We are back to prove last week was not a one off April Fools joke. And we have an interview about a product you old timers might know, but in a more modern style than you might remember. Plus, for good or bad, this interview is not from Florida and does not feature a poolside parrot in the background. Break out your floppies and those connector cables that are worth more than gold for BBQ 226.
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CSUNATC24 Interview: BT Speak And Bryan Blazie
For some the letters BNS mean a lot. The Braille N Speak was the very first Braille experience for an older generation that was new to computing, let alone, a portable Braille display. Having speech and Braille with an almost instant on wake time was transformative in a way that some now find with a mobile phone with a display over a Bluetooth connection. With that in mind, and with support of his father Dean, CEO Bryan Blazie of Blazie Technologies is out to recapture those retro stylings in a whole new package. JJ got a chance to talk with Bryan about the new BT Speak and learn how the Raspberry Pi made this reentry into the notetaker space possible. Note, the interview and transcript refer to a second model. Post interview, the team has indicated that there is only one unit at launch. To learn more, and keep up with the latest, visit the Blazie Technologies website.
Transcript
We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.
Hide transcriptJ.J. Meddaugh: How's it going, sports fans? This is Blind Bargains 226 with more coverage from CSUN 2024. I'm JJ and Joe is still, I think, working on building his studio. Let's check in on that.
[[sfx and game music]
Game voice: Asteroid avoided. Right curving coming.
JM: Well, that seems to be still a work in progress. That's okay. I'm here with my brand new AI co-host, Gigi. She's back with us this week.
Gigi: Warrior free air, air, Mar.
JM: Anyway, well, we do have interview coverage from CSUN 2024 in Anaheim. I spoke with Bryan Blazie about the BTSpeak, one of the most talked about new and old and new technology portable products of the year 2024 so far.
Gigi: Oh boy. Finally, something I know a lot about. The Braille 'n Speak is one of the most influential note takers of the 1990s.
Robotic voice: No, no, that is incorrect.
Gigi: Wait, what?
Robotic voice: We're talking about the BTSpeak, not the Braille 'n Speak.
Gigi: This is not that? Well, as of my last language cut off, I know nothing about the BTSpeak. I guess I'm not going to be very useful this week either.
Robotic voice: Try again next week.
JM: By the way, I should mention that since we recorded this interview in Anaheim, there already has been some changes. They're going to have one model of the BTSpeak, the Pro, and discontinue the cheaper model. So when you hear that in the interview, just know that things are a changing. Bryan and myself from Anaheim in CSUN 2024 coming up in just a minute.
JM: Many of our podcast interviews are being recorded using new accessible voice recorders from Zoom. Zoom has released three new Essential voice recorders, the H1, H4, and H6Essential, all providing unparalleled audio quality and accessible features like a voice guide that helps you know what menu option you are on when you're moving through the menus. They're available now at ATGuys.com, ranging from the simple but powerful H1Essential for $99 up to the H6Essential for $299, which has the capability of recording up to six tracks at once. We love them. I used them for our podcast out in CSUN in Anaheim in 2024, and we think you will as well. Again, you can go to ATGuys.com to learn more about the Zoom accessible voice recorders or call 269-216-4798.
[interview sounder]
JM: CSUN 2024, sitting in the lobby of the Marriott, and here to talk about one of the most talked about new, old, new products of the year, the BTSpeak. I have Bryan Blazie, the CEO of Blazie Technologies. Welcome to the podcast.
Bryan Blazie: Thank you.
JM: So I say new and old because there's a little bit of old, a little bit of new here. The BTSpeak, this is kind of a bit of a throwback, but it's a brand new thing as well. So go ahead and tell me a bit of an overview of what we're looking at here. This thing is tiny.
BB: Well, the BTSpeak is our answer to the old Braille 'n Speak. My father and I decided that we would bring back the Braille 'n Speak style technology because nobody was doing it, and we saw that there was still a need. So playing with some Raspberry Pi boards, we decided that we could use one of those to build a product that we thought blind people would like, and the BTSpeak is the culmination of that work.
JM: The first thing I noticed when I touched it, and we'll describe the physical appearance in a second, this thing is tiny. It's smaller than a Braille 'n Speak. Actually, why don't we just go ahead and describe, if you could, the physical description of it and where the keys are and the ports. Well,
BB: the BTSpeak started out conceptually with the outline of the current large iPhone, and I was determined to get everything to fit inside of that footprint. And that's what we did. So this is the size of the iPhone was two years ago. It has a nine-key Braille keyboard, the standard six Braille keys plus dot seven and eight in the space bar.
JM: Yup.
BB: The keys are tilted at an angle to make it easy for your hand to lay on them.
JM: I found it quite comfortable.
BB: And on the back edge of the unit, it has three ports, starting at the outside is an HDMI connector for connecting a monitor so that sighted teachers can see what's going on, a USB-C that's used for both charging and connecting to other devices, and a SD, micro SD card slot.
JM: And that micro SD card slot takes the higher capacity cards, right?
BB: Yes, it does. Yes. Okay. On the right-hand side of the unit, there are two little bumps close to the front edge, and between those bumps is the power switch, which is just the flexing spot on the case. And then on the top on either side are two speakers.
JM: So it is a speech-only unit. Like you said, the keys are angled. I found them quite comfortable to type on. And the first thing that I noticed when I was playing with this a bit before we recorded is a lot of the commands in the main editor are the old Braille 'n Speak commands. I didn't ask you at all what the commands were. I just instinctively, you know, chord four, five, six, end of file, or chord four, six to go to the next line. That seems intentional. BB: Yes. We tried to keep as many of the commands, the old Braille 'n Speak commands throughout the device as we possibly could. In the console mode, for instance, O chord gives you the options menu, F for file, C for create, just like the old Braille 'n Speak was. It does have some differences. It's a Linux-based unit, so files, if you want a Braille file, grade two Braille file, you have to end it with a period B-R-L to denote that it's a Braille file.
JM: Makes sense.
BB: And some of the modern conventions there apply. But other than that, we really did try as best we could to keep as much of the old Braille 'n Speak commands in play as we could. And the basic operating philosophy, if you knew how to use a Braille 'n Speak and you apply that here, most of the time you'll get what you want. And if you don't, it's pretty easy to figure out.
JM: How long does it take to get you into the note-taking mode from when you turn it on?
BB: The startup time is between 30 and 40 seconds at the moment. We're working to get that down a little bit, but it's always going to be at about 30 seconds.
JM: But that's the startup time too, right? So you can also go into a sleep mode?
BB: Yes. If you put it in sleep mode, it's pretty instantaneous. I have one here in my hand, it says
TTS: sleeping
BB: sleeping
TTS: awake
BB: awake, it's a fraction of a second.
JM: So that was eSpeak for the voice, and I believe you also have a version of DECTALK as well?
BB: Yes. There's also a version of DECTALK that runs in the device with all of the old DECTALK voices.
JM: Perfect Paul
BB: Perfect Paul, huge Harry, beautiful Betty.
JM: So a lot of old Braille 'n Speak commands, which is awesome, but there are some features that are a little more modern, since there weren't things like the internet was just starting to burgeon in the 90s. So what are some of the other features that are available on the console version?
BB: On the console version, there is a BT radio, which is a Pandora radio player. If you're connected to Wi-Fi, you can turn on BT radio and select, sign in with your Pandora account, and then it will play your favorite music and podcasts and whatever else is available via Pandora. There is an internet search feature, which uses on the console mode, it uses Lynx. So text-based websites are accessible. That's handy for getting news headlines and basic news stories and things like that work pretty well. Searching for recipes, anything that doesn't require forms and any kind of JavaScript running on the device.
JM: Makes sense. Yeah, links was the old, but I guess still being updated, the Linux browser that I remember using on the old shell accounts. It still works. It's still being updated.
BB: You should also know that the device is, it's an open architecture device. So for advanced Linux users, you can drop to a shell, install programs if you want. It's wide open. You can make modifications. You can do whatever you want to do. You can break it if you type the wrong commands. It's not something that you're going to do accidentally. You would have to know enough to get into the shell and then from there, know what to do to override Linux's built-in safety stuff. But if you're a Linux user, you can definitely do things that will cause issues.
JM: So let's kind of help out our listeners a little bit. You mentioned the console a few times. There are actually two different models, if you will, available for the BTSpeak. So what are the differences?
BB: Yes, the BTSpeak Basic, which has an introductory price of $795. And we did that specifically to honor the introductory price of the original Braille 'n Speak in 1987. When we first came out with that device, that was the price. So we are holding that price on the Basic unit until December of this year, at which time that price will go up. And then the BTSpeak Pro model, it includes the console model plus the MATE desktop, the Linux MATE desktop running. And from there, you can access programs like Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, for email and calendar management. And really any program that you would want to run on the MATE desktop that you can download that is accessible via Orca running is the Screen Access program.
JM: So I assume that there's hardware or other differences because of the Pro versus the console version. You would have to have better hardware to support those desktop programs, right?
BB: Yes. The Pro model will be shipping very shortly with more RAM available that supports the desktop. It'll run on the four gigabyte version, but it's kind of slow and we've decided that we're going to run that on an eight gig version instead.
JM: Makes sense. So if someone had an app that they found or they wanted to run or they, you know, maybe could get it to work, especially if it's command line, is that only going to work on the Pro? Is that what you're saying?
BB: No, you could, if it's a command line application, it's a text based application that will run on the Basic. That is possible. Now, if it's made to run inside of the Linux desktop, then you have to have the Pro model for that. The Pro model really gives you access to a full blown word processor, a full blown, very modern set of, well, the whole office suite is there. So you've got a presentation manager, there are spreadsheet managers, word compatible word processor.
JM: I guess one of the reasons I went down that rabbit hole a little bit is there's a lot of people that are ready, that are buying this, that are tinkerers, right? That love technology, love trying to see how far they can push it. And this harkens back to when I was a kid on the Braille 'n Speak, and one of the big things I wanted to play with was the BNS Basic, you know, where you can just load in goofy little programs and have them play music or do whatnot, and it seems like using Python or whatever, a similar thing could be possible here as well.
BB: Absolutely. In fact, you brought up the Basic from the old Braille 'n Speak. We currently have a project we're working on. It's not done yet, but will be soon, we hope, to bring back that Basic, that exact Basic, to make it run on this unit. So that all the old programs, all the old games and things that were originally written for the Braille 'n Speak will run on this new unit as well.
JM: Oh, wow. That's amazing. I can't find my floppies. They're floating around somewhere. There's another one on the console that I know has been talked about a little bit, a flashcard type program, a Learn program?
BB: Yes, BTLearn. It's a flashcard-like program. We set it up originally to be very much like the old Teach Braille that existed for the Braille 'n Speak. You can enter a series of questions and answers, and the BTLearn will present the questions and give you three chances to enter the answer. If you get it right on the first one, it moves to the next question. If you miss it, you get three chances, and then it says wrong, and it grades the responses. So that should be very useful for teachers and students, or even students trying to study for tests and the like.
JM: Sure. I guess that leads me to a question about Braille displays. I believe you can connect Braille displays to this, I guess, using Braille TTY?
BB: In theory, that is true. Until I've done it myself, I'm not going to sit here and promise anybody that it's going to work.
JM: Right. Fair enough. And that's the thing. This is very much in development, but it's a real product now. It's not like it's in development, not even available. But I was jumping on the email discussion list, and one of the big things I noticed right away is how active you are, and Dean is, and David, and Steve, and a whole bunch of other names in the AT world that were just actively at all hours of the day answering questions, taking suggestions. That seems to be a big part of what you're banking on here, is that extra level of customer service, kind of like you had with Blazey back in the day. Yes.
BB: One of the most important things to me is that we do provide that level of service. We came back into this field primarily because I didn't feel like the other companies were offering a level of service that I think people need. Everybody has different opinions about this, but we always prided ourselves at Blazey Engineering for doing ... They're going over and above when it came to customer service, and we're going to bring that back with this company as well.
JM: Is there going to be a BTBraille, for lack of a better ...
BB: That is the next product on our list, yes. We are actively working on that now. I don't want to make any promises at all as to how long it'll take.
JM: Right. And I assume with Braille display technology, that's not a thousand dollar product. That's obviously going to be a bit more.
BB: No. I think it will be in line with the same numbers we were charging for Braille Lites.
JM: Yeah, that was low threes, if I remember correctly. That sounds good. What about connecting this to smartphones? I know this is kind of doing its own thing, but can you connect this to an iPhone or an Android as a Braille keyboard?
BB: We are working on making that happen. The short answer is yes. The connection part is possible now, but you have to have an application running on either the Android phone or the Apple phone in order to do something with that connection, and that's the piece that we don't currently have. So right now, if you connect it, not much happens. But if you go to Bluetooth menu, you'll see those devices pop up.
JM: Right. But it's actually getting the Braille display support, and that's going to take some work from Apple, probably, and Google, unless you emulate somebody else's Braille.
BB: Yeah, we'll have to write an application that will do that.
JM: And the same would be true for the other screen readers as well.
BB: Well, it would just be for the phone side. We'll need an application for each of the operating systems on the phone to grab the data coming in via the Bluetooth interface and send that to the keyboard buffer.
JM: So you mentioned that you are, one of your big aims, of course, is to provide a better level of support than some of those other companies. But of course, the other big thing that is different these days is everyone using, or not everyone, but lots of people using iPhones, Androids, computers. There's lots more competition these days. Who's buying this product and what type of customer do you think this is the best for?
BB: Currently the people buying the device are overwhelmingly people who used to own Braille 'n Speaks. There are a few new people who wanted to own Braille 'n Speaks but never got to, and they're buying these. Primarily right now, it's previous Braille 'n Speak users or Braille Lite users. I think, much like the Braille 'n Speak before it, that the market is going to be a lot of people who want something very small and portable with a real Braille keyboard that they can use to do their day-to-day work, be they school students or professionals or whatever.
JM: I would guess one of the things that's going to have to happen to make this a truly successful product is to do some innovations that aren't available with the other note takers or other products that are out there. One of the ones that's actually in your booth this week, you're partnering a little bit with Cadence on a Braille tablet they're working on. Tell me a little bit about that.
BB: Yeah, because we're running the Linux desktop, the Cadence display driving software has a version that runs on that Linux desktop, so we're going to show the BTSpeak driving the Cadence display. The Cadence display is a multi-line graphical display, and it has some really advanced and interesting features that make it show a lot of promise. It's a very new device as well, so I'll let their people talk about that when you're ready.
JM: Sounds great. Before we wrap up, I just want to talk a little bit about, obviously you've come a long way with this product and already had lots of pre-orders and tons of interest. What in your mind would define success? What makes this a successful product? What's going to be, what's the level of customer engagement? The level, not necessarily a number, but how are you going to define success? You might not sell as many as you did Braille 'n Speaks back in the day, but obviously you have a hope that this is going to catch on at a certain level, so how will you, in your mind, determine that this is actually something that people want and need?
BB: I think success could be defined in many ways. In my mind, the product is successful if it pushes the entire industry forward. If Blazie Technologies can challenge the other people in the industry to innovate, to move things forward, then this venture is successful. Our goal is to provide quality product with exceptional service at reasonable prices and we were successful in it before, I think we will be successful at this again. I am very impressed with the level of faith people still have in my family for the work that we've done in the past and I do believe that in those terms, we've already achieved some success.
JM: Well, it's going to be really exciting to follow the developments. I'm sure there are many listeners that might have interest, perhaps want to put in an order or a pre-order, so what's the best way to get in contact?
BB: The best way to reach us is through the website, which is www.blazietech.com.
JM: Awesome. Thank you so much, Bryan, for coming on.
BB: Thank you very much.
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Patrick Perdue: Copyright 2024.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
