Orcam has been very busy since we spoke to them last year. The MyEye2 was featured in Time Magazine and the company won a CES 2020 INNOVATION AWARD last month. Joe caught up with Bryan Wolynski Optometrist and Consultant for Professional Relations at Orcam, to talk about all the recent accolades and portfolio expansions. The Orcam Hear listening aid will allow a user to center in on voices in a crowded room forming what Joe called a "Get Smart" "Cone of Silence" between the user and the speaker. The Orcam read is a device for reading disabilities and operates as a handheld pointing device for near distance tasks. Like the MyEye, the unit does not keep anything in memory and is well suited for a classroom setting. Also, a form of interactive reading and assisted guidance are possible new features that could be coming to the MyEye2 later this year. To learn more about any of the products mentioned, visit the Orcam website
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Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
From Orlando – almost live -- it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ATIA 2020, 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: Here on the floor of ATIA 2020, and I’m with Bryan, and we’re going to talk about all the amazing things that have been going on over at OrCam. You guys are coming off a really successful CES where there were some product announcements and also some updates to products that people might be already familiar with. What a great time for you guys.
BRYAN WOLYNSKI: Thank you so much. Yeah. A lot of exciting things coming up in 2020 and just happy to talk about it and be here at ATIA and showcase it.
JS: So what do we want to get into first?
BW: So first – I mean, we’re here, showing our device, the OrCam MyEye 2.
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: As people might know -- or are aware of the OrCam MyEye 2, it’s a wearable assistive technology that fits on the side of a pair of eyeglasses. It's about the size of your finger, weighs less than an ounce, and takes a photograph and speaks back the information it sees. Specifically, currently, right now, the features are reading, so it reads off of any surface; it is able to recognize faces, so it has facial recognition; and it recognizes products, barcodes, color, money, and has a tell-time feature. And now, we’re introducing some new features that are coming that has not been released yet.
JS: Ah.
BW: It’s still being worked on.
JS: Okay.
BW: One of those is a – I’m always forgetting the term we want to use for it, but interactive reading.
JS: Okay.
BW: So what interactive reading is doing -- currently, right now, with the device, you can communicate. It will recognize your voice. Not really voice recognition, but it was voice activated, meaning that you can go into the system and change some settings, and you could tell it to change the settings. But now, what you’re going to be able to do is tell OrCam and speak to OrCam to tell it what you want to read or what things you want it to read, such as – interactive reading is going to work, and I’m going to say, “OrCam, read me the headlines on the newspaper.” And if I’m holding a newspaper in front of me, it’s only going to read the headlines. And then, “OrCam, read me the second article,” or “OrCam, read me the second paragraph.”
JS: Oh. Okay.
BW: So this is coming in the next few months.
JS: Columnization, so you could, say, start from the second column, maybe?
BW: Start from the second column, start –
JS: All right.
BW: -- from the second paragraph. I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to be introduced yet –
JS: Yeah.
BW: -- but I know all of this is coming out.
JS: Wow. Okay.
BW: Same thing as menu options.
JS: All right.
BW: “OrCam, read me the entrees,” instead of having to scroll through the whole entire menu.
JS: That’s going to be interesting when we get to the Cyrillic writing at Olive Garden. I’m looking forward to that.
BW: We’ll try.
JS: Okay.
BW: I don’t know. Exactly. I don’t know if it’s going to get everything. Again, I don’t know. I’m not the engineer here --
JS: Yeah.
BW: -- so –
JS: When the ravioli actually is on top of the ravioli, hard to read. Just saying. Yeah.
BW: Sure. Sure.
And then we have another feature that’s going to be coming out, where it’s not orientation and mobility as you would think, it’s more like – and I always forget the term for it. I’m actually looking up how we’re using it. We’re calling it, like, assisted guidance.
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: And what assisted guidance is – it’s sort of going to help you find a door in a room --
JS: Right.
BW: -- or help you find a cup on a table.
JS: Hmm.
BW: And it’s going to assist you in guiding you to that door or to that cup. And that’s coming as well.
JS: Yeah. Like you said, a beacon, and you kind of walk toward it, or it gives you intermittent information about your surroundings; correct?
BW: I would say correct.
JS: Okay.
BW: And then all of this stuff from that – all these – it’s just going to grow.
JS: Yeah.
BW: And that’s what’s exciting about being part of OrCam is that -- all the innovation that’s coming, all the new features that are coming and everything else to come in the future.
JS: And there’s expansion. So new products were announced at CES.
BW: Yes. New products and into new areas. So one of the things that was introduced was OrCam Hear. Now what OrCam Hear is -- is somebody who has a hearing aid has something – a problem – called a cocktail room effect.
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: And what it is -- is when they’re sitting talking with someone, we’re hearing noises all around us. And someone with a hearing difficulty is having a problem focusing on hearing the person that they’re talking to in front of them because they’re hearing everybody in the room. And now, what they’ve done is give – somebody – I think it was some magazine at CES said, well, it’s sight for hearing.
So basically, what it’s doing is seeing who you’re talking to.
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: And then the hearing aid is concentrating on that person.
JS: It’s like your own personal cone of silence.
BW: Correct. Drowning out everything else around you –
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: -- but only listening to the person in front of you, thereby helping that cocktail room effect.
JS: Give me an opportunity to use my get-smart knowledge. I’m sorry. Go ahead.
BW: There you are. Exactly. And what we’re excited about is another product that’s coming out called OrCam Read. Now, what OrCam Read is -- it’s breaking into the area of reading difficulties or reading disabilities. And the reading disabilities, I mean dyslexia.
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: But also, it’s a device that can be used by mild to moderate low vision as well.
JS: Okay.
BW: So what it is, it’s more like a reading pen, except it’s something hand-held, sort of like the MyEye, except you hold it in your hands.
JS: Yeah.
BW: And when you press a button, a laser sort of outlines the area that you want it to read. Or you can actually have it as a pointer to where you want it to read from.
So let’s say I want to read from the middle of a page. I just have to know where that pointer is, it’s pointing at the middle of the page, and it’ll read right from there.
JS: Okay.
BW: And it’s working pretty much similar to the OCR of the OrCam MyEye 2.
JS: Okay. So it’s near distance, it’s not like, reading signs from afar or –
BW: Correct.
JS: Okay.
BW: I mean, we have tested it out in here –
JS: Right.
BW: -- to read signs from afar.
JS: Sure.
BW: I mean, it can, but it’s not really meant for that.
JS: But that’s not where it’s designed for. Right. Yeah.
BW: Correct. It’s designed to really read for up close and personal space.
JS: And it’s a set and forget thing? It doesn’t stay in memory?
BW: Correct. It does not stay in memory, and that’s for – also privacy issues.
JS: Sure.
BW: You know, for students using this, a teacher feels better that that kid is not memorizing the test through their – you know, scanning it --
JS: Right.
BW: -- and then sending it off to their friend.
JS: Right.
BW: So that’s an issue for schools –
JS: Right.
BW: -- and universities.
JS: -- and there have been other – they’ve actually color coded it so the orange ones didn’t have it stay in memory and the non-orange ones were not for some people who’ve tried to do this in the past, which is really interesting.
BW: Right. And like all of our products with the OrCam MyEye and the OrCam Read, it’s not working online.
JS: Okay.
BW: It’s not working in the Cloud, it’s working offline, it’s all – it’s in closed system.
JS: So what about product integration? Do you see, kind of, a pathway forward or maybe a movement path for someone who’s low-vision who could then slide into MyEye, or is there an idea of -- maybe if someone who’s deaf-blind could use both OrCam Hear as well as the MyEye?
BW: I think – well, first of all, OrCam Hear, as I see it, is not really for someone who’s – who’s totally deaf right now, at this point.
JS: Right.
BW: I think it’s somebody who’s hearing impaired –
JS: Right.
BW: -- for use –
JS: But could still use it if they were blind --
BW: -- use with hearing aids.
JS: -- and still have some hearing loss?
BW: Correct. There is some things for the future for blind and deaf that are coming.
JS: Okay.
BW: I just – not discussing that right now today at ATIA.
JS: Yeah. I understand.
BW: That’s why the engineers don’t like to tell me everything because –
JS: Exactly.
BW: -- I tend to talk too much.
JS: Right. But to take a step back –
BW: Right.
JS: -- for somebody who has partial hearing loss or might want additional hearing or may be able to use it, can they use it as a blind individual, or is it mainly a –
BW: Sure. I think they can, but right now, I think OrCam Hear is not released yet.
JS: Yeah.
BW: And I think what – they’re not sure if they’re going to sell direct or if they’re going to go with a company, you know –
JS: Right. Right.
BW: -- basically integrate it with –
JS: Right. So it’s an announcement still –
BW: Right. It’s an announcement still that the technology is available –
JS: Right.
BW: -- but how it’s going to be introduced is unknown yet.
JS: Okay. And the pen, does it feel tactile? So somebody –
BW: Sure.
JS: -- with vision could use that with –
BW: Yeah. Exactly.
JS: Okay.
BW: So it is tactile. I mean, I can have you – so there’s a plus and minus kind of tactile feel --
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: -- that has – there they are. The button is raised for taking a picture with it.
JS: Uh-huh.
BW: And – yes. Everything is very tactile on the OrCam. It’s still very, like –
JS: And the speaking voice is very similar to that of MyEye or –
BW: Correct. Very similar to the MyEye.
JS: Okay. Perfect.
BW: Exactly. And also to report, even the OrCam Hear at CES won an innovation award.
JS: It did.
BW: It did.
JS: That’s true.
BW: It did win an award for innovation, and OrCam MyEye got announced at Time Magazine as one of the 100 best inventions of 2019.
JS: That’s amazing.
BW: Uh-huh.
JS: Any updates in – that you can talk about, or is that something we should talk to you guys back at CSUN for MyEye?
BW: I would talk to us back at CSUN.
JS: Okay.
BW: Definitely.
JS: That’s called –
BW: And –
JS: -- a tease in our podcast industry.
BW: Exactly. But everything I’ve told you so far is what has come out. The OrCam Read is not available as of yet –
JS: Okay.
BW: -- but we are expecting it, this year, to come out. I’m very excited about it.
JS: Yeah.
BW: I actually just did a demo of it with a friend of mine in New York City who also uses OrCam MyEye –
JS: Perfect.
BW: -- and he has RP.
JS: Wow.
BW: And what he – what we really liked about it is that it has this central, like, laser pointer –
JS: Right, which is the way he sees.
BW: Correct. It is minimal central vision. He was able to pinpoint where he wanted it to read from, and it did it. So –
JS: That is amazing.
BW: It was great.
JS: Yeah. Wow. Tunnel vision for tunnel vision. That’s amazing. And that’s my thing, not yours.
BW: You got it.
JS: I used to be in VR. What can I say?
I appreciate your time, and I thank you for breaking down the products. This is – where should people go to learn more about what’s coming on at OrCam?
BW: Sure. They can go right to the website at www.orcam.com, and we even have a bunch of videos on YouTube introducing the new products. So if they just kind of type in OrCam Read, OrCam Hear, or OrCam MyEye 2, they’ll see all of our videos up there as well as on the website.
JS: Thank you, Bryan, for your time. I appreciate it.
For the rest of the show that you didn’t hear, go back through our feed and hear our other coverage, and I’m sure we’ll talk about it on the main show as well and talk about the future. What’s going to happen at CSUN? It’s hard to tell. Just keep it here on Blind Bargains.
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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.
