The CSUN Exhibit Hall contains many Video Magnification products that might look the same at first glance. Tom Perski, Vice President of Professional and Consumer Outreach for IrisVision Global, explains to Shelly what sets IrisVision apart from others in the field. Samsung driven hardware, voice control and the Google Assistant are all features of the IrisVision Live platform. And these same features are available as upgrades for existing users of the product. To learn more, visit the IrisVision website
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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 Shelly Brisbin.
SHELLY BRISBIN: I’m back on the floor of CSUN 2019 in the IrisVision booth, and I’m talking to Tom Perski.
Hi, Tom.
Tom Perski: Hi. How’s it going?
SB: Great. Welcome to Blind Bargains.
TP: Good to see you again this year. We –
SB: Yeah. We talked last year.
TP: Right. We got some new features that we can talk about with the IrisVision, which is, of course, a wearable low-vision device that uses – we currently use the Samsung hardware system.
And our company has developed quite a bit of software -- we call it a platform – for persons with different eye conditions. So we have features that work with people with central vision loss like macular disease. And then also, we have a special mode for field restrictions, like for persons with glaucoma, persons with RP, especially. So we’re kind of innovators and pioneers in some of these areas that low-vision devices have never been able to service before.
SB: Are there particular vision conditions – I mean, you mentioned a couple that you support. But are certain kinds of vision conditions better suited to the, sort of, all-inclusive VR headset experience as opposed to some of the units that are mounted on glasses and have other ways of working?
TP: Yes. Because with the digital content in using a camera instead of optical lenses, like in low-vision, you can really change the structure of how you make a viewing area look that optical laws of science won’t allow you to do. So with a camera, we can get really fancy. We can – we have a Bubble View, we call, that you can use two things at once. Like, in playing cards, you can see your cards in your hand and the cards on the table on the screen at the same time. Things like that that haven’t -- you know, haven’t been done in low-vision before.
I’ve been in the industry of low-vision and low-vision rehabilitation for over 30 years, so I know the devices that are out there. And I also have low-vision myself. I have Stargardt disease. I was diagnosed in my 20s, and so just as a professional and as somebody who uses this technology, it’s pretty exciting to see all these new possibilities we’ve never had before.
SB: So tell us what’s new with IrisVision. Remind us the name of the – is it – the product called IrisVision, or does it have another name?
TP: That’s – IrisVision LIVE is our new name for this new generation product –
SB: All right.
TP: -- we just launched in the middle of February. So we’re brand new. And some of the new features that we added were OCR capability, so you take a picture of the page and it does read it out loud. And it also projects in very large print at the same time, so if you like to follow along with the words. Not -- many of the other systems don’t have that feature.
We have a lot of new – we call them modes, different modes for different purposes. And we’re running out of buttons, so we decided to do a whole verbal command system. So now, the entire system’s operational by double-tapping on the little touchpad and then saying, you know, set brightness, set volume, set zoom level. So I know, like, in low-vision, you go into zoom 1 – level 1 and then you want to zoom level 7, then you want to go back to 1 again, and that makes it hard. So now, you can do it all with your voice, so it’s very quick and -- be able to do that.
SB: Is that based on software that’s in the Android device, or is it of your own device – design?
TP: It’s our own device, but we also have – what’s new is integrated – the beginnings of Google Assistant. So now that we’ve got Google Assistant, we’re partnering with Google on some of these prompts as well as with the Sam sung engineers. We’re the only company that has these connections, where we work together with these companies. Google Assistant will help us in the future, say, you know, what time is it or what’s the temperature today? Some of the other features that Google Assistant offers.
The other thing that’s new is we have a digital platform now. We started with YouTube. And so you’ll be able to watch YouTube videos and just say – simply say search Chicago Cubs, who’s my favorite team, and then all the videos will pop up.
SB: It’s the only team you can search for; right?
TP: The Chicago Bears, but –
SB: Well, it’s nice that you’re flexible that way.
TP: And then, of course, you can enlarge the YouTube videos and change them. So that’s going to be kind of fun. That infrastructure, again, is the beginning of what we can do for the future and maybe, Netflix and other types of things that will come out later this year.
We also have a photo—we call a Photo Gallery. So when you take a screen shot with a virtual reality headset, you can take that picture and you can make it gigantic. It looks like a virtual movie screen. And that’s what people like to do. So if your grandchild’s playing on the floor and makes a funny face, you know, we could always take a picture, but we couldn’t save it before. So now, we can save thousands of pictures inside the device. So there’s a mode we call Photo Gallery, and you’ll be able to save those and enjoy them for the future.
SB: So you’re saving that – you’re based on an Android phone and a VR headset; right?
TP: Correct. Uh-huh.
SB: So why weren’t you able to save before? Because you always had the phone as part of the device.
TP: Yeah. So the difficulty with – just think about using the phone – is persons who, maybe, are elderly who don’t know how to operate a smartphone, IrisVision is its own platform, its own structure, so you don’t get popups, you don’t get the difficulty of operational. So we had – everything we got, we’ve built specifically for working easily for low-vision people, simple, straightforward, without a lot of complications, without a lot of problems.
So the other unique thing about IrisVision is remotely accessible. So for troubleshooting, anyone has trouble, they call the office, and through Wi-Fi, we can fix any problem. But the neat thing about it is we can upgrade. So anyone who has the older IrisVision, all the features I just described are free, and they’re upgradable. And so you just contact support@irisvision.com, and our support team makes an appointment with you and -- over the phone and over Wi-Fi. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to upgrade your older unit to all the new features of IrisVision LIVE.
SB: So can a person use the phone that is part of the system as an Android phone?
TP: -- phone.
SB: I mean, is that possible?
TP: We’re actually looking into that. We’re actually looking into that.
SB: And I don’t even mean, you know, literally making phone calls, but say you have, you know, an Android app that you download from the Play Store – just any way that you might want to use a phone that you didn’t get through the VR headset. I don’t know if that’s a thing that people want or whether you are going to be able to make that available.
TP: And we have a whole list of ideas like that, and we get lots of comments from professionals and doctors and different things that -- think would be available in the future, and we have to, sort of, prioritize and look at that --
SB: Sure.
TP: -- you know. So it’s not as simple as just adding an app, although there are so many great apps that we could add in the future, but making sure that they work properly and easily for – let’s say for a senior citizen. We have lots of people in their 80s and early 90s that use IrisVision, so we’re –
SB: But you need to actually support it. You’re not just going to say, hey. Have at it. Go download from the Play Store.
TP: No. Right. Exactly.
SB: Right.
TP: Exactly.
SB: Okay.
TP: So it fits in our platform. For the future, we have some exciting things we’re planning later this year of actually monitoring someone’s vision. So – and there will actually be some vision tests for one eye and then the other eye to see both measurement of vision, contrast, sensitivity, whether somebody has a central blind spot that’s getting larger. This is data that can be transferred, with the patient’s permission, to the -- directly to an ophthalmologist or doctor’s office. The doctors think this is a wonderful idea that – perhaps saving somebody’s eyesight by being able to monitor each – let’s say once or twice a month. And if there’s any changes, be able to quickly intervene and help save somebody’s vision. So it becomes not only a vision aid, it’ll become more of a medical device in the future.
SB: Yeah. I know macular degeneration can change over time.
TP: Right.
SB: And my guess is that it’s probably a challenge to – especially for folks who are older – to even explain the way their vision has changed to their doctor and to get the help they need.
TP: Yeah. Or if they have one eye that’s fairly good and –
SB: Right.
TP: -- their other eye isn’t so good, but they have some damage to the poorer-seeing eye and they’re not even conscious that the eye is changing vision. So by monitoring somebody’s vision in each eye, it’s a really good way to be able to intervene. You know, the earlier you intervene, the better it is, you know, in helping somebody save the sight that they currently have. So we’re excited about that.
SB: Sure.
TP: Yeah. Yeah.
SB: Tell folks where they can learn more about IrisVision and also what this device costs.
TP: So the new IrisVision LIVE is two thousand nine hundred fifty. And that’s – includes everything. We give a 30 – a full 30-day trial so that you get the opportunity to work with it every day and make sure it works really well for you. I tell people, don’t skip a day. Because it’s going to – when you learn to aim and you learn to zoom in on things, the first couple days is frustrating. You lose your place.
SB: Yeah.
TP: And so we think – we want to give people several – you know, three or four weeks. During that time, we also provide telephone or Skype support three times during their first 30 days. And all of our trainers are – like me, they have Stargardt disease, and they’ve been power users of IrisVision. And that’s at no cost. So there’s a two-year warranty, and there’s two years of technical support at no charge.
So you want to read about it, our website is IrisVision, I-r-i-s, vision, dot com. And you’ll be able to see all the information. Our toll-free number is (855) 207-6665. And we’re in California. So don’t call at 8 in the morning if you live in Ohio, because we won’t be up yet.
SB: Good to know. Silicon Valley wakes up a little later.
Tom, thanks so much for being on Blind Bargains. It was great fun talking to you.
TP: Great to talk to you and see you again this year.
SB: Yeah.
TP: All of the best to you guys.
SB: Thank you.
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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.
