Hello, our little Halloween horrors, or maybe that’s just the hosts?! We’re back again for a show with a slight twist, and we’re not talking spooky goings-on - or maybe we are, because, Óran, our producer in residence, is missing in action for the first time in the history of this podcast! Is he OK? You’ll have to listen to find out.
Hector, our beloved HR Director, has been busy arranging a new temporary contract for Stuart. Yes, he’s returning, at least for this show, to help out Jan and one of our regular guest hosts, Mohammed Laachir, as they delve into topics including Jan’s upcoming trip to Dublin; Braille 200 celebrations; the Glide device at Sight Village London; ChatGPT’s new advanced voice mode; Stuart’s issues with the iOS 18 calendar; and of course, the weather!
If that’s not enough to keep you from your trick or treating, we end the episode live from a central Dublin boozer, where Jan is on the hard stuff!
So, ease up on the tricks and treat yourself to the Blind Guys Chat podcast, because you never know, you just might learn something! 8 out of 10 pumpkins prefer it to having their eyes gauged out.
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Hello, our little delivery drones, and welcome to episode 108. This week Jan and Óran welcome back Mohamed Laachair and invite him to sit into the comfortable and fluffy guest-host seat. We think he really likes it.
We kick off with news of the new AI companion from JAWS which is currently available on the web: https://fscompanion.freedomscientific.com. This new feature will also become available directly from within JAWS 2025 (JAWS Key+spacebar+F1 to access it) and is a gold mine of information. You can drop your question about JAWS and some other Vispero products into the edit box and it will have a little think and then come back with an answer. Try it!
Have you tried ElevenReader App? The ElevenLabs’ ElevenReader App lets you listen to any text content, with ElevenLabs voices. This expands your library of audio content to any article, PDF, ePub, newsletter, or any other text on your phone. Get more info here: https://elevenlabs.io/text-reader
Do you remember Maura Moore-McCune? She’s the young woman we interviewed back in episode 105 (link here: https://tinyurl.com/BGC105) who is developing VIPMOD - Vision Impaired Person’s Moving Object. Well, she has just won a gold medal at the annual prestigious Eskom Expo for Young Scientists in South Africa. Students from 35 Expo Regions in South Africa compete against each other, and then compete against the best young scientists from around the world. Maura won gold in the biomedical and medical sciences category and was joint overall senior winner too. Congratulations Maura – we’re thrilled for you!
Back to JAWS - Freedom Scientific now have an automatic language detection facility using AI. Mohamed tells us more about this fantastic feature which is available in JAWS 2025.
Derry Lawlor lets us know about the cameras on the Meta Ray Ban Smart Glasses, and we have news of a possible contender to Meta Smart Glasses which are the Meta Orion Smart Glasses? Huh?! Read more about them here: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/
So, stop getting confused about the October weather, cool the jets on the Halloween costume shopping, and get ready to listen to the most informative podcast this side of a town hall meeting: Blind Guys Chat.
8 out of 10 AI companions prefer it to being artificial.
Links in this podcast: • The new AI companion from JAWS - FS companion: https://fscompanion.freedomscientific.com
• ElevenReader App: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/introducing-elevenlabs-reader-app and https://elevenlabs.io/text-reader
• BGC ep 105 with Maura Moore-McCune: https://tinyurl.com/BGC105
• Project Orion: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/
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Hello, our autumn leaves, and welcome to episode 107 of BGC. We begin this show with some interesting news from Be My Eyes and Meta. It appears that the Be My Eyes application will soon become available via Meta Ray Ban SmartGlasses. This means when calling a volunteer using the app, the volunteer will now see the image from your Meta specs. Is this a cool and clever collaboration? Will this be a game changer due to the reduced cost? We discuss!
Have you downloaded and installed IOS 18? Are you as disappointed with this upgrade as Jan is? Let us know: [email protected]. Also, Jan has a question for experienced iPhone users and has no shame throwing our beloved listeners and part-time collaborators, Derry, Brian and Mohamed, under the bus in order to get the answer.
Our guest this time is Rocio Casati. Rocio works as a language localisation specialist for Vispero’s products in Spain. She is also a classical pianist and loves all things Braille, and also guide dogs of course. The guys feel like they are in heaven with this conversation.
We have news on the arrival of the new Glide mobility aid in the UK; a webinar on MS Teams is coming up in November; there’s Sharkvember with Vispero, and an assistive technology day being held by Sight and Sound in Technological University Dublin’s Grangegorman campus.
So, forget about the floods and power-cuts for a little while, crack open that only-slightly-expired tin of hot chocolate, and chisel out a tablespoon for yourself. Kick the cat off the armchair and settle in for a listen to the number 1 podcast voted by the Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers: Blind Guys Chat!
8.2 out of 10 orchestras prefer it to playing music!
Links mentioned in this podcast: Next big thing: https://www.freedomscientific.com/nextbigthing/ RayBan/Meta collaboration: https://mashable.com/article/meta-rayban-smart-glasses-be-my-eyes-accessibility Ray Ban Smart Glasses: https://www.ray-ban.com/ireland/ray-ban-meta-smart-glasses Glide: https://glidance.io/ Sight and Sound assistive technology event on November 9th: https://www.sightandsound.co.uk/event/assistive-technology-exhibition-ireland/
And don’t forget to send us your comments, questions, ideas, hopes and dreams: [email protected]
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Hello our lovely loyal listeners, and welcome to ep 106. We kick off this show with the latest hot topic in The Netherlands: FatBikes! Yes, it seems that Jan has imported 16,000 electric bikes to sell them and make his fortune. But they appear to be a little dodgy as they have big wide tyres and are as low slung as Sjef's harness. Jan's mother-in-law also has something to say about these bikes so hold on to your hats. Most of our show is devoted to our interview with Amos Miller, the founder and CEO of Glidance. Amos is here to tell us all about the 'Glide', an innovative self-guided mobility device for blind and low vision people. Amos is a blind developer with a background in computer science and engineering, and among other things was part of the developing team at Microsoft who created Soundscape. Now he’s working on bringing this new mobility device to market and by all accounts, this could be a game-changer when it comes to moving around unassisted. Mohamed is also with us to share his experience of using the Glide at the recent NFB event. But will it do away with guide dogs? Let's find out... Now that we are officially in Autumn, or Fall, as our US listeners would say, we have some suggestions for TV shows to while away these longer evenings. Óran is recommending the new season of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ on Disney+, along with ‘The Perfect Couple’, a new show on Netflix, and his returning favourite, ‘Slow Horses’ season 4 on Apple TV. Let us know what you’ve been watching – we’re dying to know! Email us on [email protected]. So, throw your electric bike on the charger. Mind the leaves as you enter your home and tune into the best podcast this side of a Mexican taco: Blind Guys Chat. 20 out of 20 Haitians living in Springfield Ohio prefer it to Trumpy MacGrumpy Trump!
Links in this show: Glidance: https://glidance.io/about-us/ Only Murders in the Building: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11691774/ The Perfect Couple: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11514868/ Slow Horses: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5875444/ And of course, our email address: [email protected]
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Hello our favourite tech geniuses! We start with some good news. Yes, Mali, the Bernese Mountain dog who was missing for 2 weeks, has been rescued from a 61-metre-high cliff edge on an island off the coast of Donegal. She ran off during a storm but now she has been reunited with her humans and went home for a big dinner and a snooze - yaaaay!! Óran has had enough of the terrible Irish summer and has decided to move to The Netherlands where it always seems to be warm. Clodagh has her patient face on. Meanwhile, we've got news on Seeing AI's object detector. (Maybe it'll help Óran find the sun?) And Jan is looking forward to IOS 18. Will Siri be any better...? We sure hope so, cos she’s pretty useless right now! Our guest this week is a talented young woman named Maura Moore-McCune from County Meath in Ireland. Maura is here to tell us about a mobile app she is developing called Vision Impaired Person's Moving Object Detector (VIPMOD) which can detect nearby moving vehicles. This will be especially handy if you want to check it's safe to cross at a junction, or if you are not sure if you can hear an approaching electric vehicle. Maura was invited to present her work on VIPMOD at the ‘MIT AI & Education Summit’ in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, where she won the top prize for Community Impact – congratulations Maura! If you would like to be a beta tester for this app, email: [email protected] with your details. Maura would be delighted to have you involved when beta testing starts. Clodagh has news on some calendar dates worth noting, like Colour Blindness Awareness Day on September 6th, and a 24-hour inclusive design event on September 12th. So, enjoy hanging out in Belfast while your cruise ship gets serviced, don't tell that Russian spy whale where you hide the chocolate, and instead make your way safely to the sunny side of the street while listening to Blind Guys Chat. 17 out of 20 electric scooters prefer it to being in stealth mode. Links in this show: Email to become a beta tester for the VIPMOD app: [email protected] MIT App Inventor coding system: https://appinventor.mit.edu/ SciFest: https://scifest.ie/ CYTI at DCU: https://www.dcu.ie/ctyi Colour Blindness: http://www.colourblindnessawareness.org/
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Hello our Bermuda hurricanes and welcome to a blowy episode. We begin this episode reminiscing of cars long gone. Do you remember the Renault 4 or the Citroen BX or even the older Citroen DS? Yes, they might have been rust buckets and as unreliable as summer in Ireland but, at least they were quirky and fun to drive.
Speaking of quirky and unreliable things, have you watched ‘Clarkson's Farm’ on Amazon Prime? Give it a go. It has brought farmers to tears, not to mention the sheep!!
Óran has a question for Jan and our listeners who have guide dogs. Have you ever found your doggy a little reluctant to put on their harness? Well Larry is becoming a little uncooperative when Óran wants him to work. Is Larry faking because there are no couches on his walk? Or is he showing signs of wanting to retire with his feet up, smoking a pipe and watching old reruns of Oprah on the TV? We discuss.
We've got an email from Sarah in Brantford Ontario, Canada who is inviting BGC to come visit. Nora Nagle has been on to tell us that Donald Trumpy now has a 'Superstore' and if anyone knows what that is, please get in touch ([email protected]). And speaking of that muppet, apparently, he now has his own winery! The guys would rather push a Fiat 500 up a 35-degree mountain than buy any of that stuff.
So, forget about Henry the hurricane for a while. Strip off your wind breaker, turn the volume up to 11, and get ready for the greatest podcast this side of an electric car parked at a petrol pump: Blind Guys Chat.
19 out of 20 grapes prefer it to being in a Trump wine bottle.
Clarkson's Farm promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k9NMbQe0C4
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Hello our fast and furious Olympians, and welcome to ep 103 of BGC. We have a full house this week as Jan is back from his 11th holiday of the year, and Mohammed Laachir is back with us again fresh from NFB in Florida, having enjoyed their all you can eat buffet. Yes, Jan handed the car keys over to Tycho while he, Chantal and Princess Rosalie sat in the back seat of their lovely electric vehicle. After a 63-hour trip taking in the Norwegian fjords, St Paul's Cathedral and the Brandenburg Gate, they eventually arrived in Camp Nou, Barcelona’s famous stadium, where fistfuls of money changed hands in order to purchase a Barca t-shirt and a can of coke. Oh, and Princess Rosalie bought some rather expensive makeup in a big international cosmetics and skincare store, or at least that's what Jan said. Mohammed has just returned from NFB 2024 where he was demonstrating the new Picture Smart AI with JAWS. This is a cool new feature built right into JAWS allowing a user to scan a picture and hear what its contents are. Fair play to Mo for helping with the development of this feature. While he was at NFB, Mohammed took the opportunity to take his hoover for a walk. Ahem... sorry, we mean the new Glide guide dog thingy from Glidance. Will Mohammed be purchasing? Tune in to find out! So, jump off your pommel horse with a perfect 10; stay away from the Olympic cauldron – it’s not a BBQ! Put down that shotput before your do yourself some damage, and get ready to listen to the best podcast in the world: Blind Guys Chat - 10 out of 15 boxing gloves prefer it to boxing. Links for this show: · National Federation of the Blind (NFB): https://nfb.org/ · NFB National Convention: https://nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention · Picture Smart AI with Jaws: https://www.freedomscientific.com/training/jaws/new-and-improved-features/
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Hello our favourite funny people, and welcome to episode 102 of BGC.
Since Jan is off on another holiday (we’re not at all jealous!) we devote the entire episode to our wonderful guest, Sydney May. Sydney lives in Brighton and works for the Thomas Pocklington Trust. But that's not all! Sydney is also a comedian and plays bass in her band - Torrid (A love affair). Check them out on Spotify (link here). Sydney is also an accessibility tester, and an inspirational speaker, and will be giving presentations around the UK during all the Sight Village events this year. And if all that is not enough, she’s also a football fan and a big supporter of Arsenal. It's a fun interview and Óran and Clodagh thoroughly enjoyed their chat with Sydney. So, forget about stripping down to your diving trunks for now, and instead have a listen to the only Olympic gold medal event worth shouting for: Blind Guys Chat. 8 and a half out of 10 Olympic judo doers prefer it to two judo dojos. Links mentioned in this show: The Thomas Pocklington Trust: https://www.pocklington.org.uk/ SeeingAI: https://www.seeingai.com/ Be my AI: https://www.bemyeyes.com/blog/introducing-be-my-ai InVideo AI: https://invideo.io/ Torrid (A love affair) on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/TorridAloveAffair Torrid (A love affair)’s album 'Poems from Mars': https://tinyurl.com/PoemsFromMars Sydney's social handle is @sydmaycoach on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/sydmaycoach/; on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/sydmaycoach; and on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7n-Il5BR4PbDGIZ8u3BEA
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Hello our favourite A.I. bots! We hope you are well, and are looking forward to another fantastic episode of Blind Guys Chat. We begin this week’s show with a health warning, or should that be a sandwich warning!?! Yes, it seems that Sjef was a bit of a bold doggy during the week, as he managed to get his mouth around a sandwich belonging to one of Jan's colleagues. However, it looks like Sjef won’t be imprisoned any time soon as there was no evidence of a crime having been committed. Yes, Sjef is keeping his mouth shut on this mystery. Clever boy! Not even Sherlock Holmes could solve this one!
Our guest this week is Jesse Wienholts. Jesse works for Royal Dutch Visio in the Netherlands. He brings the Guys up to speed on upcoming innovations for blind and vision impaired people. He has tested out many new products, including 'Glidance' a prototype guide dog; this one doesn't eat sandwiches apparently! He also talks about the multiline braille display 'Monarch', as well as the upcoming Envision Assistant and a new GPS app called 'Voice Vision'. He has also been playing a game called 'Top Speed' and we ask, are video games for blind players really just about pressing buttons with no real sense of immersion?
It's a welcome return to our former co-host Mr Stuart Lawler who is back on the show fresh from his bed because he has been burning the candle at both ends due to the International Conference on English Braille being held in New Zealand. Thanks for staying up late Stuart, now give us the skinny on this year’s ICEB.
And for those of you looking for an assistive tech bargain - Humanware and Sight and Sound currently have a sale on.
So, forget about the fact the longest day of the year is behind us. Forget that fact that you still don't have a holiday booked, and instead remember all you really need is to sit down with a cuppa joe and listen to the most informative podcast this side of a polar bear sliding down a glacier: Blind Guys Chat. 6 out of 10 robot guide dogs prefer it to eating electrodes!
Links for this show: · Royal Dutch Visio: https://enviter.eu/members/royal-dutch-visio/ · Glidance: https://glidance.io/ · Monarch: https://www.humanware.com/en-usa/monarch · Envision Assistant: https://envision-assistant.com/ · Voice Vision in Apple Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voicevista/id6450388413 · Top Speed: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tbegames.and.top_speed_racing&hl=en_IE&pli=1
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Hello our little party poppers, and welcome to episode 100 of BGC! Yes, can you believe it's been 100 years since we first started? ...Ahem, that doesn't seem correct... Anyway, let's carry on. To help us celebrate this historic show we are joined by our own Scottish kilt: Blind Gordon, the Bambi Thug of the podcasting world: Kevin Sherwin, and our own personal Accessibility Discovery Centre: Brian Dalton, not to mention the wonderful Clodagh O'Donovan, about whom we can’t think of anything to say that won’t get us in trouble! It's a show of reminiscing, with a little sprinkling of Euro football and Dutch politics on top.
Clodagh kicks it all off with her favourite topic; Christmas! And believe it or not, she actually got to meet Santa recently and they had a robust conversation regarding the non-delivery of long-promised snow over the past few Christmases. Poor Santa 😢
We also remember our interviews with the wonderful Lady Veronika Hyks; that time Stuart climbed Mount Kilimanjaro; our wonderful conversations with Prof John Sweeney, Prof Luke O'Neill, Irish government Minister Roderic O'Gorman, Jenny Axler, the Pope, Albert Einstein, The Minions, and so very many more.
Some of our favourites are listed below with links for your re-listening pleasure. Let us know about your favourite show - email us at [email protected].
The Christmas ones:
The Veronika Hyks ones:
And in #087 above, Veronika was a contestant in the Christmas Quiz!
The Adam Curry one: The Adam Curry one: #025: Fancy a Curry? (link)
The Kilimanjaro ones:
One of the Professor Luke O’Neill ones:
One of the Hector in HR ones:
Other favourites:
Bonus one not mentioned in the show:
So why not pull a sicky and spend some time revisiting our extensive back catalogue of Blind Guys Chat - Before we sell it to Sony for €2.50!
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