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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Show Notes:
Furenexo with Brian Goral | www.furenexo.com
Netflix Audio Description: What a Difference a Year Makes – AccessWorld® – July 2016 http://buff.ly/2asiRmM
Teaching Teenagers With Autism How to Drive Using Virtual Reality http://buff.ly/2asso79
App: Can Plan www.BridgingApps.org
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BRIAN GORAL: Hi, this is Brian Goral, and I’m the cofounder of Furenexo, and this is your Assistance Technology Update.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals crossroads in Indiana with your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Welcome to episode number 271 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on August 5, 2016.
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Today I spend some time with Brian Goral of Furenexo. They are carving out the edge of entrepreneurial and open-source assistive technology. I review a really great article from Jamie Pauls over at Access World Magazine where she talks about Netflix audio description and how that is getting a little bit better; also a cool article about teaching teenagers with autism how to drive using virtual reality; and a review of an app called Can Plan from our friends over at BridgingApps.
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We hope you’ll check out our website at www.eastersealstech.com, send us a note on Twitter at INDATA Project, or call our listener line at 317-721-7124.
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Have assisted larger questions? Check out our other show at ATFAQshow.com.
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A friend of the show Jamie Pauls over at AFB Access World Magazine has an interesting article entitled Netflix audio description, what a difference a year makes. Back around this time last year there was a lot of talk about audio description whether or not the Netflix ecosphere was accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired or who use voiceover. Well, it’s a year later Netflix has been plodding along and making progress that might when you make you want to go back and take another look. Back then there were a lot of complaints that there weren’t a lot of audio described programs and that getting access to them wasn’t all that great. As of Jamie’s writing, there are now 152 programs that are listed with audio description, and that includes stuff like House of Cards, Marvel’s Daredevil, and you’ll find things like documentaries like My Beautiful Broken Brain and Keith Richards Under The Influence.
Also, accessing the content is getting better. Navigating the menu systems, depending on which platform you’re using, continues to get better. There were some bugs that have been resolved. Owners of the fourth generation Apple TV can now use audio description with very little hassle. Some of the problems in the iOS Netflix app have been resolved to make that voiceover access work a little bit better. Netflix has been working with the American Council of the Blind and others to make sure that we continue to get better in this area.
I was little bit fascinated to know that the ATP has a website called the Audio Description Project, and in there are there is a category on Netflix. It’s really an online place where people who are fans and interested in audio described content can go and talk about what’s working well and movie theaters and on DVD and Blu-ray and on Netflix and all those kinds of things. In the Netflix section of that page, it breaks out all of the different kinds of audio described content so you don’t have to navigate the Netflix menu to find it. It talks about there are original series that are audio described, like Fuller House and House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. It talks about movies like Fish Tank and How To Train Your Dragon 2, Lee Daniel’s the Butler, Disney’s Tarzan. It talks about TV series like American Dad, Criminal Minds, Longmire, and even the kid stuff, Care Bear and Cousins, Ella the Elephant, Mister Peabody, and Sherman. My kids love that one. If you want to go to that website on the ACB website which happens to be ACB.org/ADB, you can navigate through to the Netflix page and find people talking about all kinds of audio description and read more about what’s happening with Netflix accessibility.
One other thing Jamie mentions is that there is a new contender coming out of Canada called Zaga Entertainment that will have a $9.99 per month subscription fee, and they are supposed to have audio described content at the core of who they are and what they do. However, I want to encourage you to go over and check out Jamie’s article. I’m going to pop a link in the show notes and you can get all of the dirty details on what’s happening with Netflix audio description one year later. Check our show notes.
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The headline reads, “Teaching teenagers with autism how to drive using virtual reality.” This comes out of Vanderbilt University, and they’re talking about a new series of simulations that are designed to assist people with autism – those teenagers who want to drive and learning to do so. It’s an interesting thing. They set up a thing called the Vanderbilt VR Adaptive Driving Intervention Architecture, or VADIA. What it is is a full simulator, so it has a bucket seat, a series of screens and eye sensors that even connects the drivers to an EEG and an EMG system and an ECG system so all of these biometric monitoring systems.
What it does is it puts them in a series of simulations where they are driving in the city or they are in the country, different speeds, different traffic signs, pedestrians, different weather and all that kind of stuff. It monitors their galvanic skin responses, their blood pressure, even looked at their eyes to see where they focus their attention. What they can do with that is have these young folks with autism drive and figure out are their eyes on the screen where they need to be, are they paying attention, are they getting bored, are they getting distracted, so they can start working on what kind of driving scenarios work well, what kinds of situations cause more dangerous situations. It also has a learning more that will flash text messages on the screen to warn them you’re going too fast or you might have made a driving mistake to prompt them as they are learning the driving skills to do so a little more safely.
Pretty fascinating collection of high technology being used to help young folks with autism figure out whether driving makes sense or not and using some amazing biotech things to make that happen. I’m going to pop a link in the show notes over to MDT magazine where you can read about this and see a picture of the machine on your own. Check our show notes.
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Each week, one of our partners tells us what’s happening in the ever-changing world of apps, so here’s an App Worth Mentioning.
AMY BARRY: This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is an App Worth Mentioning. Today I am sharing the app called Can Plan. Can Plan promotes independence and builds confidence by helping people with cognitive challenges complete tasks successfully. Virtually any activity can be broken into a sequence of easy-to-follow steps, illustrated by photos and reinforced with optional text and audio. Scheduling and reminder features ensure that each task gets done on time. This app is especially beneficial to people who have difficulty performing activities that require following a sequence of steps including those with brain injury, dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and developmental disabilities.
Support workers and therapists are providing can plan to their clients with cognitive, memory, and other challenges, while families and caregivers are using the tool with loved ones who desire more independence. So for any given task, a user initially goes through the activity with the support person or family member, and then together they can take photos of each step in the task, adding text or audio as needed. The task is a been filed under a customizable set of categories which include areas such as food preparation, household chores, shopping, transportation, exercise, workplace tasks, and so on. We trialed the app with children ages 10 to 12, one diagnosed with ADHD combined type. The children learn to sort and wash a load of clothes, and we were able to easily customize a sample task by adding a picture and short description to each step of the task. Once the steps were set up, a to-do list was created featuring the tasks chosen. An instant visual schedule with modifications is created when the tasks are added to the calendar. We cannot emphasize enough the ease of use and value of this app. CAN Plan is available for free at the iTunes Store and is compatible with iOS devices. For more information on this app and others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.
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WADE WINGLER: So I was raised on a farm in Indiana and I came from a long line of farmers and entrepreneurs. So when I hear the words entrepreneurship and assistive technology, I’ve got to tell you that is right in my sweet spot. So I am super excited today to introduce you guys to a company called Furenexo who has some big dreams and some strong plans. I’m ready to learn more about what they are doing today. I’m excited to have Brian Goral who is the cofounder of Furenexo on the line. We’re going to talk about some pretty cool cutting-edge technology. Before I jump into the geeky part, first of all, Brian, are you still there?
BRIAN GORAL: Yes, I am.
WADE WINGLER: Thank you so much for taking time out of your afternoon to hang out with us. I am super excited to learn about what Furenexo is anda little bit about you, what your background is and how you got involved with the company. How did you get with two where you are today?
BRIAN GORAL: The bulk of my career, about 15, 16 years, was with the US government. One of the last roles I managed in my government service was helping to transition new technology investments and startup companies to actual usable products within different elements of the government, whether it’s the U.S. Army or the intelligence community, and really give them an understanding of the requirements of the front end users and what is actually going on in the technology world and build those bridges in between the two. In particular, for assistive technology, certainly in my government work I’ve had a lot of contact with various veterans and people have been through all kinds of different ordeals, which I’m sure many of your listeners can empathize with. But in particular, and this is actually a little bit separate from the government work but still more connected to the — companies and taking a look at what’s out there. I had the honor and privilege to visit a company in California called exo-biotics. They are doing exoskeletons to help people who are in wheelchairs learn to stand up and walk. They use a therapeutic system that often used in hospital to help people regain muscle tone and basically use of machine learning to mimic exactly the way that the human skeleton should move. When I had the honor to visit them, I was introduced by a friend of mine. The honorable part was I got to see a woman who thought she was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, with the assistance of this exoskeleton, send about of which are for the first time. I’m sure there was probably a try I in the building, but it certainly in the room as that was going on. That really left an impression. Fast-forward a couple of years, I left the government, moved to New York last year, and got in touch with Eric gift, the other cofounder who’s been really fantastic with helping get other companies off the ground, and his whole family has been connected with disabilities. When we started mastering ideas together for what we can do to push technology forward in a way that’s valuable for people and not just doing a mover for dry-cleaning, we settled on there’s a lot of the challenges out there that technology can now address in ways that whenever possible before.
WADE WINGLER: Brian, clearly entrepreneurship, startups, and assistive technology, that is all in your sweet spot.
BRIAN GORAL: Absolutely.
WADE WINGLER: I was looking at your site related to a Kickstarter campaign. As this interview is scheduled to release, I think this Kickstarter campaign was to be going out. In your video, I heard you say that assistive technology haven’t kept up with technological innovations. I’m going to court to hear as saying, assistive technology for people who need it most still kind of sucks. I think some in my audience would clearly agree with that and some might disagree. Talk to me about that statement a little bit.
BRIAN GORAL: Absolutely. Part of where the statement comes from is from the viewpoint of where is currently technology for the rest of the world commercially. As we take a look at all of the devices people are using every day from laptops to fit bits to cell phones with a jillion features to driverless cars, and we started asking questions like why is it more difficult for a person who is blind to navigate a sidewalk in their own neighborhood than it is for driverless car to drive down the road? There is this massive technology gap between this commercial technology skyrocketing over the years, really leaving behind assistive technology. I think most people are fully with the idea that through the last several decades, it used to be thought that if a person had blindness, they could begin a cane, perhaps a good dog, and it would be about it, or a person with some form of mild hearing loss could begin hearing aids, but not much else could be done. Now with the advent of machine learning and commodity level technologies that are available in our cell phone that can do things like optic object recognition and facial recognition with cameras, voice recognition and translation, there is this whole world of challenges that we can address now in ways that we simply haven’t been able to do before , no major companies have really taken the time to take a step back and say these are challenges that we can address now. A lot of it has been more focused on — and what we are really hoping to do is bring attention to say, you know what, assisted Reggie is and where it could be relative to the rest of the world –
WADE WINGLER: In a lot of ways, I can agree. I think there’s an opportunity there that’s being missed, although I would push back a little bit and say some companies, Apple comes to mind, has done a pretty good job of building accessibility into their products. But that’s not exactly the same thing either.
BRIAN GORAL: Not to take away from other companies that are trying to make advances in accessibility. There’s a lot more that can be done if people in some of these companies actually go for designing for the harder challenges and recognize that not only will this technology make it possible for people with various disability challenges to access their product immediately, but designing for the hardest challenges are going to open up new markets and benefit from luxury items. Think about a company that could potentially design a wheelchair that might be comfortable for anybody to sit in for 16 hours. What major airline or luxury tire manufacturer would be at least curious about that? But the design doesn’t necessarily work in the other direction. If you are designing a new luxury car seat, that’s not necessarily going to translate into a fantastic wheelchair.
WADE WINGLER: Excellent point. We are talking about products at this point. I want to hear about sound sense. I hear is your first product?
BRIAN GORAL: Yes, it is. We released it on Kickstarter about two weeks ago.
WADE WINGLER: Tell me about it. I love to know about what it does, features, availability, pricing, all that good stuff.
BRIAN GORAL: It’s actually pretty straightforward technology. In response to loud noises, alarms, sirens, even a friend calling out across the room, for someone who is — death and is able to normally register or react to these types of things, the system has a microphone that will listen to and process that sound and begin a vibration to give that person a sense of awareness that there is something, and whether they should be paying attention to it. Whether it’s for a safety element or that extra confidence when they go jogging or traveling to a new hotel or staying at a friends house where they don’t have their normal set up. In terms of pricing and availability, right now we are offering it for our Kickstarter. There are still a couple of the early availability slots left for $25, but the general price of $30. Part of that is we really wanted to design a product and make it available that people don’t have to go through the instrument system. You don’t have to buy a $400 I want to be with the access this product or have to worry about taking it to a young child and worry about that first breaking incident. It’s a standalone device. Right now we have a form factor which we call the pocket. It has a pen clip that will allow someone to slip into their pocket. The next form factor is a watch form factor.
WADE WINGLER: It sounds like it’s a fairly simple design but probably very reliable, and the usability is pretty simple. That’s great.
BRIAN GORAL: The idea for it came through Eric’s family. He basically had two incidents where people had indicated – back in the late 90s, a device that was kind of similar but much larger and much more expensive had existed, but the company that had made it actually went out of business. Those devices no longer were available and there was certainly no way to miss the wish of a product. This was something that was brewing at the back of Eric’s head where we can design it, we can build it and put it out there. It was basically something that other people in the community were asking for.
WADE WINGLER: This isn’t the only product you ever plan to do. According to your website, you have more things in the works.
BRIAN GORAL: Absolutely. One of the things we did early on was reconnected with a lot of teachers from special education backgrounds. I think many of your listeners are from this group. Repeatedly what we heard from any of them was it’s certainly disruptive for a classroom, but it’s really interesting for a child who has an attention deficit disorder to be called out hour after hour, day after day, in the middle of class because they are daydreaming. Circling to the IDP plans, and there are requirements that these children have to be called out so they are not in detention, or at least have some indication to the teacher as part of the requirement. Just coming up with a simple device that can help jostle the child. Essentially we are looking at a wristwatch design – we haven’t finalized the form factor – that could provide a vibration – an accelerometer that recognizes when the child is at the normal, daytime classroom, or even potentially with a Bluetooth link, that a teacher who is teaching from an iPad or has their cell phone in front of the class could subtly touch a button without necessarily disturbing rest of the class or drawing attention to what’s going on and still be able to provide a jostle. That’s our next product that we are looking at towards the end of this year. Moving forward, we actually have our visual. We are using — technologies – runway in order to go after our big audacious goal, which is really taking a look at these object recognition camera systems – in order to provide an awareness of the world around you for a person who actually doesn’t have their vision.
WADE WINGLER: This is the moonshot project that you mentioned on the website, right?
BRIAN GORAL: Absolutely.
WADE WINGLER: Tell me about it.
BRIAN GORAL: One of the groups we engaged early on was called Helen Keller services. When we first started talking to them about the idea of data through touch — vibration, what they said is data through touch is basically braille. Helen Keller services, they work not just with people who are blind but also people who are deaf and then the combination deaf-blind, which I’m sure you and many of your listeners know there are about 2 million such people in the world which for me is a mind-boggling number. Communicating with the people who are deaf-blind in particular, a lot of it is done through tracing patterns out on somebody’s back or arm or shoulders in order to provide information that they’re just not going to be able to get otherwise. What we ended up doing is we designed a series of cuffs like a bracelet that have small motors in them much like the motors in your cell phone. With most people’s cell phones, anytime the motor vibrates, you can tell the difference between an incoming text message or phone call. By making a small array of these motors in a bracelet form, we are starting to test — braille alphabet through these bracelets. We are getting an understanding of how sensitive different parts of your arm are, how close together these motors can be, how much information can we put through these bracelets. Then we will test on individual letters or words with the idea being that you could have a tap running from the wrist to your elbow and backup. That linear sensation could represent the next 20 feet in front of you are free of obstacles. Then you make that a reality by connecting it to one of those object recognition cameras. An object recognition camera recognizing an object in front of you, you get a tap. Or perhaps if there is an obstacle, maybe instead of a vertical tap, maybe it could be a horizontal sensation. Or if it recognizes that it is your friend Jim, it is a circular pattern. It traces out on your arm based on what the actual camera recognizes in front of it.
WADE WINGLER: That is fascinating. Having worked in the world of assistive technology with people who are blind or visually impaired for a long time, that’ll be great. We are running a little close on time here for the interview, but I have a couple of other questions that I think are important. You guys are doing this in an open-source way, and I saw a term on your website called enablist. Talk to me about those things a little bit.
BRIAN GORAL: First, an enablist, we have kind of two definitions of what it means. An individual – the person matters more than the disability. Number two, and I don’t think anyone will distribute that one. The number two definition, sort of the dictionary definition of this, is an individual who supports the open assistive technology movement. What we mean by open assistive technology is we are taking our products and we are putting this design online. We want to make sure the people have the ability, the technical know-how or resources or simply the desire, they can take our design, they can improve upon it, reproduce them in locations where we are not normally able to access the markets to deliver. If somebody is listening in Bangladesh and they want to download our plans and figure out, I have access to these components or instead of a 3-D printed shell I can carve one out of material myself, more power to them. We know that we have no need to corner the market on assistive technology. It certainly doesn’t make sense from an economic point of view, and there are so many technologies out there. Just from a human standpoint, you want to make sure the people can build upon what we are doing and take it one step further.
WADE WINGLER: That’s amazing. I love your spirit and I love what you’re trying to do with that. I think there’s a way we can help. Tell me about your Kickstarter campaign.
BRIAN GORAL: Are Kickstarter campaign, what we are doing is we’re selling our first product, the sound sense. It’s currently listed at $30 and we really want to make sure it’s portable for people. We recently got selected as a product we love by Kickstarter. If you forget the name for next or you forget the name sound sense, you can search on technology products that Kickstarter love that you’ll find it. Just go to the Kickstarter and type in sound sense and it will take you right to our page. There are several options for not only being able to buy a the product directly, but if you are a hearing person or you don’t feel you necessarily have value for this particular device, you can have one gifted for another person, or you can do a buy one give one where you will receive one yourself and we’ll make sure that we can get a device out to somebody else in the deaf community who has a desire for one of these units.
WADE WINGLER: I know we’re going to have people listening to this show at the Kickstarter campaign. Give us a website or other contact information so they can reach out to you.
BRIAN GORAL: The easiest way is Furenexo.com.
WADE WINGLER: Brian Goral is one of the cofounders of Furenexo and has been a great guest today. Thank you so much for being our show.
BRIAN GORAL: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you taking the time.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124, shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. Looking for a transcript or show notes from today’s show? Head on over to www.EasterSealstech.com. Assistive Technology Update is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more shows like this plus much more over at AccessibilityChannel.com. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.
