Bose Frames were a widely talked about item at CSUN, and one with significant accessibility potential. AIRA is one company jumping on the augmented audio reality bandwagon in a big way and Greg Stilson, Aira's Director of Product Management, joins Joe to talk all about it. They also explore free trials and a huge award win at SXSW. Learn more about Aira at their website.
CSUN 2019 coverage is Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit www.afb.org/aw.
Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed By Grecia Ramirez
Direct from Anaheim, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2019, brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology book reviews and mobile apps and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind’s free monthly online technology magazine, www.afb.org/aw.
Now, here’s Joe Steincamp.
JOE STEINCAMP: Hey, everyone. I’m over at the Aira booth up -- wait a minute. Aren’t we supposed to be doing this in an undisclosed location? I’m not used to doing this on the floor.
GREG STILSON: Ah. This is weird on the floor.
JS: I know. Greg Stilson with me. Award-winning company --
GS: Yeah.
JS: -- Aira. Tell me about this thing. So you guys were in Austin for South by Southwest, up for a real prestigious award?
GS: Yeah. It was honestly one of the coolest things that I’ve been a part of in a long, long time.
JS: And you say that having done a live Super Bowl, so this is –
GS: Yeah. This was –
JS: That’s a high bar.
GS: This was really, really cool. It was – so we were up for the Interactive Innovations awards. It was us and 65 other companies for, I think, 10 or 13 different categories of selection.
JS: Yeah.
GS: And so we were going up against some pretty -- pretty awesome –
JS: Heavy hitters?
GS: Yeah. They were –
JS: Yeah.
GS: -- there was some really good stuff – some companies that were doing some awesome fundraising, some things for the betterment – lot of betterment to society and that kind of stuff, but –
JS: Sure.
GS: -- it was just really cool to be part of, like, this – there was a whole lane of these companies who were kind of just innovating for the betterment of the world; right?
JS: Yeah.
GS: And so we were kind of talking to them. And for seven straight hours on Saturday, we basically – we sort of promoted Aira and showed what we were doing and stuff like that to, well, judges and then the population at large.
And so the Interactive Innovation awards is really for these companies that are – the goal is just to be, you know, innovative for the future. And in our case, the – you know, the betterment of the population for the blind and low-vision. And it was just really awesome to be, you know, talking about Aira and talking about, sort of, assistive technology in general.
JS: Yeah.
GS: And accessibility in general. That’s really where I think – this –
JS: An awareness factor.
GS: It was just – it was a different feeling. I’ve been in a mainstream – you know, situation before where I’ve been talking about this kind of stuff.
JS: Yeah.
GS: And the idea of accessibility was so foreign back then. And it was really awesome to see that when I was talking about accessibility, people didn’t have this look of, like, confusion on their face. It was -- accessibility in the mainstream now is actually something that’s being talked about.
JS: Well, you know, when you’ve got an adaptive controller during the Super Bowl.
GS: Xbox and – yeah.
JS: Yeah.
GS: I mean, that’s just it -- is you’ve got these huge companies now that are making accessibility – and it’s not just an accessibility department now. You’ve got accessibility in – representation in many departments.
JS: Yeah.
GS: You look at the Googles, the Microsofts, the Amazons now that are bringing accessibility into their framework. And so for us to be able to talk about it on a, sort of, mainstream kind of environment, it was just really awesome to see people relating to it. And, you know, there’s a lot of people out there who know somebody – somebody in their family’s losing their vision. And just to see that such things now exist, it was awesome to see that come to fruition.
JS: Well, you know, we’ve got FaceTime and stuff like that, and so many people rely on visual voice calling. You and I’ve been in this game a couple of years. And so –
GS: 13 straight conventions – I mean CSUNs for me now.
JS: I got you. So, you know, the thing is is that people have that kind of, touchstone.
GS: Yeah.
JS: And they know what the – and – oh. Just to take it a step further – and this is for individuals -- well, that makes sense.
GS: Yeah.
JS: I get that.
GS: Exactly. So –
JS: Cool.
GS: -- we had the honor of just being nominated. And I actually – I had a doctor’s appointment for my daughter the other day, and so I left early.
JS: Yeah.
GS: But we – I found out late Monday night that we had actually won the Interactive Innovation award, and so it was just such an honor to –
JS: And I understand everybody’s taking selfies and posing with the award?
GS: They were. They were.
JS: Yeah. Okay.
GS: And I was sitting in my chair at home. But you know what? It’s fine. I have no problem with that.
JS: Yeah.
GS: So we were super honored for that, and it was just really cool to be there. So –
JS: Cool.
GS: Yeah.
JS: You didn’t do an Aira live of Sixth Street. I think that would have been good.
GS: We did not. We did, however -- we were asked to participate in the Bose AR lounge. And so what Bose did is they had, sort of, a showcase of companies that have been working with them. So with their new Bose Frames and new – they’ve got some new headphones as well.
JS: Yeah.
GS: They’re creating this new augmented reality infrastructure now where developers can actually participate using their software development kit to –
JS: Wow.
GS: -- really bring some of these awesome audio AR concepts to their products. And so we’ve actually been working with Bose for a few months now to bring the audio AR concept to our agents.
JS: Okay.
GS: And so basically, what this does is it allows you, as an explorer or guest, if you have the Bose Frames glasses, you can pair them up with your smartphone -- and we’ll be launching an update to our app here in the coming months where you will actually be able to take advantage of some of those sensors that are inside the Bose Frames. Right now, you can pair them up today and just hear your agent right out of the glasses, which in itself is an amazing innovation on the glasses’ side because –
JS: Yeah.
GS: -- they have these – I call it direct audio. I don’t know what their concept is really called.
JS: Yeah.
GS: But they have these speaker grills that sit right above your ears, and they, essentially, just like lasers, shoot audio directly into your ear with –
JS: Yeah.
GS: -- very minimal –
JS: Beam audio is kind of what they’re doing. Kind of what HomePod and Google Home does.
GS: Exactly. But it’s – what the – they call it “spillage”. The amount of spillage into the outside world where – so right now, for example, if you’re using things like bone-conduction headphones --
JS: Right.
GS: -- and you have it up to a loud volume --
JS: Right.
GS: -- the outside world can hear a lot of what’s going on; right?
JS: Yeah.
GS: And with these glasses, I’m amazed. Even if you have music playing, like, they may hear some of the tinniness of maybe, the drums or something like that –
JS: Right.
GS: -- but besides that, there is really not much audio external noise. And I think the biggest power here is that it’s an open-ear concept.
JS: Yeah.
GS: So from a safety perspective –
JS: Yeah. Yeah.
GS: -- a blind person doesn’t have their ears covered.
JS: Right.
GS: And that’s really what attracted us to it.
JS: And a mainstream device, so it doesn’t look odd.
GS: Exactly.
JS: You don’t have to explain what AfterShok thingies are on the side of your face.
GS: Exactly. Exactly.
JS: Yeah.
GS: So it’s one of these things where it’s a mainstream concept, it’s awesome for safety – and that’s really what attracted us to Bose.
JS: Right.
GS: And then, in addition, we’re doing some really cool stuff with their – it’s an IMU, the Inertial Measurement Unit -- inside of their glasses, which will allow us to detect – even though we don’t have a camera on the glasses – so the idea is you wear the glasses.
JS: Yup.
GS: And then you’ll put the phone either on a lanyard or in a – you know, in a shirt pocket or just hold it and use the phone camera to be the source of video for the agent. But what we will be able to do is take advantage of the IMU sensor in the glasses, which will detect which way you’re actually facing. And what’s really powerful –
JS: That is crazy.
GS: -- what’s powerful about that, Joe, is if I turn my head?
JS: Move.
GS: -- at an intersection and the agent says, okay. The push button is to your 11 o’clock or to your 1 o’clock or whatever and I turn my head, they can actually – what we’ve implemented is that Google Street View, which is on their dashboard –
JS: Right.
GS: -- will actually rotate as I turn my head --
Q Oh. Right. Because they have those AR elements that they’ve added.
GS: -- to give the agent the exact idea of which way I’m facing. Where that’s so different from today with Google Maps and GPS --
JS: Yeah.
GS: -- is you don’t get a heading for the agent or for your – even if you’re using a tool like Google Maps or a Trekker Breeze or Sendero GPS or any of that, there’s no heading given until you start walking a bit of a distance.
JS: Yeah.
GS: And so here, you can actually be standing on a corner turning your head, and the agent knows, even though you’re not moving, which way you’re going so they can give you accurate instructions.
JS: Wow.
GS: Yeah. So it’s really awesome.
JS: In its infancy, this is where we are now.
GS: I know. I know.
JS: It’s not even where we’re going to be in a couple of months.
GS: I know. So the –
JS: That’s crazy.
GS: This whole concept of audio AR is just beginning. In the blind and low-vision market, this community, I cannot wait to see the awesome stuff because, you know, as a community, we love audio; right? So there’s going to be some incredible – even some of the stuff that I was telling Bose, they hadn’t even thought of because this is, obviously, not their target market; right?
JS: Sure.
GS: So for the – just to have us partnering with them, to be able to share ideas, I think is going to open up this whole concept of audio AR that’s going to go way beyond what we expect.
JS: That is fantastic. Okay. Well, we got yelled at about the free demo, so let’s mention that added perk.
GS: Oh. I guess I got to promote the free –
JS: Yeah.
GS: -- so we – one thing that we’re super proud of is we’re offering Aira access for anybody here at CSUN. So if you are at CSUN, use Aira completely for free here in this hotel. If you need to do what I need to do every morning and detect whether the coffee is decaf or regular --
JS: Yes. Yes. That was this morning. Yes. Absolutely.
GS: -- you know, and if seeing AI doesn’t work, which it didn’t the other day –
JS: Yup. Yup.
GS: -- you know, it’s a nice tool to use. Or –
JS: And LAX coming on board.
GS: Yup. LAX is free now.
JS: Yup.
GS: LAX is one of our Aira Access airports. But in addition, we offer a 30-minute trial. You can try it once you leave CSUN or anybody who’s listening, download Aira, try it out for 30 free minutes, and just see what it’s all about. It doesn’t hurt anything to download, you give us your Email, your phone number, and you can try it out completely for free.
JS: Okay. Do you still go through the onboarding –
GS: You go through a shorter version – we call it the Guest onboarding –
JS: Yup.
GS: -- which is what you would do if you were a guest calling in at one of our airports. Just a quick, So here’s what we can see, Aira’s not a safety device, you still use it with your navigation tool, and you’re on your way.
JS: Cool. And that finally gives people that free trial that they’ve been on and on and on and on about.
GS: Yeah.
JS: So good.
GS: It’s an opportunity to try it out; right? So –
JS: Absolutely.
GS: Yup. Absolutely.
JS: Cool. And then Horizon updates are still happening?
GS: Absolutely. Yup. We are still pushing them out. In fact, we’ve got one waiting in the wings. We’re just doing some bug fixing and Q/A on that, and we should be good to go.
JS: Full disclosure: Ricky uses Aira and Horizon in the house. So we can talk about that a little bit more, and probably will, on an upcoming podcast, and we’ll get Greg back onto talk more about this. I just caught him in the Exhibit Hall, and he was kind enough to give us a couple of minutes, so thank you, Greg, for being on.
GS: Hey. Thank you guys. Always happy to be on Blind Bargains. Thanks so much.
JS: And of course, in the App Store, Android app is coming, update – I saw you talked to J.J.
GS: We are. We actually just pushed one to the Play Store – gosh. It was last week. And we’re pushing -- we’re seeing updates to the Play Store now, I think. We’re on an every two to three weeks now period where we’re – I mean, I already said, full disclosure, we’re playing catch-up there, but we’re doing it right this time.
So Aira Messages is very quick to come. I would say, in the next few weeks as well. So messages will be coming to Android very shortly.
JS: I’d get in trouble if I didn’t mention Android. You know that.
GS: Of course.
JS: That’s how it works.
GS: Of course.
JS: Aira.io. Go check it out right now and stay up to date with them on twitter as well so –
Great. Thank you for your time, brother.
GS: Hey. Thank you so much. See you guys.
JS: All right. For Blind Bargains and Anaheim, this is Joe Steincamp.
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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.
