Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Just returned from the National Federation of the Blind conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yes, Sin City. It was a great conference held at the Mandalay Bay.
Jeff Thompson:
It was a huge, huge hotel, and yet, after day one, day two was better, day three was great, and from there on it was just getting to where you wanted to go. Lot of places I went to was the exhibit hall, the food court, House of Blues. There was a lot of places to visit, lot of places to take in. I really enjoyed it.
Jeff Thompson:
And I met up with a lot of people. Lot of new people, lot of old people, and a lot of people in the exhibit hall. So we captured a lot of interviews, a lot of presentations, and we’re going to share with you these in a series that we’ll be releasing over the next week or so, so kick back, relax, and stay tuned for them.
Jeff Thompson:
One that, I want to share today is one with MB Patil, and he’s the designer of the designer of the Bose frames. Now you all may remember back during CSUN, Aira announced a partnership with Bose.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s when Brian Fishier bought his first pair and we did an interview straight from CSUN using the Bose frames on his end.
Speaker 2:
Say what?
Jeff Thompson:
I’m going to play you an excerpt from the season recap that Brian Fischler and I did with that blind tech show and he is using the Bose frames for his microphone.
Jeff Thompson:
Sure, we did it across Zoom so, you might hear that effect, but for the most part the Bose frames work pretty dang well for the Podcast.
Jeff Thompson:
Aira is partnering up with Bose to work with them because they are using the special features that are in the glasses for, navigation, the accelerometer. So, that’s great that they’re working with him.
Jeff Thompson:
But you were using that so people would recognize who you were. You were the blind guy with the guide dog and the Bose frames.
Brian Fischler:
No, no I’m not egotistical. I was using them because at this conference it is kind of loud and it was great to just have them on and hear voice-over through them. And I have noticed, they say only three and a half hour battery life. But, that’s for talking on the phone, or listening to music. Voice-over would last all day and I’d still have 60% left. It was great I’m just walking around the exhibit hall using the Bose frames listening to voice-over
Jeff Thompson:
I bought a pair of Bose frames myself, and Lori has a pair too. I have the Alto’s those are the larger ones. They look like the Ray-Ban’s. While the Rondo’s are a little more smaller and a little more rounded. So, the Bose frames when you put them on you’re shocked for a second because you hear the sound in your head but your ears are still open to the environment. That’s the really cool part about the Bose frames. You hear the sound and you can still take in the environment.
Jeff Thompson:
Now think about that you’re on a sidewalk, you want to hear the cars going by. You got a notification.
Speaker 2:
Destination in 200 feet
Jeff Thompson:
You want to hear the notification. You’re in a room, you’re in a hotel you’re anywhere and people just see you in sunglasses. Kind of wearing that iconic Ray-Ban look, you know, James Dean. Rock on.
Jeff Thompson:
And let’s not forget the UV protection that the sunglasses provide for your eyes. The Bose frames just may be the best form factor that I have ever experienced when considering the environment and information I want to obtain.
Jeff Thompson:
I’ve got some great news to share with y’all. Because while attending the Aira party Suman Kanuganti, the President of Aira, the founder of Aira, announced that their partnership with Bose is going to leas to the next iteration of the Aira glasses. Yes you’re going to have sound and a camera all built into one.
Suman Kanuganti:
I am currently wearing, not the Horizon glasses, but something called Bose frames. I want to [inaudible] our partners who came all the way from Boston down to San Diego to make sure they are building the next generation of glasses with Aira for us.
Jeff Thompson:
And later on at the Aira party MB Patil the designer of the Bose frames took to the stage to talk more about the Bose partnership with Aira.
Jeff Thompson:
Back at convention at the exhibit hall I met up with MB Patil and had a great conversation with him and what was really neat about it was, he found me. Because I was wearing the Bose frames and he asked about the attachment that I had on the back of the glasses. Now it’s a string and it has two couplings that go on, they kind of roll on, press on, it’s rubber. And it goes on to the ends of the backs of the frames of the glasses, right behind the ear. I slide them on there and pull it up taught because when I’m out walking or when I’m out doing laps around the pool area the heat and stuff, the glasses seemed to slide down a little bit. This held the glasses in place. Plus, just the piece of rubber on each end of the frame arms creates enough tension or grip to keep the Bose frames in place when I would tie my shoe or pick something up.
Jeff Thompson:
He was intrigued by this, took a picture of that and said he’s going to take it back to the lab and see what they can do about it. So it was really neat to meet the up MB and have a conversation with him.
Jeff Thompson:
How are you doing?
MB Patil:
I’m doing great. How are you?
Jeff Thompson:
I’m good. You noticed I was wearing my Bose frames. Why did you notice those?
MB Patil:
Yeah, because we actually designed it at Bose and we are very proud of that product and I saw you wearing. I was curious learn to how you think about it and get any feedback that you could give us to us.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, I think they’re great. I really don’t take them off when I’m in this type of environment. Now, there’s other times, like at home when I’m doing studio work I wear big headphones. But, I wouldn’t be able to take in the environment like I can with these so, I really like them for that.
MB Patil:
Yes, I think these actually are designed for open ear audio, we call it. Where using this you are actually aware of the surroundings, at the same time you are able to hear the other side of the conversation.
MB Patil:
Whether it comes to music or whether it’s a phone call. That’s the whole purpose of this technology.
Jeff Thompson:
I really like the one button. It doesn’t get too confusing. A phone call comes in I can answer and hang up in one compression of that button.
MB Patil:
Yes, yes. And [inaudible] we’re loading the same thing for play, pause also. Liked when you want to listen to the music, you can do that also. I don’t know if [crosstalk]
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, yeah. And then if I wanted to get Siri activated I could just hold it down. Because I use and Apple product.
MB Patil:
Yeah, just press and hold with the Siri.
Jeff Thompson:
So you actually designed these.
MB Patil:
Yes.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that’s really neat. Because when I first saw them come out I was like “Whoa!” And everyone’s asking questions about it. And they say “wow, the sound’s in my head I can still hear.”
Jeff Thompson:
So, it’s very impressive.
MB Patil:
Yes, we have been working on this open ear audio for many years now. And we’ve found a great … The form factor that can actually really can showcase the technology, and that’s what you’re seeing right there now.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, in the blindness community one of the benefits I think we have is because we use it for voice-over.
Jeff Thompson:
So, we’re not constantly pumping music all the time. And I get a good day’s worth, like at a convention like this I don’t run out of juice, power.
MB Patil:
Yep, Yeah I think they are designed for four to four and a half hours.
MB Patil:
Somewhere around that. I think because they automatically shut off if you’re not using it, it ends up using it most of the day.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, I am very impressed with them. I like the case with it. I travel with them. It actually helps with the UV out here in Las Vegas.
MB Patil:
Excellent, yeah. Thank you. I’m really glad actually you are liking them. And thank you for your input about some of the fit, and then what we can do with it. I’ll take that feedback back to the team and see what we can do.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, thank you very much.
MB Patil:
Thank you.
Jeff Thompson:
It was quite the experience at the NFB convention. And with Aira bringing MB Patil to the conference. To meet up with him and talk to him about a product that I use, I like, that I own. The Bose frames and to hear about the partnership they are developing on creating the next Aira glasses by Bose.
Jeff Thompson:
Now this partnership with Aira is quite iconic. Aira which builds the products and offers a service to the blindness community is partnering up with a big name company that makes products worldwide. And this awareness that they are going to bring to the blindness community is none other than spectacular. I think it’s great. My hat’s off to Aira for reaching out for this partnership and for Bose for accepting it and who knows what kind of products will be developed beyond this.
Jeff Thompson:
So, that’s the kind of experience you can get from attending the National Federation of the Blind convention. And that’s the kind of expectations we’ve been expecting from Aira. Always going beyond a little bit of our expectations. Makes it quite exciting to hear the news coming out.
Jeff Thompson:
And pay attention to news coming out of Aira. They just released some information about this thing coming up in the fall,. We don’t know what it’s going to actually look like, the details are a little vague right now. But there is a possibility that everybody will have access to Aira services for free. Whether it’s a limited amount of calls, time. We don’t know what it’s going to look like, but the first roll out of it is going to go to active Aira users. So download the free Aira app today and be part of a growing community.
Jeff Thompson:
So Stay tuned to Blind abilities and we got a lot more convention coverage coming up for you over the next week or two.
Jeff Thompson:
And, you can find more Podcasts with the blindness perspective on the web at WWW.Blindabilities.com
Jeff Thompson:
On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Jeff Thompson:
And download the free Blind Abilities App from the App store and the Google play store. That’s two words Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
And you can enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device just by saying Enable Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
And If you’re using Overcast, Downcast or the Podcast App in your iPhone or any other pod catcher just search for us as Blind Abilities, once again that’s two words Blind Abilities. And most importantly I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed and until next time, bye-bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at:
Thanks for listening.
*****
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency.
Contact:
Thank you for listening!
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store.
Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.