All Cool Blind Tech Shows

Joel Ramos visits with Alex Lee of Dot Incorporated to get a good look at the new Dot braille smart watch. This gadget has caught a great deal of attention because it brings new possibilities and benefits of the networked digital age to the wrists of millions of Blind & Visually Impaired people worldwide.

Hugo Gallegos visits the Orbit Research booth at CSUNATC17, where he gets a hands-on look at the Orbit Reader 20 braille display, which is also a note taker and book reader. Hugo also has a blast playing with the Orbit Graphiti interactive graphics display.

In this CBT Spotlight interview, James Oates sits down with Suman Kanuganti, the cofounder and CEO of Aira Visual Interpreter for the Blind, to discuss a life changing new service for those who are blind or visually impaired. Aira takes advantage of the technology found in advanced smart glasses, like Google Glass, to connect blind people with sighted agents who can use the information transmitted by those glasses to help them with anything that might require visual feedback. That could be anything the user would like an extra pair of eyes for. Smart glasses not only have a camera that transmits visual information to the agent, but also other sensors that send detailed information to the agent’s dashboard, such as GPS information that is incorporated into Google Maps. For now, the glasses will need to be paired with a smart phone, but you should listen to this podcast to hear all the spectacular improvements that Suman is planning. You can visit their website, email Aira, or email Suman directly for more info

Join Joel, Jessica and Cool Blind Tech's newest team member Rachel as they discuss their Cool Picks. Cool Picks of the Week Jessica shows us a cool skill that is available on both the Alexa line of products and the Google Home Assistant. The "Dr. Doggy" skill is a must have for owners of seeing eye dogs or those who care greatly for man's best friend. Rachel highlights the benefits of using the Yelp app on her iPhone before heading out for a day of fun. Check out how you can plan your next outing as well. Joel has found a new way to have fun on his iPhone with the new Reverb app. Listen in to find out how you can now bring along a well known virtual assistant with you on both android and iOS devices.

This week the team has way too many conventions to choose from and they all have great assistive technology to talk about. Join Joel, Jessica and Cool Blind Tech's newest team member Rachel as they discuss the happenings in A.T. Whether this cool Tech shows up in Barcelona, Spain or San Diego, California you can guarantee that the team has an opinion and plenty of techie details. Accessibility Makes Itself Known At This Year’s Game Developers Conference San Francisco, California is hosting this year's GDC 2017 and accessibility is a major topic of discussion. Yes, you did read that correctly, make sure to listen and find out how. Can VR Help the Visually Impaired See Better? Barcelona Spain, is hosting the Mobile World Congress this week and Samsung is showcasing a VR app called Relumino which can help the visually impaired more efficiently read books and watch tv. Can this replace current assistive devices for less? Make sure to hit play and find out. Real Time Graphics on a Braille Display S

Google released the Google Home, which is a voice activated speaker that can control your smart home devices, play your music, answer your questions about almost anything, stream the news from sources you select, and so much more. In this episode, James Oates tells us how to setup the Google Home, and walks us through the Google Home app on his Pixel phone. Here he shows us all the different configuration options available for the Google Home. The Google Assistant is built-in to the Google Home, and it is amazing how many things it can do.

Tune in to this jam packed show where James Oates with fellow hosts Joel Ramos and Nelson Régo let you in on their latest Cool Picks. Cool Picks: djay Pro for the Mac. djay Pro provides a complete DJ Software for performing DJs. Its unique modern interface is built around a sophisticated integration with iTunes and Spotify, giving you instant access to millions of tracks. Pristine sound quality and a powerful set of features including high-definition waveforms, four decks, audio effects, and hardware integration give you endless creative flexibility to take your sets to new heights. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i Mobile Document Scanner. • Fast color, grayscale and monochrome scan speeds of up to 12 double sided pages per minute • 10-page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) • One touch searchable PDF Creation • Automatic paper size detection, automatic color detection, automatic cropping, blank page deletion and de-skew •

Don’t worry about how much it costs! Just go out and buy it! Tune in to this jam packed VIP where James Oates steps out of his comfort zone to take on the job as host with fellow hosts Joel Ramos and Nelson Régo. Using a Haptic Device, Blind People Can See Microscope Images: A team at Purdue University in Indiana has developed a haptic device that lets blind people feel images generated by a microscope. It has always been a huge undertaking to help the blind understand microscopic images. Sometimes, a sighted person just must describe it, which is problematic sense each description differs, and the blind person can’t always understand the description. Also, tactile images can be created and labelled in braille, but this is labor intensive and requires a sighted individual with the knowledge, time, and skill to do it. This new device is a haptic feedback joystick that plugs into a computer that also has a microscope connected to it. It has been tested on red and white blood cells. The blind person navigates

Join Jessica Rickards, James Oates, and Nelson Régo this week with their Cool Picks. Cool Picks: Instant Pot Six-In-One (or Seven-In-One) Pressure Cooker Instant Pot Reference Article

Join Jessica Rickards, James Oates, and Nelson Rego for this exciting VIP. It's all about the future with these incredible stories. Here's a look at what you can expect in this fun, yet educational episode. 3D Printing Can Help Blind Students Learn About Sex Amazon launches monthly subscription program to help children learn about math and science High Tech Glove Helps You Feel in VR" Cool Picks: Instant Pot Six-In-One (or Seven-In-One) Pressure Cooker Instant Pot Reference Article

In this episode, we look at the TalkBack settings on a Google Pixel running Android Nougat 7.1.1. James Oates gives a brief overview of accessibility settings while primarily focusing on the settings for TalkcBack 5.1. He also shows us Moves, which are specialized gestures for Android that can be toggled on or off, depending on your preferences. Although James is new to Android, he is very impressed with the Google Pixel, and looks forward to bringing more Android content to our listeners.

Listen in as Joel Ramos, Jessica Rickards and newcomer Gabriel Vega, CEO of Commtech. give us their Cool Picks for this week. Cool Picks: MediGuard provides you with easy to understand health information, safety alerts & recalls and drug interactions. Office Lens is like having a scanner in your pocket. Like magic, it will digitize notes on whiteboards or blackboards. Always find important documents or business cards. Sketch your ideas and snap a picture for later. Don't lose receipts or stray sticky notes again! BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer

In November of 2016, Jenny Lay-Flurrie revealed to Cool Blind Tech, in an exclusive announcement, that braille support was coming to Narrator. Now the feature has rolled out in Windows 10 insiders build 15025. It is still in beta, but James Oates has decided to give us an early look at this new feature. He also shows us the new mono-audio feature that has been added to Narrator.

What is your deepest darkest secret? Listen in as we open the doors to the VIP room with one of your favourite host Joel Ramos, as he opens up to his fellow hosts Jessica Rickards and newcomer Gabriel Vega, CEO of Commtech. VizLens helps the blind operate appliances with digital screens and unlabeled buttons Think about the number of electronic appliances you encounter on a daily basis – using a microwave, adjusting the thermostat in your home, or buying a snack from the office vending machine. Now, imagine trying to operate any of these if you were blind. Impossible? Anhong Guo, Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), is turning this into a reality with the development of an interactive screen reader called VizLens. Windows 10 build 15025 brings braille support for Narrator Microsoft is excited to announce braille support for Narrator. This experience is currently in beta. So try it out and give feedback! In order to use braille with Narrator, you will need to do the following

Join Jessica Rickards and James Oates for another exciting Cool Picks as they discuss some of their favourite technology. Cool Picks: Braigo Companion by Braigo Labs, LLC ETI Eloquence for Windows Please feel free to leave feedback about your own accessible voting experiences, or how you've handled voting, whether you're from the U.S. or other another country.

In this episode, James Oates shows off a new accessibility feature which allows anyone using an Android phone running Nougat 7.1 or higher. If you open the camera app, and you have Talkback 5.1 or higher running, Talkback will automatically give feedback concerning how many people are in the frame, if the faces are centered, and what percentage of the screen is occupied by the face or faces. This is a great way for a person who is blind to take selfies and capture important moments. James also shows us how to give the photo a description, and share it to social media, cloud drive services, or by email.

Join Jessica Rickards and James Oates for another exciting VIP as they discuss accessible voting in the United States. Here's a look at what you can expect: Accessible Voting in Texas Accessible voting in Brevard County Florida Instructional Video for Florida Poll Werkers S-Automark Voting Machine Cool Picks: Braigo Companion by Braigo Labs, LLC ETI Eloquence for Windows Please feel free to leave feedback about your own accessible voting experiences, or how you've handled voting, whether you're from the U.S. or other another country.

Join hosts Joel Ramos, James Oates and Jessica Rickards as they discuss their Cool Picks. Not a week goes by that we don't bring you "Cool Picks" that we use on a daily basis: The UberEats app comes in handy when you just got to have that burger. Make sure to listen to catch Jessica's favorite orders on the app. It's available for both Android and iOS. Planning on upgrading to a new phone or simply want to make sure you don't lose all those important contacts on your smart phone? Then you definitely want to check out James' recommendation of the "My Contacts Backup" app for iOS. If you find that you are the forgetful type or know someone that leaves something behind everywhere you go. Then you are going to enjoy Joel's suggestion of the "Don't Leave It" app for iOS

Join Jessica Rickards along with TellMe TV CEO, Kevin Shaw, for this spotlight on TellMe TV. Gone is the old name and website for this fantastic audio description service, and what has replaced it is a more streamline, futuristic site with greater mobile device integration and app support. If you would like to try out this incredible service, TellMe TV is offering a special promotion just for our listeners. If you would like to start a free trial of TellMe TV, enter promo code TELLME17 when you sign up and you'll receive 3 months free. If you'd like to keep up to date with what's happening at TellMe TV, you can follow TellMe TV on Twitter, connect with TellMe TV on Facebook, or

This week's episode of VIP has plenty of surprises and interesting information. Join hosts Joel Ramos, James Oates and Jessica Rickards as they discuss the happenings in the world of accessible technology. This week's first surprise has nothing to do with tech but will leave plenty of the guys heartbroken. You've been warned! This week's topics include the following: The future of care for the elderly is here with the latest robot prototype from IBM and Rice University. Listen to find out how IBM Mera can impact the elderly who wish to live a more independent life. The battle to see which company can get its virtual assistant on the most devices continues. This week Vizio and LG both announce that they will now work with the Google Home Assistant. The team take a quick poll to see which one they use the most. Were you one of the many who didn't upgrade your MacBook Pro last October when Apple announced its latest computers? Check out the latest rumors to see what Apple plans to release later this