Latest / Blind Guys Chat / #105: It's all about the coding!

Transcript

#105: It's all about the coding! · Blind Guys Chat

• 0:13
  Welcome to blind guys chat, where this guy, Orin O'Neil.
• 0:17
  Hello.
• 0:18
  And this guy, Jan Bloom.
• 0:20
  Hello.
• 0:22
  Talk about the a to z of life.
• 0:30
  Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen. You're very welcome to episode 105 of Blind Guys chat. Nearly forgot what the name of the podcast was for a moment. But my two colleagues are just laughing. Laughing.
• 0:42
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 0:43
  It's a funny day.
• 0:44
  Come on.
• 0:46
  We were having some battery problems, you know, with this awful show.
• 0:52
  Well, I have to. I have to start. I have to start by saying we've got a lovely interview later on with a very young lady, Maura McEwan. And she's going to be talking to us about a new app that she's developing. And it's a lovely conversation.
• 1:04
  She will be celebrity, I think she will.
• 1:06
  She.
• 1:06
  Absolutely fantastic. Yeah, she will have to be.
• 1:09
  Nobody knows about her. But after this interview.
• 1:12
  So I have a bit of a gripe. I'm in a bit of a mood, I have to say.
• 1:16
  Oh.
• 1:16
  Because I've been sitting outside for the last little while with Larry. No, even Larry wouldn't go out. But I was remembering when we were interviewing Maura, and again, Jan was texting me earlier on today before he went in to record. And I've decided that Clodagh and I are going to move to the Netherlands.
• 1:38
  Oh, yeah. Really? I didn't know that.
• 1:40
  I've decided I just want a whim because I am sick to death of this irish weather. Oh, here we are.
• 1:48
  What's the problem? What's the problem?
• 1:49
  Well, last. Last couple of days we recorded with Moira, you told me it was 29 degrees.
• 1:56
  Yeah.
• 1:58
  And this morning when you texted me, you said it was also 29 degrees.
• 2:02
  Yeah.
• 2:02
  And it's. It was. It was, what, 20? I think it was nearly 20 today. No, it was 19 degrees here today. I went for a walk with Larry. Yeah, it was beautiful. And almost the minute we came home, I went outside and with a nice cup of tea and I was ready to have a little sit down and I was, this. Be nice. Yeah, yeah. And I suddenly realized, oh, I better get me hoodie. Cause it's freezing.
• 2:28
  Really?
• 2:28
  Yeah.
• 2:29
  Oh, he came in after sitting down and his hands were like blocks of ice, honestly.
• 2:34
  Oh, my God. I'm not even exaggerating because Chantal was very busy today with organizing her tournament for the tennis, you know, and they had to shorten the last round because it was too hot. And here also. Yeah. You know, I'm not allowed to keep the fan running, you know, due to this sound produced, etcetera. You know, but my God. Yeah, it is pouring. It's really. Yeah, it's amazing.
• 3:11
  But I don't understand how it can be warmer in the Netherlands than it can be in Ireland.
• 3:16
  We are so close. And also the zip line, this is Vivier.
• 3:21
  At this rate, that zipline is going to melt on your end. Freeze.
• 3:25
  Sure.
• 3:26
  Yeah. But you were telling me last time that it was stormy weather and we also had the stormy wind later on, so that was.
• 3:36
  Well, I do have a bit of good news related to stormy weather, which I was reading on the news app that I was reading while I was sitting outside freezing with my hoodie on, zipped up to the top. A german couple that are on a holiday here in the north of, in Donegal, up the north northwest of Ireland. They brought their bernese mountain dog with them on holiday. They're here for a month.
• 4:03
  Okay.
• 4:04
  And during this, I think it was during the storm, their little doggie, their Bernie flying away are quite large, actually got blown away by the, by the wind and rantaine and they. Poor little doggy went missing.
• 4:21
  Oh, really?
• 4:22
  And it's. No, I'm not saying it's funny. I'm not saying no. But they found, they found the dog today on a cliff edge.
• 4:31
  Oh, my God.
• 4:32
  After, I think this was a couple of weeks ago. Well, certainly we. He was on an island just. They were, they were on an island just off the coast of Donegal and I, they had kind of given up others, Larry, inside coming into me. They were on an island just off the coast of Donegal and they've been locals and everything had been searching for the dog and they just, they had even searched on the mainland just to say, see if the dog had managed to swim, to swim over and a pleasure boat today, a couple of guys went out fishing and they heard a dog barking and they, they were just out, just perchance they would just see what the. Cause. The weather was quite good up in donegal today and they heard this dog and the dog was black, but they could see a little white speck on his chest and they. What is that? And it turns out it was the dog. So the rescue helicopter was notified and went out there. But a local was listening to the helicopter, to the helicopter radio and was able to knew where they were talking about and went down onto the ledge and rescued this dog called Molly, this burns ease mountain dog. And apparently the dog was in very good health and was happy to see, happy to be rescued and all is well. I think that's a good story.
• 5:58
  But how is the behavior of Mister.
• 6:01
  Larry, he's still moving away, but I'm trying your trick of bribery. Bribery. Basically, I've been successful a couple of times where I've managed to get the lead on him, not the harness. Then he'll walk into the little porch area and we put the harness on. But more often than not, he's kind of thinking, uh oh. So I'm doing the treat trick now.
• 6:25
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:26
  So he works. And that is working. Yeah. So that's, that's success. Part success. But I shouldn't have to give him a treat.
• 6:36
  But I still also do it when I let chef out, you know, and it takes weeks, you know, and then he, he will forget it, and then he will get used to it. But it is a long time process. It really is.
• 6:53
  Yeah. But I do think as our dogs are getting older, they're getting a little cheekier or cleverer.
• 7:01
  Oh, yeah.
• 7:01
  I think they're trying to be a little bit cheeky. Yeah, that's true.
• 7:05
  Pushing their look.
• 7:07
  Larry's absolutely fantastic in that. In that I wouldn't have any problem getting home because Larry now stops at every crossing.
• 7:17
  Oh, really?
• 7:17
  But it's not that, like, we've. So sometimes, to tire him out, I try to go, we go the same route, but sometimes I cross the road, do kind of bit of a zigzag.
• 7:26
  Oh, yeah.
• 7:26
  To get his brain working. So we've basically done every crossing now on the little route we do, which is about 40 or 50 minutes. But. So now his kind of boldness or cheekiness is kind of what happens now is he goes, we go to, we start off on the walk yet, and then he goes, oh, there's a, there's a crossing here, dad. No, we're not crossing here.
• 7:48
  Okay.
• 7:50
  Yeah, but, but there's.
• 7:51
  Oh, so he thinks you might want to cross.
• 7:53
  So I brought you to the crossing door, didn't I, dad?
• 7:55
  So therefore I need to.
• 7:57
  Here's a little tria. Right? And then we go on. Do you want this crossing? Yes, we want this crossing. Okay, well, do I get a t or e? A t. Yeah. And then we go on another little bit and we go to a. What about this crossing? No, we don't.
• 8:13
  He's really playing very creative with you guys.
• 8:16
  And there's a little, there's a little turn where we go down the road and we're turning left. And the minute we turn left, kind of back onto our own kind of road to get up to the house, he stops and he's like, now, didn't I get you down the road. Yes, you did. Yeah, very good. Good boy. Let's go on. Oh, well, I'll go on if you give me a t or eat.
• 8:38
  Really?
• 8:43
  He's milking it, basically.
• 8:45
  Yeah, he's milking it.
• 8:48
  It is working.
• 8:50
  But did you hear also in the news that the most famous spy from Russia died?
• 8:57
  No.
• 8:57
  Really?
• 8:58
  Who's that?
• 8:58
  Yeah, she was. She or he. I don't know, it's he or she. She was found on the coast of Norway.
• 9:06
  Oh, really?
• 9:07
  So do you remember?
• 9:08
  No, I don't.
• 9:10
  Yeah, there was a white dolphin, you know, and she was caught once with Naharnas around and then with the name of Saint Petrus of it, and she was following ships, etcetera. So probably she was spying for the Russia.
• 9:30
  She did a little harness on her.
• 9:34
  And now she was found dead on the ghost.
• 9:39
  So she was like an albino.
• 9:41
  Yeah, probably, yeah. But she was very clever because he was really doing, I think, good work for Mister Putin. Yeah. But now, yeah, now she. Now he has to find on ships.
• 9:55
  Do you remember the ship Oren is fond of cruise ships. There was a cruise ships that was supposed to set off from Belfast. Oh, around the world cruise. It was going to take three and a half years.
• 10:10
  Oh.
• 10:10
  And people had signed up and they've all flown to Belfast to set off. Why did you want to sail out of Belfast with the Titanic's history and all that? But anyway, whatever.
• 10:18
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:21
  Off they, off. They thought they were going to go, but apparently it's been delayed for three months now. So these people are all hanging around Belfast waiting for their ship. They're living on the ship. The ship is. Is.
• 10:33
  Okay, so they were allowed to board? They were allowed to board, yeah.
• 10:38
  But there was a problem with the gears or something. Yeah. And so they're having to refurbish the engine and that's going to take three months. And so these people are told they can stay for free on the ship and be fed and watered and everything.
• 10:51
  Let's go up there, Clauda.
• 10:53
  Yeah, you'd have to pay, like, how much are you paying for a three and a half year cruise, though?
• 10:57
  I don't know.
• 10:59
  More than we have, I'll tell you that. But, yeah, so they were on the radio. So a couple of the people, the passengers were on the radio the other day and they were saying, yeah, you know, they've done day trips and this place and that place and they don't.
• 11:13
  From all over the world.
• 11:15
  Yeah. Well, mostly american, it seemed.
• 11:17
  Ah, those Americans yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They, they always believe those stories. Yeah.
• 11:24
  But there you go. Three months hanging out in Belfast when you, when you were supposed to be going around the world. I don't know.
• 11:29
  Yeah, perhaps. Yeah.
• 11:31
  Yeah.
• 11:31
  They're probably mostly retired.
• 11:33
  Have you been to Belfast, by the way?
• 11:35
  Oh, yeah. Lovely city, actually.
• 11:36
  Yeah, I've never been there, but it's.
• 11:39
  A really lovely city. And the people are incredibly friendly.
• 11:42
  They are. But let's move on because I heard also, I heard something very interesting today, which I don't know if any of the listeners are using seeing AI. I was listening to a podcast earlier on, and they were talking, somebody was giving a demonstration of a, I wouldn't say it's a new feature in seeing AI, but it was certainly a feature that hasn't, doesn't seem to be very well known, and it's called object detection. And basically we're doing a demo of this where a guy was using. You go into, there's different channels in seeing AI. And if you go into the world, I think it's called the World channel or World feed channel or something like that, there's another little menu in there where you can select to find or add items that you maybe lose on a regular basis.
• 12:35
  Is it like a beck or something?
• 12:39
  Well, this guy was demonstrating a pair of headphones. So he would go in to add this item in and he would call it headphones. And then basically seeing AI asks you to take four videos of the object in different positions. So what you do is you hold the object, put it on a table or whatever, make sure there's nothing else around the table so it can't get confused. And then you begin to move your phone because it's using the back facing camera a little bit away from the object, and then it pings and says, okay, let's move the object, put it on outside or whatever, and you go through this four little quick videos, and it beeps along as you're, you know, adding this device, this object into its memory. And then what happened was he moved the headphones after this was all done, he moved them into a different position in the house and launch seeing AI again. And it went and it said, you know, what do you want to look for? And it's. He said, select headphones. And he moved around his house. And sure enough, he had put the headphones in a completely different place. And sure enough, seeing AI found the headphones really scan the rooms that you.
• 13:57
  In with your phone camera, obviously, and it beeps or something.
• 14:01
  Yeah. So it's a little beep. As it gets louder, as it gets louder. As it gets louder. Then you get closer to the object. So try it out, folks, and maybe you'll try it out already. Maybe we'll try and do a little demo of it. But it's called object find object or something like that. But it's in seeing AI, it's in the world, the world channel or something. So it's a good one to try. If you, I thought it was also.
• 14:26
  Something envision that you could also locate an item or something. But this is more clever.
• 14:34
  This is. I think it sounds a little bit more clever. I started using invision, but I got mixed results with it. I'm using b. Sorry, I'm using be my eyes a lot more now for photo recognition, and I have found that it's actually, dare I say, well, it's different. Envision. The results are a little bit different to the, the photograph that you're looking for is also a little better.
• 15:02
  A lot. And that is because in WhatsApp, for example, it's a little bit more complicated on the iPhone, but because you need to go to open a photo and then go to share and then share again and then swipe, swipe, swipe. The alternative is when I use, I think you use WhatsApp on the desktop as well, you know, on the, on the, in the windows environment. Then you can do that simply with jaws because then you do insert space by P and then enter and it will automatically describe it. And that is quite fast.
• 15:35
  So you're saying if you have a photograph, if you have a photo in WhatsApp.
• 15:39
  Yeah.
• 15:40
  And you're running jaws on your desktop, you just go insert spacebar p. Yeah.
• 15:45
  Because then you open. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then you open the picture in the WhatsApp desktop program and then you have, then the focus on it and then insert spacebar p. Enter. And then hopa. There you are.
• 16:02
  All right. Shall we have our guest?
• 16:03
  Yeah.
• 16:06
  You can email blindguyschatmail.com or tweet us at blindguyschat if you have any comments or questions.
• 16:14
  Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for our guest. This person is very knowledgeable.
• 16:23
  She's very what?
• 16:24
  Very knowledgeable. She knows more knowledgeable.
• 16:27
  Oh. Just not, not like us.
• 16:29
  She's very bright.
• 16:29
  She's a bit of a genius.
• 16:31
  She is absolutely a genius. Maura, Maur McEwen is with us now, and she has come up with an app called ViP Mud. Did I say it right, Maura?
• 16:42
  You did. Yep.
• 16:44
  You're very welcome to the podcast.
• 16:46
  Thank you.
• 16:46
  You're welcome. Yay.
• 16:48
  We've been trying to get you on the podcast for a while because we talked to you a good while ago about your app, and you have some more news to talk about that. Tell us about the app. But first of all, we're going to ask you the hardest question that you're going to get in this podcast, which is our standard question on Brian Guy's chat. Where are you and what is the weather like today?
• 17:16
  Well, right now I'm in the small village of Rathmaline, and that's in the middle of nowhere in Meath.
• 17:26
  Middle of nowhere in Meath. Okay. Is it north, south, east, west of Ireland? Where is it?
• 17:32
  It's kind of in the middle, but more to the north, if you know what I mean.
• 17:37
  Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:40
  And the weather is at the moment is kind of bit overcast. You know, it's very cloudy, unfortunately, but at least it's not freezing cold.
• 17:50
  Guys, I have 29 degrees today.
• 17:57
  Tell Maura where you are because she may not know.
• 18:00
  Oh, we are in the Netherlands, in Den Hake. So that is on the coast of the Netherlands.
• 18:04
  Moira.
• 18:05
  Yeah, I'm interested.
• 18:07
  Well, you should be interested because this woman, this young woman has been developing an app for blindies like you and me. And can I just ask you more, if you don't mind? You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but your state of vision, what kind of vision do you have?
• 18:24
  At the moment, I'm partially sighted, so I have no vision in my left eye, but perfectly good vision in my right.
• 18:32
  Okay, so you have developed this app called Vipmod. Can you tell us a little bit about it?
• 18:38
  Yeah, yeah, sure. So, please. Vipmod stands for vision impaired persons moving object detector, and it's basically an app which detects fast moving objects like cars or e scooters for use by vision impaired people.
• 18:55
  E scooters and also e bikes?
• 18:58
  Yes. Any sort of fast object, anything that.
• 19:01
  Moves, even chef, when he's running fast, you know?
• 19:06
  Yeah.
• 19:07
  Is the guide dog.
• 19:08
  Chef is my guide dog. Sorry. He can be really speedy.
• 19:12
  But how did this come out? How did it come about, Maura? Tell us.
• 19:17
  So, I suppose I was inspired to create this app because, as I said, I'm vision impaired, and I find it hard to see oncoming vehicles, like cars, but particularly electric cars, because I would really just rely on my hearing to tell if cars were coming, but because now electric cars becoming more common, it's so difficult to tell you just turn around and then suddenly they're behind you. And a few years ago, I was nearly involved in a road accident when basically I was walking across a road and an electric car was speeding towards me on my blind side.
• 19:57
  Oh, dear.
• 19:58
  Oh, my dear.
• 19:58
  Okay. And you were not wearing earbuds or whatever, listening to music, what my kids are doing continuously. And they don't say that. They do that. Is that true? Am I a little bit too wet.
• 20:13
  Trying to get her into trouble?
• 20:19
  So what happened more when the electric car came up? Hopefully it didn't hit you.
• 20:25
  Oh, well, thankfully, no, I was. I was. I say it was about eight. So I was walking with my parents across the road. Thankfully, they saw it coming and they just dragged me out of the way and I was fine but very shaken, as you can imagine.
• 20:39
  Yeah.
• 20:39
  Yeah.
• 20:40
  So that's what motivated you, was it?
• 20:42
  Yeah. So I kind of. I remember I. When I was originally thinking of this, when I remember talking to my parents about it and I was saying, oh, well, I want to do something to help me with this. And my first ever drawing of vip mod, I suppose, was a teddy bear with a little sensor on it that could tell when a car was coming.
• 21:04
  So you'd carry your teddy with you and it would tell you. Yeah, that's a cool thing. But you're grown up a little bit now, so I'm guessing it doesn't look like a teddy bear anymore.
• 21:13
  No.
• 21:14
  To explain to people. You're still in school, right?
• 21:18
  Yeah. I'm going into fifth year in secondary school and so I've just turned 17 more.
• 21:24
  This Vipmod is a standalone device or is it connect or is it an app on your phone?
• 21:32
  At the moment, it's an app on the phone.
• 21:34
  Okay.
• 21:35
  I originally kind of. In my earlier prototypes, I was using bits of hardware that using different sensors that you could wear that would detect the cars. But I thought that, you know, everyone has a phone and it's something, you know, it would make Vipmod quite accessible to everyone if I had it on a phone. So I suppose I decided to develop it in app form.
• 22:00
  Have you completely developed this all on your own or. Who did you invite to help you out with the research and the actual implementation of the Apple application? Decoding? Is that the word?
• 22:12
  Yeah, I started developing it. It's still in development, obviously, but I started to develop it when I was in first year in school. But really for the first two years I was kind of teaching myself how to program so, you know, through different websites like w three schools and YouTube is great for that sort of stuff.
• 22:38
  And you taught yourself in a way?
• 22:40
  Yeah, I did, yeah.
• 22:42
  Okay.
• 22:42
  So I had done a few courses in DCU, different tech courses, that kind of introduced me briefly to python, but I hadn't really got any sort of formal education in coding, so most of it was just kind of teaching myself, I suppose. I was doing the first, uh, four post types were over the course of, I think, about two years, and I competed in the syfest national final in 2022. Uh, and that's.
• 23:12
  That's science fest, is it?
• 23:14
  Yeah. So it's science festival 17.
• 23:21
  I think you, uh, you quite understand the situation. Uh, it is typical irish, this. This side test or.
• 23:28
  Well, it started in Ireland, but it's actually an international competition, so it first was held in, I think it was Tud. So that was in Tala. So university in Tala, Dublin, and it kind of took off from there. So basically, each school sends different students who just have a science project or an experiment or some sort of study to this competition. And then if you. There's 16 regions across Ireland, and then if you win your region, then you go to the nationals. That's usually at the end of the year in November. And in 2022, I won my region. So I competed in the nationals. That November, I won the intel award. The national intel award.
• 24:15
  Wow.
• 24:16
  At that intel award, is that connected to the intel company?
• 24:20
  Yeah, that's right. Yep. They sponsored.
• 24:23
  They're based in. Their manufacturing is in Ireland.
• 24:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:27
  So, yeah. Cool. Well done. That's amazing.
• 24:30
  Yeah.
• 24:31
  But kind of since that prize, I suppose Vivmaj kind of took off because I was. Then I was put in contact with Enterprise Ireland and HDF patent lawyers, and also later on OCO Global, and they kind of advised me on the. The next steps, commercially, where I should take Bitmod.
• 24:52
  Can I go back to your DCU, your programming in DCU, were you involved in the center for talented Youth Ireland? The CTY?
• 24:59
  That's right, yeah, that was CTYI. So I love CTI, actually. I joined when I was in, I think it was a third class in primary school.
• 25:09
  Wow.
• 25:10
  And I'm in it now still for, you know, the secondary school section of it. And I love it, actually.
• 25:17
  Yeah. And just in case you don't know.
• 25:19
  No, I don't know. So I wanted to ask, but if you want to explain.
• 25:25
  You explain more?
• 25:26
  Yeah, please, more.
• 25:28
  Whenever at the end of the school year, you do your standardized tests, and then if you score highly in those, you're recommended to apply to CTYI, there's an entrance exam that you have to do, and if you score over a certain percentage in that, then you're able to go to the CTY courses.
• 25:51
  And so just to put it in context, the kids who get accepted onto these courses are generally in the top 5% nationally, Joe. So they're pretty smart kids.
• 26:06
  Where would Yannoy be?
• 26:07
  We'd be rushing. We'd be washing the floors, I think, is what we'd be doing. But it's an amazing program, and they run every year up until the summer before you're leaving Cert, I think before.
• 26:21
  Your 6th year, I did a fair share of all this stuff. So I remember, I think my first course was in drama and writing, performing, and it was also a Harry Potter theme one as well. They had a Harry Potter and a drama module put together.
• 26:37
  I think Rosalie would love to go there as well, you know, drama performing well? Yeah, sure.
• 26:42
  Yeah.
• 26:43
  Very cool.
• 26:44
  Yeah, it's really cool. And then at the same time, because you could do two kind of courses for a week. So I. That was the first course I did. And then another course, I've also done veterinary courses as well. And over Covid, there was a creative writing course for writing novels as well. And more recently, last year, during my fourth year, I did computer science and engineering, early university course.
• 27:12
  Brilliant.
• 27:13
  Okay. Coming back to Fitmod, when did it evolve in this CTY? What is it? Ctyro?
• 27:21
  Ctyi.
• 27:22
  Yeah, ctyi. Or was it already a little bit. Yeah, working in your mindset or whatever.
• 27:31
  I'd say that CGI, while I didn't actively work on my projects during the courses, it kind of gave me the tools to work on bitwatch, if you know what I mean, because I think I had that, as I spoke about earlier, with that accident, near accident. And then I think it was a year later I was in CTYI, and I was like, oh, I really wanted to learn how to develop an app. So then I chose that module, I think, and it was so kind of, it was really good at encouraging me to actually take part in that sort of area of stem, but also it kind of just showed me what type of technology was out there and what I could do. So during that first week, I learned how to program in Python, and then I also learned how to program app inventor, which was the software I used to program some of my later prototypes.
• 28:30
  So just tell us again that what.
• 28:33
  Did you, what was the programming method you used to develop your app?
• 28:38
  I saw used app inventor, which was developed by MIT. So it's basically this online website that you can program apps on using block based coding. So I was first introduced to app inventor during one of the DCU courses, and that was actually what I programmed my 4th, 5th prototype. Yeah, my fourth and my fifth prototype using app inventor.
• 29:09
  Brilliant. But you mentioned MIT there. Do you want to talk about what the connection is with MIT and what happened with.
• 29:15
  And what is MIT for me, as a no, no. You know.
• 29:19
  Yeah, go ahead, Maureen.
• 29:20
  I can answer that. It's the marvelous Institute of Technical people who live in America.
• 29:28
  Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah.
• 29:31
  Winnings now.
• 29:33
  No winnings. Orin. You'll win everything. You correct. Orin, there you correct.
• 29:40
  So, MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• 29:44
  Oh, it was already there.
• 29:47
  Yeah, nearly, oren, I think you have ten points. Not. Not twelve. Almost, yeah.
• 29:57
  So MIT is based over in Boston, and basically, if you're into computer programming or tech or anything kind of related to stem, it's a really cool place to go to, I'd say. And there's loads of really cool initiatives have come out of it, like app inventor and many other events, too. Already I have. Yes. I've been this summer, actually. It was actually through winning one of the competitions that app inventor has hosted. So, in April, I entered the MIT app inventor global Hackathon, as was global AI hackathon. So, basically, you were given a brief. So you either had to create an app that helped solve an issue in the environment, or that helped the health and well being of others. So I chose the health and well being section and I entered Vipmod into the competition. I was very surprised, but also really happy and really excited, too, that I. I won the youth individual prize of the competition. And I was invited to go over to present Vitmod at the MIT AI and education summit conference.
• 31:19
  And that was this year, 2024.
• 31:22
  Yeah, that's right. So, July, wasn't it? Yeah, it was late July. So 24th to the 26th, I think. Were the dates brilliant? Yeah, that's right.
• 31:32
  What was the feedback? What did they say?
• 31:35
  It was really cool, actually. It was really intense because it was my first ever conference and it was kind of. It was a very new world to me. But it was really fun as well, because there were loads of things on, like lectures and workshops and different people had, like, there was a robot dog over there as well, which is really cool.
• 31:59
  What's the robot dog's name?
• 32:02
  I'm not. I think it was Riley was the dog's name. It was really cool. You could even dance.
• 32:09
  Oh, wow.
• 32:10
  You could dance.
• 32:11
  Yeah.
• 32:12
  Brilliant.
• 32:13
  Larry dances usually at the dinner table.
• 32:16
  You presented your. He's a tap dancer. Larry is. You presented your thing and you won the. You won the overall competition. And what, like, did they give you a trophy or what did they do?
• 32:30
  They gave me a certificate. And also I was able to go on a tour of MIT as well.
• 32:35
  Brilliant. Wow.
• 32:36
  Which was really cool. I actually was really happy with how it went. There were some really good projects there, so I wasn't really expecting to win that prize.
• 32:48
  Am I corrected? And thinking that you didn't actually know there was a competition.
• 32:52
  Yes.
• 32:53
  Oh, really?
• 32:54
  It was very clever how they did it, actually.
• 32:58
  So you were not nervous at all?
• 33:00
  Well, no, I was very nervous, actually.
• 33:02
  Oh, you were presenting at a big.
• 33:04
  Conference in MIT, beside myself with nerves.
• 33:10
  There were about 300 people there, I think, watching.
• 33:13
  Okay.
• 33:13
  So I was quite nervous. But basically, the way they did it was that everyone. So myself, as the youth individual winner, and then the youth team winner, and then winners from other hackathons, other regional hackathons that were held, were all presented at this conference. And after everyone had given their presentation. Oh, yeah, sorry. There was five minutes you were allowed to present your project, and then for two minutes afterwards, you were asked question by the judges. So I kind of. I wasn't sure. Well, if there's. If there are judges there, then does that mean that it's a competition? But I just kind of dismissed that thought. I was really.
• 33:55
  He didn't worry about that.
• 33:56
  I didn't worry about that. I was, like, put it out of my mind and just focus on the presentation.
• 34:01
  Very wise.
• 34:03
  But I'm kind of glad I did, because then after the presentation, our last presentation was finished, and everyone was really relieved and just really happy. And then what happened was Natalie, who has hosted the competition, she came up to the stage and then announced that the judges would be deliberating in the deliberations room for ten minutes. And ice cream for everyone.
• 34:31
  How many.
• 34:32
  Hold on. Ice cream for everyone.
• 34:36
  I love one. I love one. It's too hot here, you know, in my room. Yeah, but. But how many competitors were there? Or none? Non competitive. Not knowing competitors or whatever the NK.
• 34:52
  I think there were both. I think at the conference, there were about six projects. Five or six projects.
• 34:59
  Okay.
• 35:00
  So they were kind of handpicked from the different hackathons that were held. Amazing. So we were all kind of looking at each other like, what? I didn't realize this was a competition. Everyone actually was. Was really nice. And I made a few friends there as well, which is good. We all had our ice cream, and then they were.
• 35:23
  You won. I mean, that's a huge achievement. Well done.
• 35:28
  Congratulations. Honestly, that's just amazing. I'm actually looking. Looking up the stuff.
• 35:34
  Okay.
• 35:35
  Online as we go. I'll put. I'll put some links in. But it is just phenomenal. It really is.
• 35:40
  And it was a global thing. So MIT invited, well, you from Ireland, and were there for other. Whether from the US or China or whatever, you know, India.
• 35:52
  Yeah, there were. From my hackathon there. There was someone from, I think it was Taiwan and Korea and then someone from America.
• 36:02
  You've won this, but just tell us about how the app will actually work. Yeah.
• 36:08
  Because I want to know more about my app. You know, can we use it? Yeah, we need it. Because when I cross here, when I go out with chef, then I need to cross a cycle path. And my God, there are hundreds of e scooters and e bikes and all the, you know. So please let me know.
• 36:28
  It's basically, it's just an app on your phone that when you open it up, and what it does is it uses AI to analyze video footage. You press the start button, and it starts analyzing through your camera on your phone, what's around you. And if it detects that there is a car, what it does is, first of all, it displays that, you know, there's a car nearby on screen. Then it calls out to you, using text to speech that there's a car nearby or something like that. And then it vibrates as well. So you're kind of given all three types of warnings that there's something nearby.
• 37:07
  But you need to use your camera, and you need to point your camera off your phone into certain directions. Or will it automatically do the 360 degree? Because I don't know where a car is coming from, you know, or the.
• 37:20
  Bike with the phone. I would just put it on, say, like, my left shoulder, so be able to check stuff on my left side. But I'm hoping to now incorporate, as you said, a 360 camera so the person doesn't have to hold out the phone in front of them and they can get a full view of their environment, if you know what I mean. So the.
• 37:39
  And you don't need to wear a glass, a pair of glasses or whatever. Or do you wear something on your hat or whatever?
• 37:47
  I think if you want.
• 37:49
  Yeah, the camera shirt would be. Would be attached on the hat. You get. You get your own bitmod hat.
• 37:55
  There you go.
• 37:56
  There's merchandise. So the end product, the idea would be that would you hold the camera up, let's say, to your chest and not move it about, but run the application. And then it would say, if there is traffic coming to your left or your right, is that the way it is? It should work? Eventually, yeah, eventually, yeah.
• 38:16
  Well, hopefully we'll get there, but yeah, that's how it should work.
• 38:20
  And can you put in also a kind of verbosity that it won't respond to everything or that you can select cars or bikes or whatever?
• 38:32
  Yes. So that would be one of the things, I would add, that you can kind of filter what objects you want to detect. Because obviously, if you're like, I live in a rural area, I don't need be really seen maybe cars or jeeps or cyclists or jeeps, you know, whereas if you were in the city, there'd be, you know, you might stream it so that it detects e scooters as well.
• 38:58
  Let's say you are in the city, will it tell you, or eventually, like, if the car is. If there's a car across the road, let's say on your left hand side, if the car is not moving, if it's parked, will it, will it also tell you that that car is there, or is it just looking for moving objects to alert you to.
• 39:19
  It would just detect whether, say, it would do it in order of priority of like, which is most dangerous. So if there was a car speeding towards you, it would tell you of that first anecdote.
• 39:30
  So it's looking at velocity as well?
• 39:33
  Yes, that's very good.
• 39:35
  That's something which I'm working on right now.
• 39:39
  Is it. Do you use special logarithmics or whatever?
• 39:44
  Yes. So it's using computer vision. So basically AI just, it's able to recognize if it's a car or pedestrian. And then, as you said, a further application of it would be the velocity.
• 39:58
  Given that, you know, you had this near accident when you were eight, how has it changed your life so far? Because it's your app, you're using it obviously. Has it been a dramatic change? Do you feel a lot safer now when you're using the app, when you're trying to cross the road?
• 40:14
  Let's say I wouldn't rely on it completely because it's using AI, and AI isn't fully developed yet, that I would fully trust it, but it certainly gives me a lot more confidence, I feel, because it's basically like having a second pair of eyes.
• 40:31
  Yeah. It's like a belt and braces approach. Like you're using your ears, you're using the. Your vision that is there. But also you've got this as an extra kind of safety precaution.
• 40:42
  Can we try it or is it already beta testers?
• 40:46
  Oh, that would be perfect. I love that. Please. Trying to get feedback for it. Just so different things like, as you said, if how I would use it as someone who's partially sighted is different to someone who's say, completely blind. But yeah. So that would be brilliant if that would be possible.
• 41:04
  So are you actively looking for people to test this for you?
• 41:09
  Yes.
• 41:12
  Our listener is millions. You know.
• 41:18
  Can we.
• 41:19
  How would.
• 41:20
  If people wanted to be beta testers, how would they. How would they sign up for that? Do you have a website or.
• 41:25
  I have an email address here which I can. I can call it.
• 41:29
  Okay. Yeah, go for it.
• 41:31
  So it's Vipmod dot info@gmail.com so that's vip mo dash info@gmail.com okay.
• 41:44
  And we put it in the show notes. Of course. Yeah.
• 41:47
  You can sign myself and Jan up. Definitely. What's next down the line now? What's. Yeah. Where are you for, you know, how far away would you be from launching this? Or. And by the way, we must also say that if you are interested in becoming a beta tester, there will be a small charge on behalf of beta testing. What's next in the development?
• 42:20
  I suppose the immediate next step is, as you said, it's looking for testers just to give feedback on it. Vision Ireland are going to be testing vip mod in the wayfinding center, I think, near the end of this month. So that would be great as well. But obviously, more people I can get, the more feedback and the more I can edit it to improve it and get it the best I can.
• 42:46
  Yeah, it's brilliant. Well done.
• 42:48
  Very proud of yourself.
• 42:49
  Yeah. Well done.
• 42:50
  Yeah.
• 42:52
  Thank you very much for your. And so is there also a website already or what we can look at or. It is still.
• 43:01
  Still in development, I think.
• 43:02
  Yeah, I do have a LinkedIn website, though, or a LinkedIn page that's more and more McCune.
• 43:11
  Yeah.
• 43:11
  Okay.
• 43:12
  So if any of you guys listening want to check it out.
• 43:15
  Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes as well.
• 43:16
  I will link it.
• 43:17
  Indeed. Brilliant.
• 43:18
  Will you come back and tell us, just keep us informed when it actually goes live and how the. How the beta testing is going, because we need to come back, in fairness.
• 43:29
  This is like, it's such an achievement. In fact, it's a series of achievements. And I'm so impressed. Honestly, Maura, it's a phenomenal thing you're doing. Well done.
• 43:38
  So wonderful. Yeah. Many thanks. Yeah.
• 43:41
  Thank you, guys.
• 43:41
  Yay.
• 43:43
  That was just brilliant. Thank you so much, Maura. And we really hope and wish you the best of success for this new app. I can't wait to use it. I've signed.
• 43:54
  And we encourage everyone to write this email and to become a beta tester, you know?
• 44:00
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 44:01
  And we want to have an autograph that she signs it also personally, because she is going to be our next. Yeah, yeah. It's important.
• 44:12
  Madam, you know, I'm wondering if the weather will get any better with the new version of iOS 18 on the. Have you heard anything about it, Jan?
• 44:26
  They are going to integrate more and more AI. So I don't know if they also use it for the weather app, but they for sure use it with the Siri. It will act more like a companion that you can speak to and you will get an answer from Siri and then you can respond again and respond again, etcetera. So it is a little bit more interactive and yeah, who knows what can be the advantage of it.
• 45:00
  Still the most annoying thing about an incoming call when you're using voiceover on the Apple iPhone. And I do not know why, if there's been feedback or not, but I do not understand when a call comes in and it says, yeah, Jan Blom.
• 45:16
  Yeah.
• 45:17
  Why doesn't it say again like maybe 7 seconds later, Jan Blom is called.
• 45:22
  But also, do you recognize sometimes when someone is calling and you missed this name and then you want to swipe left down and it will only so it don't go to the name, but it stops at the home number or the mobile number. Terrible.
• 45:42
  I've had that as well. That experience is terrible. Yeah. Claudia, you've got some calendar dates about braille or not braille things, but things going on.
• 45:50
  Yeah. It's the 6 September, which is this Friday, I think is color blindness Awareness Day. And it's in the UK mostly, but I think it's kind of sometimes goes further than that. And if you want to know about more about it, you can go to colorblindness awareness.org and you can find out what's going on, maybe in your local area, whatever. But it's interesting, I thought International Day of Sign languages, so I know that's not.
• 46:17
  I thought you were going to say International Day of Silence. That'd be. I go for that. Yeah.
• 46:23
  Is September 23. And there's also International Week of deaf people because, you know. Yeah. International Week of Deaf people 2024. It runs from the 23 September to the 29 September. And you can look up wfdeaf.org for details on that. And then also there is, and this is more kind of inclusive, really. This, the inclusive design 24 competition runs. It's a free 24 hours online event for a global community. And it celebrates inclusive design and shares knowledge and ideas from analog to digital, from design to development, from planners to practitioners and everything and everyone in between. You don't have to register or anything, but you can go to inclusivedesign 24 dot dot.
• 47:14
  That's very good. And don't forget also, folks, because our podcast will be after, our next podcast will be after this date. But September 10 is when Trump gets whipped by Kamala Harris.
• 47:27
  Oh, is that the debate?
• 47:28
  Oh, is that the debate? I'm happy that Kamala Harris as a prosecutor, you know, she knows how to deal with criminals, you know. So in the debate also, Siwa, roast him, you know.
• 47:43
  Yeah, I'm really hope so.
• 47:44
  Anyway, that's it for 105 and we hope to see you and listen in for episode 106. And don't forget to email us blindguyschat@gmail.com. bye.