, oh Steve, how are you?
What are you looking for? I was like, I'm looking
for the sliced cheddar, blah blah blah.
And she goes, oh, it's right here.
And I'm like, bingo, that's what I needed. I'm outta here.
But the magnifying glass
or stuff like that, even the monocular,
it's not really helpful.
What's helpful sometimes is like when you're trying
to compare something,
like let's say you've got a couple cans of beans
or you're checking ingredients, yeah,
then seeing AI is particularly good,
but if the store is unfamiliar, there will be a point when,
when I'll, I'll I'll just need to go up to customer service
and, and probably get, you know, sighted assistance if,
if I'm not going with a friend
or something like that just
to get me pointed in the right direction.
But I think that that can be a really tricky sort
of environment without having like, you know, one
of the store assistants help out.
-: So I have a question for you, Steve, it, when,
when you're doing that
and you're using the Seeing AI app as an example,
my concern is that it reads everything and,
and everything that's in view of the camera.
So trying to isolate it on one particular can
or one particular box
or something along that line,
it also picks up on all the other writing that's around it.
Has, has that gotten in your way
when you've tried to do this?
And if so, is there a a tool among these
that you would prefer to use to get around that?
-: You know, there's probably a, a better way,
particularly in that situation
'cause you're right, you get an awful lot
of extraneous stuff.
I mean you could use the read function,
but again, it's gonna be really hit
or miss just the way that that works.
But you know, it brings up another thing that as folks
with a vision impairment, like it
or not, I think we have developed patients while gritting
our teeth that sometimes these things take a little bit
longer and, and it does.
You just kind of have to quietly wait
and it's like, come on, come on, come on, I need to go.
But that's, that's the technology
and like I said there, you know, there are probably folks
who are a little bit more experienced.
I've had 20, 25 years to it adjust to it, right?
So you would, you would think I'd get,
I'd be better at at some of these things than I am,
but you know, that's my excuse.
It's like, you know, it is, it's a work in progress.
There's probably a better way to do it and,
and I'll meet somebody who, who, you know,
tips me off on that.
But for now it's, it's a little bit of a patience thing.
-: And, and Ricky, how, how about the meta glasses?
Do those help you to isolate on something in particular
versus other extraneous writing that's around it?
-: So here's how the meta glasses help me
and this is what I would use in a scenario like this.
I would never go shopping
for say a full grocery hall just walking
around the store and doing all of that
because it isn't going to be an efficient use of my time.
I'll be able to do that better with an app.
But if I'm going to pick up a couple of things, I am going
to use my meta glasses
and it will either be grabbing that product off the shelf,
kind of turning away a little bit
and looking down the aisle, but having it in front of me
and saying, Hey meta, what is this?
Or what am I holding?
Or I'm going to take advantage of
that hands-free opportunity and again contact AIRA
or be my eyes
and for a grocery store trip I'm probably going to use ira.
And the reason is that
these are trained agents who are accustomed
to giving very specific navigation directions
or being able to assist in directing
where the camera should point in order for them to get
that right glimpse of the product.
Whereas a volunteer may have the best of intentions,
but they're not accustomed
to describing move the camera slightly upward, you know,
move it to the right a little, all they know is yeah,
I can't quite see it
and I don't know, maybe bring it closer, that kind of thing.
So for efficiency's sake, that's
where the meta glasses are going to play into this for me.
But you do have to be mindful that it's going
to catch a lot of info.
I did have a person that I was chatting with
and he chose his cereal by standing in front
of the aisle and he asked meta tell me
from left to right
what the cereal boxes are on the shelf
at my eye level.
And with that very specific prompting, he got exactly
what he was after.
-: Just outta curiosity, do you find that,
would you choose Ira or be My Eyes
or something like that over just going through
with a shopper's assistant?
-: No, it's a really good question
and it comes down for me to,
the store assistance are often not there
exclusively to assist people
who are blind or low vision to get around and shop.
They're there to ask to answer a question or two
and they may also be stocking the shelves
or doing any number of other things.
And so I genuinely do feel like if I haven't sort
of made an arrangement that they're going to help me,
I feel like I'm taking time
that they haven't budgeted for.
Whereas if I'm calling Be My Eyes
or ira, it is a transaction
that both parties know they have entered into willingly.
So identifying currency,
identifying money is one that I have here.
And I'm pretty sure that seeing AI is going
to win on this one
because it does have a function specifically for this.
I will say meta glasses can do this,
at least they've gotten much better at doing this
than they once were.
So I have just a couple others here
and the one I wanna touch on,
well two actually describing things.
So whether this is a garment
or a picture that someone has sent you,
whatever it is you need to get information
that your vision is just not giving you enough,
how are you going to get
this object described? Whatever it is.
-: Yeah, I, you know, I'll, I'll take it quickly
because you know, again, that one's kind
of an interesting thing, particularly for those of us with,
with with low vision
because for the most part I'm going to use magnification
that that set and it,
and it could be like the, the camera on my phone,
I might take a picture of an object
and enlarge it or something like that.
But I also recognize too, at least for me at at,
at this stage, you know, sometimes colors are not accurate
and so on and so forth.
So there are times when,
and again, this is when a human comes in handy, you know,
I will have to say to the human, so it, you know, is
that yellow or is, is this what I'm looking at?
But for the time being, mostly it's magnification.
-: I, I think that the AI tool that's in both seeing AI
and be my eyes are good.
Both of them have issues with color primarily due
to lighting because depending upon how bright
or how dim the lighting is, brown can come across as black
for example and things of that nature.
But if, if you're looking for a robust description
of a scene or a room
or even of a person, I have found
that the Be My Eyes description tends to be more detailed
and more robust than the seeing AI one.
And both of them allow you the option to ask questions,
if you will, to follow up.
But when it comes to things like identifying a specific
color or, or whether
or not things match the, the AI can't really help you
to the degree that a human being might be able to do. So
-: When you said Be My Eyes,
you were you talking about the the AI version of it?
-: Yes. The, the Be My AI channel of the Be My Eyes app
gives you very robust descriptions of something.
If you take a picture of it,
it will give you a very detailed description
and then you can ask follow-up questions of it
that you can either dictate or type in.
And, and of course if they're connected to the meta glasses,
then you could probably do the same thing just with
with your vocal descriptions.
But I find that their descriptions on the Be My AI channel
of the Be My Eyes app to be a bit more robust
and detailed than is the describe option
that's available on seeing ai?
-: Yes, it tends to be a bit more brief
with seeing AI than it is with Be My ai.
And what I really, there are two things I love about this,
and the first is kind of going back to that
feeling of not wanting to impose on people
to get some information.
If I want to ask be my AI
68 questions about whatever this thing is
that I've got a picture of, I can do that.
I can spend as much time as I want
and the AI is not going to get tired
of describing it for me.
And the other thing I love about this is
sometimes you do need that verification.
So maybe the AI has described
something and maybe it's an outfit that you're trying
to match and you think that it matches,
but you can't be absolutely certain if the AI
has detected the difference between navy blue
and black for example.
And whether it's be my AI
or even AIRA has a, an AI component
and both of these have the ability to verify
with a human.
And so you can call that human from right there in the app.
It's like, do you wanna verify what I just told you?
Well here, connect with someone and you can.
So wow, we've really covered a ton of things,
both from a practical perspective
and I think just exploring some of those thought processes
that we go through when we're trying
to figure out which tool to choose.
And that really brings us to, you know, is there anything
that we haven't covered?
Are there things
that you would tell someone if they're listening to this
and they've never tried any of these,
or maybe they've tried one or two
and it just hasn't worked out that well or whatever it is.
If someone is feeling overwhelmed by all of these options,
what do you do to kind of reduce the stress
of finding the right thing?
Is there a good place to start
or a good way to approach this initially?
-: Well, I, I'm gonna go back to my,
my comment at the very beginning.
It's all gonna be person dependent and,
and I really do recommend to people that they try any
of these and all of these and get a comparison
and a feel for how they might work.
And they need to do that at a point in time when they're not
under a time crunch
or under any kind of stress just to play with it
and figure out which one of these they seem
to be more comfortable with
and pick a can of soup outta your pantry and use two
or three different tools to see which one of these gives me
what I need to know to be able to make my selections.
And then in the future, you know,
which one you can be more comfortable with.
-: That's a really good point
to do this when you're not under a time crunch,
if you go into it feeling pressure already, the likelihood
that things are gonna go downhill is pretty high, right?
So, you know, just have that moment of curiosity
and, Hey, I'm just playing with this
and if it doesn't work today, well it doesn't matter.
There's nothing at stake. Steve, anything to add?
-: Yeah, I was just gonna say, Eric, I think you're so right
that the whole person dependent thing is, is really critical
because there are a lot
of tools out there and we're all different.
So, you know, these tools are gonna work differently
for different people and the thing to do is to figure out,
you know, which one works best for you.
And you know, the last thing I I would add is
as I was looking over the list
and thinking back through, you know, like the, you know,
how I've, I've done things in the past, I just realized
that there, you know, as somebody
who had pretty decent vision for, for quite a while,
there's a certain amount of this
that really touched my self-esteem.
You know, so I was really reluctant sometimes to try some
of this, this stuff that, that, you know,
the handheld magnifier
or some of the other, even some of the,
the smartphone stuff out in public
around people at a cash register or whatever.
And you know, I I I just realized today it's like, you know,
just like that I'll just say, oh, you know, I don't see,
well can you read that to me?
Can you, can you prompt me
or you know, give me some guidance or something like that.
And that's so dramatically different than
what it was like say 15 or 20 years ago.
So, you know, kind of again, what what you were both saying,
it's like, relax, take a breath
and you know, we all do these things in different ways
and it's okay, you know, just figure out your your own way
and don't, don't let it steal your self-esteem.
That's the other important thing.
-: Yeah. So very important
because no one wants to stand out.
We don't want to Right. Look different.
-: Different, -: Right. Yeah.
And at end of the day it's figuring out how
to do what you need to do efficiently
and still be able
to figuratively look at yourself in the mirror
and be okay with it all.
And I think the, the final thing I would say is
that while seeing AI did come out a lot ahead in some
of these things, be my eyes was, was a big winner in others
and meta glasses made their appearance
and magnifiers continued to, to be here.
So the thing I would say to sum up is
that there isn't one right magic tool
that if you just use this, it kind of solves all
of the, the practical things that you're struggling with.
It's good to know about all of them so
that you can pick the right one at any given point
-: And they continue to evolve these, these tools
and these devices, the AI that's inherent in all
of them continues to improve and to, to build out.
So don't let one experience with it cause you to walk away
and not use 'em again.
Be a little bit adventurous and, and check it out again.
If it, if it didn't work well
before that doesn't mean it won't, won't work for you again.
-: Yeah. Things are constantly changing. Great point.
Well, thank you both so much.
This has been such an informative discussion
and I've had a wonderful time.
I hope you all have as well.
If you're listening and you have questions about any
or all of these tools, either where
to find information about them or how to get started
or you just, you know, wanna talk some of it through,
we hope that you will contact us here at Hadley
and we're happy to help.
Thank you all so much for listening.
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