The holiday season brings along gifts, good tidings and of course awards shows. Before we phase out the year that was, and observe the tradition of the MoonPie dropping over Mobile As we do every December, we collected the highlights of the year s Blindness and Low Vision Assistive Technology news and pressed it into a giant scrapbook. BBQ Crew members J.J., Joe, Shelly Brisbin, Scott Davert And Lisa Salinger have some thoughts about what transpired in 2019? And they were silly enough to make wild guesses about what 2020 may hold as well. Check out the show notes for BBQ 204 to read more about what news made our list of emerging trends and big stories.
This might be the first year that many readers of this site actually paid attention to the never ending demos and long list of specifications during the unavoidable camera section of any of the mainstream press events. Because, in 2019, this was the year that a good camera on a mobile device could open up the world in so many unexpected ways. From exploring photos with Seeing AI, to using a wide angle lens on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with AIRA or offline scanning documents with VoiceDream. We experienced a ton of new features and camera support during the year. Sadly, as we discuss in episode 204 of the BB Qast, some of these new options also come with new privacy concerns. Yet that seems to be the norm with any modern technology these days. Expect convenience vs. security to continue to be a theme we examine further in 2020.
Here is a list of several companies making news in the OCR and Visual Assistance spaces in 2019.
AIRA
AIRA training site now live
New Cane and Guide Dog Emojis Coming in 2019, We Asked Aira to Describe what They Look Like
#CSUNATC19 Audio: Framing the Rewarding Future of AIRA with some Help from Bose
AIRA Welcomes Mike Randal As New CEO
#Sponsored Blind Bargains Convention Coverage: AIRA with Big Deals, Big Presence at #NFB19 and #ACB19
Interview: Greg Stilson from AIRA talking about the new 5 minute free promotion
Aira, Microsoft, and Moovit make public transport more accessible for the visually impaired
Choose the perfect gift, find the best food, or get help finding the perfect holiday decorations with Aira
Be My Eyes
Be My Eyes Announces New Partnerships
Interview: Will Butler and Alexander Hauerslev Jensen Be My Eyes
#NFB19 Audio: What To Expect When You re Expecting News From Be My Eyes
Be My Eyes Welcomes the National Federation of the Blind to Specialized Help
EnVision AI
Interview: Karthik Kannan, EnVision AI
EnVision AI is the winner of a Google Play Award for accessibility
Cracking down on crackers
EnVision AI Releases v2.0 for iOS And New Region Based Pricing
Seeing AI
Exploring Photos And More With Microsoft Seeing AI Version 3.0
Interview: Saqib Shaikh, Seeing AI
Discussion about Microsoft Build 2019: #18: Low Orbit Halos
Seeing AI adds dark mode, Siri Shorcuts and more
The AppleVis Community Names Seeing AI and Dice World as its Golden Apples of 2019
Microsoft updates Seeing AI,bringing new languages,currencies, and support for Siri shortcuts
VoiceDream Scanner
Scan documents with Voice Dream Scanner, available now on the Itunes App Store
May's Access World contains articles about employment and reviews the awsome new VoiceDream Scanner
Interview: Winston Chen of VoiceDream
No one has commented on this post.
You must be logged in to post comments.
Or Forgot username or password?
Register for free
Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
