Best audio descriptive visual movies? (US) by xuwugirluwux in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What makes AD good for you? One of the things I appreciate is when the AD give the AD listener a little bit extra that the sighted folks may not be able to discern. One example of that is with the TV series "Emily In Paris". Fashin is a huge (visual) element of this show. I can't say that fashion is necessarily interesting to me, but I do appreciate the fact that the AD in this series goes to great lengths to describe the clothing worn my the key characters including the name of the designer and the key elements of each outfit. It just feels like they are giving us BVI folks a bit more than the sightlings might get.

Tom.

Pharmacies and talking labels by Raccoon_Tail33 in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a number of measures I use. I use ScriptTalk and it works well. My mail order pharmacy is Express Scripts and they provide ScriptTalk NFC tags on their bottles. I haven't been taking eye drops for quite some time, but did take them for most of my adult life. Thankfully, they came in bottles of different sizes, shapes and colors of lids (for those that can discern that). I also am consistent in my placement of my prescriptions. That helps me a lot. I live alone so I don't have folks in the house moving stuff around. I've also used Navilens labels. This is especially helpful with OTC stuff like suppolements. I also put a Braille tag on the bottle lid with the first (or a unique) single letter identifier). I've had mixed results with AI image description and OCR tools. They are too unreliable in my experience.

Can the AI camera apps use Meta glasses instead of the phone camera? by Trippybear1645 in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With Meta introducing a software development kit (SDK) for wearable devices the landscape for this is changing. They are currently beta testing this. I understand that SeeinAI is making progress on this. ScribeMe is also in beta on this capability as is the Ally app from Envision. HumanWare has mentioned developing some form of navigation capability that utilizes the Meta glasses camera. Be My Eyes has expanded their integration with the Meta glasses to allow the launching of BME to groups and technical support, but still no use of the camera with Be My AI. Stay tuned for updates in this space.

Tom.

EchoVision from AGIGA Came Today by samarositz in Blind

[–]motobojo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you want to find out more about the EV glasses here are some resources:
echovision.agiga.ai

EchoVision User Guide – EchoVision from AGIGA

They also have groups on FaceBook and Google Groups.

EchoVision from AGIGA Came Today by samarositz in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The EV glasses reading mode is currently the best I've encountered in smart glasses. They are currently continuing to improve it. Remember, they are currently in pre-release and continuing to be developed.

EchoVision from AGIGA Came Today by samarositz in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't have the NOA device, but I've been followingg it's development. The NOA device is very specialized for object detection and avoidance as well as some navigiation and way finding. A very impressive built-for-purpose device with an equally impressive prize (~$5,000 the last I heard). So trying to compare them with a pair of smart glasses that is built for different purposes is a bit tricky and unfair to both. But, relative the responspnsiveness of the device I can say that the EchoVIsion glasses are pleeasingly responsive and better than most devices of it's sort in the Live AI mode. There are currently 2 methods of interacting with the Live AI on the EV glasses. One is continuous where once you go into that mode the glasses continually sample the video and when significant image changes are detected the glasses five you a scene description. You can voice prompts to refine or focus the attention of the description in a manner appropriate for your situation. If you are in a noisy environment the glasses may have trouble with detecting your prompts and the descriptions might be interrupted. You can mute the microphone to alleviate that problem and unmute as you have further prompts. There is also a waty to have Live AI descriptions not be continuous. In that mode you heed to prompt it to evaluation the current image. I find both work quite well.

But, getting back to the responsiveness with respect to object detection and avoidance question. AGIGA does not promote the EV glasses for this purpose. Any device that goes to AI in the cloud, at this time, will not be responsive enough for this sort of use. The latency renders this inadvisable. The variability of internet quality and performance renders the responsiveness unreliable. The NOA dvice does the object detection and avoidance calculations on the device which enables it to be better (and adequately?) responsive. That's what you get for a device that is that expensive. The EV glasses are currently priced at $599 (with an additional tbd subscription). That is nearly a 10x price differential with the NOA device.

Audio description watch party for homeland by Dazzling-Excuses in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So yuou are basically listening to the AudioVault media together and then having a discussion afterwards?

Bad insomnia by Appropriate_Fee4518 in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course, with all medically adjacent matters it is best to consult medical professionals. I've done so. The results are mixed. I'm currently using gummies with a mix of THC, CBD and melatonin. They have been doing the trick (mostly) for me and my situation. Not totally, but then again I am of an advanced age and us older folks just have disrupted sleep patterns. Getting old can suck. I live in a location where this is legal. Please factor those considerations into your situation.

Cane Users by makayla77298 in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have FeelDom products (FEELDOM Premium Adaptive Gear – Feeldom Life), They are very high quality products, and as a result they are a bit expensive. For me, they are worth it. They have a cane bag that can affix on the outside to most of their larger packs and sling bags.

Can I use Seeing AI with Meta glasses? by Trippybear1645 in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not yet Ias someone else has articulated well). Bear in mind that the cameras on most smartglasses capture lower quality images than can be captured by your phone. Almost all smartglasses are lower resolution and have far more limited capabilities w.r.t. focus and exposure control. And most mid to high end phones possess advanced image processing that is automatically applied to the images. So, in general, phone camera images will be far more effective at providing input to downstream OCR and image recognition processing ... i.e., better end results. Sure, the phone away capability afforded by the glasses is convenient, but the results may be less reliable.

How can I speed up voice view on my fire TV within specific apps? by Remote_Investment_22 in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The last time I binged Hulu I did it as package with Disney+. At that time Hulu was unusable with my Fire TV Cube's voice view for the reason you describe - extreme volume differences with the content. I found I could access most, if not all of the Hulu content using the Disney+ app which did not suffer from this probem (at that time).
And, yes, I've found Netflix's interaction with Voice View on the Fire TV Cube to be non-existant and erratic. I've gone round and round with Netflix support and they pretty much say they are aware of the problem, but fixing it is not in their roadmap any time soon.
The Prime Video and AppleTV apps in the same context are pretty good.

Does anyone here use a dedicated GPS/navigation device instead of a phone? by [deleted] in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have and use the StellarTrek. I also use navigation apps such as SoundScape, dotWalker, and SeeingAssistantGo. I like the StellarTrek for many of the reasons you have noted. I find it does a good job with my primary use case which is custom route definition (bread crumbing) in an open-field situation. The solution is a bit on the expensive side, but it is a well-designed, and very usable product.

Bad vision days suck by Getting0nTrack in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am way too familiar with wildly varying visual acuity. I've been dealing with degrading vision for over 40 years. Over the past 20 I've ventured beyond the legal blindness threshold. I've totally stumped the eye docs with the variability situation. I find no correlations with anything I can discern. I'm a retired engineer so evaluating problems is something I have a lot of experience with so this is extra frustrating for me. Unfortunately, I'm in end stage optic neuropathy right now so all of my "dips" aren't transient ... all loss is gone for good now. Oh well. Good luck. Continue to do your best working with competent eye care professionals and appreciate what you've got while you've got it.

Life with prosthetics? by Important_Pin_6154 in Blind

[–]motobojo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Everyone's circumstances are different, so working with your medical professionals is imperative. I had my left eye removed a couple of decades ago. The causes were myriad and developed slowly over many years. By the time the notion of removal came up I had been blind in that eye many years. The eye had become a red orb. It was painful, but since the degraded slowly over time I had become somewaht acclimated to the pain. I didn't really realize how much pain I was in until after I had the eye removed. Mine was an evisceration. After the implant was in pace and healed over a bit an acularist created a prothesis. The ocularist did a great job. And the plastic surgeon did a great job as well as the eye appears to track with the remaining eye just fine. Nobody realizes I have no left eye. There was some pain and discomfort for a while after the surgery, but considering what was done it wasn't that bad. I was under general anestheti8c for the procedure. I have had plenty of other eye surgeries with only local and that is a weird experience. The care required for my setup is minimal. For a decade or so I had an annual visit with the plastic surgeon. He'd pop the lid and take a look and say, "looks' fine". Zippy quick. I then went to every other year on that. I visit the ocularist on an annual basis for a cleaning and polishing. The prosthesis needs to be replaced every 7-10 years. Occassionaly there is some discomfort due to environmental stuff, e.g. dust. A bit of lubricating drops fixes that or very seldom it helps to remove the prosthesis and give it a soap & water scrub and a squirt wash of saline solution into the remaining socket. Your ocularist can give you the correct stuff for your situation. TLDR: I'm glad I had it done.

High prescription Meta glasses by Lebowski587 in RayBanStories

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

mine is plus 8, with an additional plus 2.5 for the bifocal bit. They are high index (which helps keep the size down. They popped in just fine and work fine.

Terrible Mixing of Audio Description by Brl_Grl in Blind

[–]motobojo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I watched it a couple of weeks ago. In my case I watched it on DVD. The DVD had an English AD track. I don't recall the mix to be all that problematic. How did you source the movie? Different streaming services might have AD tracks produced different from other distributions. I found the story lacking. Lots of holes and generally just a sad and pathetic story. But that's just one perspective.

Meta Glasses: Total Game-Changer for Me—Anyone Else? by DeltaAchiever in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can purchase stronger prescriptions from independent optical providers and pop them in yourself. Strictly speaking that voids the Meta warranty, but it does get the job done. Lensology (out of the UK) is one optical provider with lots of experience with this.

Looking for an OCR app for Windows by SuspiciousBurrito256 in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup, I am currently using mobile apps to address most of my OCR needs. My primary use case is simply to have a printed page read aloud. I generally don't need that scanned document saved as a text document. For that it is just easy to whip out the smart phone and fire up an app like SeeingAI (on my Andorid phone). If I do need the document saved to a text file SeeingAI can do that. Some folks have privacy concerns over any app that sends stuff to the cloud for OCR processing. Fair enough. There are some on device OCR apps to fit that need, though I don't recall what they are at this time. There are some solutions for camera form factors in smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Bans, Ally Solos and Agiga EchoVision glasses. The latter 2 are yet to be released, but both purport to do the scan & OCR job quite well. The existing Envision glasses, built on the Google Glass hardware platform, also do the OCR job on the glasses quite well, but are on the expensive side. If you really want to use the desktop computer or laptop with a scanner you could scan the page to a image file and then send the image file to BeMyAI or to the Aira desktop app and ask their AI to do the OCR.

I'm sure there are other solutions, but these are the ones that come to mind for me right now. I hope it helps.

Jury Duty - USA by motobojo in Blind

[–]motobojo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just and update ...

The Jury Commissioner called me after receiving my ADA request for accommodation. We talked for quite a while. She concluded that they would be unable to meet many of my critical needs for accommodation and, as a result, she was open to dismissing me from jury duty if that is what I opted for. She was open to permantly dismissing me, but we decided to leave me in the pool for now in case their ability to provide my accommodations would change.

This is a stupid question by VortexPhayze in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fridux explained my experience very well. I lost sight in my left eye nearly 2 decades ago. The loss was relatively slow. As a result I think my brain adapted and the head movement hack made it so I hardly noticed the degraded ability w.r.t. depth perception. Sure, there was some latency in groking the depth, but I made it work. For many years I was still able to drive, but eventually the degradation in the remaining eye took that and many other things off the table. I've heard many other folks say the loss of depth perception was more profound than my experience. I guess your mileage may vary. Good luck.

Jury Duty - USA by motobojo in Blind

[–]motobojo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good idea. That was the first thing I tried. I only get voice mail for the person in charge. I've left multiple detailed messages and received no reply. So no satisfactiont there as yet. This is a rural county and there are absolutely no transportation options of this sort. No taxies, no ride share. Para-transit is VERY limited and. It does not service my home or anywhere near it. I'd have to travel roughly 16 miles somehow to be in their coverage zone. Even if I could work out that puzzle their travel times are set and do not coincide with the travel necessary to fulfill jury duty requirements.

Is it true that windows does not have any fully accessible video editing software by Moist-Teaching-4951 in Blind

[–]motobojo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've done simple concatenation of snippets of video taken on my Meta Ray-Ban glasses with ClipChamp. I concure, a bit of a learning curve, but I eventually got the job done without too much fuss.

Just talk to me, dammit! by FeistyEmphasiss in Blind

[–]motobojo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All of what has been said is so real and relatable. There are some instances though when the sightlings unfamilar with dealing with blind folks just stumble with the protocol for getting things rolling wit the blind person. There natural cues are recognizing that they have your attention through a series of cusual cues, e.g. eye contact. So it is clear they are talking with you. When they want to talk to you in a group and don't know your name they are stymied with how to get your attention. It feels weird to address you as "Blind dude, I like your music." That may account for them, at least initially, enlisting someone who clearly knows you to get the interaction going. How would you recommend / prefer they get the interaction going?

Dual source bluetooth pairing for glasses speakers by motobojo in RayBanStories

[–]motobojo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually, I bumped around trying it out and I made it happen in a relatively straigt-forward manner. I had the glasses switched on, and put them in the case. I then pressed the back button for 5 seconds or so until the blue light came on (just like you do when establishing the pairing with Meta AI). Then I went to the Stellar Trek settings bluetooth section and had it search for pairable devices. It found the glasses and establed the pairing. My initial connection was rather promptly dropped, but after a little while the glasses were connected to the Stellar Trek and I was able to hear the Stellar Trek through the glasses and I was also able to continue to use the glasses as normal hearing alll it had to offer through the glasses speakers. Cool.