Tag Archives: technology

OrCam MyEye: Promising Tech?

24 Tuesday Aug 2021

Posted by in blindness, Ultimate Blog Challenge

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It should come as no surprise that technology has greatly enhanced my life as a blind person. Everything from screen reading technology to OCR apps to visual interpreting services has played a role in making my life more enjoyable and more equitable, both personally and professionally. I’ve been fairly reluctant to jump on the most recent tech out there, largely because there’s so much of it; it seems that not a week goes by without some new tech that’s designed for blind people – from shoes to backpacks to smart canes – much of which either never makes it to market or is prohibitively expensive.

I’d heard about the OrCam MyEye over the past little while, and I have always been interested in trying it out. Wearable technology that reads stuff? I could use that! Why not? I was given an opportunity to test one out recently, and I chose to take it for what it was worth.

What is OrCam MyEye?

In short, OrCam MyEye is a talking camera. It attaches to a pair of sunglasses with magnets, and uses hand gestures, voice commands, or finger controls to perform its functions. It can automatically detect text in your surroundings, read newspapers or documents, describe a scene, and even recognize pre-programmed faces.

Initial Impressions

When I first was interested in OrCam, I went to their web site, which offered financing plans for up to twelve months for Canadians. I added the device to my cart, entered my contact information for financing information, and was given the irresistible opportunity to pay nearly $2700, with the balance split over two monthly payments of $900 per month. Hardly twelve convenient and reasonable monthly payments! I exited the web site and went on about my night.

The next day, I received a phone call from OrCam. I told the caller that I wasn’t interested in the device, especially given the lack of reasonable financing options available in addition to the up-front payment. I was asked what my vision was like, if I had trouble recognizing faces, if I could use their smart-read features, and on and on. I repeated myself, that I was not interested at this time, and would be ending the call.

I then got an email. It was clear it was a form letter, because it stated something about it being a pleasure to speak with me and the hope that my questions were answered satisfactorily. I replied, asking OrCam to not contact me again.

Another Option

I was able to borrow the OrCam for two weeks from a Canadian assistive technology company. I received the device in a box, with a whole bunch of extra little things that I still can’t identify. The device charged, I was ready to try it out.

A Day at the Mall

Before taking the OrCam for a true test of its paces, I tried it out on some documents. There’s a lot of head angling and paper angling and lighting considerations that I hadn’t considered, but I soon got the hang of using the OrCam to tell what random pieces of paper were scattered across my table. I wouldn’t want to use it for professional documents, but I could get the job done.

Once I figured out the gestures, I was ready to hit the road. The first thing I tried to do was to read the bus stop sign to get downtown. After some angling and fiddling, I was able to read what buses stopped at my local stop, and where they concluded. While waiting for the bus, I used the automatic text finding feature and located a stop sign about a hundred feet away. The trip to the mall was less eventful. I was unable to read the route numbers on the bus itself (glare? signage? angles?), but I was able to read several signs and messages on the LRT. I was mildly impressed!

The mall was an exercise in complicated frustration. We started at the food court, where I was able to read parts of some vendors’ menu boards, but actually had no idea what restaurant would be serving me my pizza or tacos or sandwich. I couldn’t get the right angles; I was either so close that I was cutting off parts of the menus, or I’d be moving backwards into the flow of foot traffic. Deciding on a lunch spot was simpler without the OrCam – I remembered where the taco spot was, and tacos sounded good, it didn’t matter where they came from, I was just hungry.

Lunch consumed, I tried the mall as a whole. I used the text-find feature, reading basically anything and everything the camera could pick up. I found some stores only by the web sites listed on their signs, and knew some others had sales. But again, the angles were all wrong; I was either too close to get a whole sign, or I’d have to step back into the flow of foot traffic to get any more meaningful information. I was, however, able to catch the mall hours from several different angles.

The Bottom Line

I wanted to love the OrCam. I wanted it to be as helpful for me as their marketing makes it look. But if my initial introduction to their sales tactics didn’t put me off it, my cumbersome experience in the mall cemented it for me. I have other tools at my disposal – like Aira, Be my Eyes, and Lookout – and all of them are considerably more affordable and less cumbersome than the OrCam proved itself to be for me. I hope it can continue to grow and help more people, but this blind user is giving it a hard pass.

“So… what does that do?” – On Assistive Technology

13 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in blindness

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For some reason I still don’t understand, a previous blog post generated a really lively discussion at a school for the blind far far away. I appreciate that this blog has readers from many backgrounds, ages and countries, and love that my opinions can open the door to some great conversations. One of the topics of discussion was regarding assistive technology (those braille/talking/large-print things that make many blind peoples’ lives so much easier). Stemming from that, when is it appropriate to be “treated like everyone else” and there by not receive any accommodations), and be protected and coddled so much that we aren’t required to advocate for ourselves at all?

 

Reading about this discussion, I took a trip down memory lane. As with all technology over the past 15-20 years, assistive technology ( braille displays, screen reading software, scanning applications) has grown in leaps and bounds. When I was in school, I used a Perkins brailler (think like a 25-pound braillle typewriter, which was as heavy and noisy as you’d think), a slate and stylus for on-the-fly braille writing, and a specialized notetaker (like a bad version of today’s tablets without a screen) called a Braille ‘n Speak to type out assignments. Computers took up lots of space and had to be pre-loaded with specialized text-to-speech software to run on the limited accessible programs available (my first laptop ran only Word Perfect and a braille transcription software so I could print out assignments). A transcriber had her own office and brailled my worksheets, tests, and books unavailable through provincial/federal resource centers – by hand in the early days, by scanning into a computer and printing them out on a big noisy braille printer when the technology was more readily available. Any assignments I did using braille, she had to write above the braille so my teachers could read them. Needless to say, while my work got done, I was far from being treated “like everyone else”; it took a small army and my own special room to get through elementary and high school. Now that I write this out, I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude for those who tirelessly did this work, so THANK YOU!

 

Over the years, technology has evolved. While specialized equipment such as braille displays, screen reading software, and braille printers are still on the market, many aspects of technology have been made more readily available to the general public. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software is available inexpensively or free of charge, so scanning documents to read them can be done by almost anyone, sighted or blind. Some screen reading software (which reads the content on a screen in a synthesized voice) is available pre-installed on computers, smartphones and tablets; other options are available for purchase or free of charge, which leaves the market wide open to choose which software works best for a particular individual. High schools and colleges have teachers and professors emailing their assignments to students, and students being able to email them back; if a blind person needs to print out hard copy, printers are readily available at the local Staples for less than the cost of a microwave.

 

We are at a time when technology has opened up many possibilities, and yet it has closed doors in other ways. Even as I have been writing this post, I’ve seen tweets describing an experience buying groceries and having to ask for assistance because the debit pin pad is a touch screen with no spoken menus and no tactile buttons, or a customer wishing to contact a company but being unable to because of those distorted images on the screen that a screen reader cannot read. When is what we are asking for too much? When does requesting accommodations make us “more valued” than anyone else? For me, personally, it comes down to dignity and respect. I want to be able to go about my day as a consumer, an employee, a student, a patron just like everyone else. Yes, I use specific technology to make that happen, but it has come through figuring out what works for me, and has put me on more of an even footing than I have ever been. Technology can be the great equalizer, providing access to information, employment possibilities, education and commerce; making that equalization possible should be the responsibility of all of us – individuals, institutions, businesses and governments. If I ask for accommodations, it is something that will benefit not only me, but other customers in that store, other students at that school (either currently or in future), other employees in that office. Perhaps it looks like purchasing that screen reading software will benefit only that one student in the classroom, but in effect, it benefits everyone by giving that student an opportunity to learn and engage and educate the others.

 

So, while technology grows at a rapid rate, ask the questions, request what you need. If it can improve your access to information, employment, education or commerce, ask the tough questions. Ironically, what can be viewed as “special treatment” may be the only thing that will allow you to be treated equally. If we all stay silent and hope someone will come along and make our lives better, we’d wind up with such advanced technology as this… I think we’re a bit past that, no?

“You’ll burn the House Down!” – This Blind Girl’s guide to Cooking

06 Friday Mar 2015

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Last weekend, I had the opportunity to join several other blind and visually impaired athletes in learning to prepare different types of post-game or post-training “recovery” food.  Unfortunately, while the idea was a good one, the execution left us all wanting more.  Instead of us all going around the various stations – mixing a smoothie, grilling our chicken for a sandwich, chopping vegetables for a salad – one person grilled all the chicken, the smoothies were pre-mixed for us, and two girls cut up the fixings for the biggest salad I have ever seen.  We were all a bit disappointed, not being able to spread our culinary wings, and were left with the distinct impression that the woman leading the class had NO previous idea how blind people can and do navigate a kitchen competently and safely.

 

This situation is far from unique.  I have known blind people whose families wouldn’t even let them near a stove, even well into adulthood.  Someone I know well was terrified to give me the knife to chop up the eggs for potato salad, until I basically threatened her with it.  So, in case you have wondered, here is how I have made cooking easy, safe, fun, and occasionally even yummy!

 

Organization

I start out by knowing what is where, and what packages, cans or bags feel like.  I label cans or jars with an audio labeler called a Penfriend, just so I don’t repeat the embarrassing experience of adding a can of peaches to my crock-pot chili.  Whether I put things away myself so I know where they are, or have set “spaces” for frozen vegetables or meat that Ben will not mess with (upon threat of death), I have found that one of the most helpful things in cooking is to know what you have, what you need (if you need an emergency shopping trip), and where it is.  Whatever one uses, whether using audio, braille or large print labels, magnets, different shaped containers, elastic bands, sticky dots, so long as things stay organized and accessible, the kitchen can be a terrific place!

 

Cutting, measuring and Preparation

I personally don’t use any special tools for this, though there are grippy cutting boards and knives with built-in guards on the market.  I hold the potato with two fingers of my left hand and cut with my right.  It is not an overly fast process, but it is not slow either.  And I still have all 10 fingers, so I can’t be messing up too badly!  I buy measuring cups and measuring spoons with raised numbers that indicate their size, but those can be purchased at Wal-mart.  Ben did find a microwave for me that has tactile buttons; what a lifesaver that is!  You can label a flat-panel microwave (I did with my oven), but labels can move around after a while, which can get problematic…

Some people get out all items for whatever they are cooking or baking before even getting started; I find this overwhelming, personally, and have found that taking one or two things out at a time and putting them back makes for a less chaotic cooking environment.

 

Actual Cooking

I am incredibly fortunate that my family always encouraged me to take chances cooking.  At 6 years old, I was boiling spaghetti for dinner; by 8,I was fixing hamburger patties.  I obviously had assistance and guidance, but for the most part, I was free to make my mistakes.  Now that I have been out on my own for over 10 years, I have discovered that I prefer crock-pot cooking or baking, rather than frying.  I make a mean beef and barley soup that includes frying vegetables, and fry up ground beef for Mexican wontons, but I prefer the mixture of flavors taking their time in the oven or the crock-pot.  On the occasions I do fry things, I tend to keep the heat at a medium setting, so that if I am chopping peppers while onions are frying, I am not so freaked out about the onions being cooked through at 3 minutes but stuck to the bottom of the pan sixty seconds later.

I also like the flexibility and less time-sensitive nature of the oven or crock-pot; I once forgot to add mushrooms to a chili recipe, and I asked Ben to add them halfway through the cooking process, and honestly no one knew the difference.

 

You can have your Dessert and Eat it Too

I once heard someone say that you can either successfully make cookies or cakes, but not both… I am a cake girl!  I cannot, to save my life, make a good batch of cookies.  No matter what I do or how I do it, my cookies wind up spreading all over the sheet, making one big giant cookie that may or may not have edges that can be easily cut.  Tell me you want bread, cakes, or muffins, and I will make you yummy baked goodness… cookies, look elsewhere, please!

 

Things I suck At

I cannot make a grilled cheese sandwich to save my life; it goes back to my desire not to be so fixated on time.  The first and only time I made one in recent memory, I got a phone call and completely forgot about it until the smoke alarm went off.  Along this line, I cannot seem to make quesadillas, either; the last time I tried, I burned them so badly that you could smell it even hours afterward, and I picked off about a fingernail-sized chunk of cheese that was still edible.

And I have never been great at spreading things; I always seem to get a big glop of peanut butter on one corner of my toast, while the diagonal corner is completely dry and boring.  What’s up with that?

 

Cooking is one thing that I do enjoy, but it is also the one thing that people are the most uneasy about letting me do, particularly in group settings.  It’s a bit discouraging, since all I would need is someone to show me where stuff is and let me just go at it.  Besides, I still have all 10 fingers, really long hair, and my house is still standing… what can go wrong?