A Chat About the ARX Vision Headset Being Reviewed by the Vision Australia Vision Store

Hardware

Bone conduction head set, on left sound cheek pad contains the volume up/down buttons, and right cheek pad is moulded in to the rectangular camera unit containing 3 clearly shaped buttons. From the bottom of the camera module is the fixed UsBC cable. Microphone is also in the camera housing.

Software

ARX Android only app at the moment used to power the head set, enabling both local and online processing of scene detection, specific object detection, short OCr text, document OCR scanning, face recognition, and QR code scanning.

Onboarding on device when first using it, training mode to remind user how to position camera, and Help mode to remind users on how to use the 3 buttons.

ARX head set can be used via the buttons or controlled from simple voice commands.

Note - ARX head set connected via a UsBC cable to the Android phone.

Benefits

All processing is done via the smart phone/cloud, head set there to to provide audio output, mic input, and image processing via the camera.

Having a wired connection leads to faster data transfer between the head set and the phone.

Scene detection works extremely well, as does Object specific recognition, Document scanning, and face detection. 

Short text recognition perhaps not as fast as Seeing AI app on iOS, but certainly usable.

Audio processing sound is heard to let user know that the ARX head set is active in a mode, and no sound when the unit is put in to idle mode.

A lot more cost effective than other similar products on the market.

Braille companion getting started guide included.

Points To Consider

The screen reader Talkback running on the Android phone is very soft volume wise compared to the self voicing of the ARX head set.

The maximum volume of the self voicing on the ARX head set is distorted at the maximum volume.

The camera unit which gently touch’s the side of the face does get quite warm, not hot, but very noticeable.

Aira not yet supported on the ARX head set but coming soon.

iPhone compatibility being worked on.

Blind Shell Classic 2 app being worked on.

Moving forward, most functions will bee via the cloud for getter processing of images etc requiring cellular data on the phone, works well on Wifi at home.

Excellent product under development.

For more info:

https://arx.vision

As a bit of a result of a chat outcome from Tech Friday last week (my weekly tech chat Zoom meeting), thinking of doing a “smack down” chat concerning the ARX, Orcam, and Envision in January 2023.

Resetting Goals on your Apple Watch

Due to my Karate journey, I’ve had to up my goals on my Apple Watch and surprisingly I couldn’t remember where to do this.

In a nut shell, it’s in the Activity app on the Apple Watch, and you need to scroll down wright to the bottom of the screen to find the change goals button.

https://www.cultofmac.com/671532/how-to-set-apple-watch-move-goal/

Accessibility Assistant for Apple Watch, iPhone, and Mac

This is a shortcut you can run which allows you to pop in your general disability, and any sub-disabilities as it were, and then get recommendations in notes for accessibility settings.

Note - as the Apple Watch does not have an actual notes app, you run the Apple Watch short cut on your iPhone, iPad or Mac along with the other two for iOS or Mac. 

Is Siri Falling Behind with Natural Language Processing

Last week I wanted to remind myself how to count to 10 in Japanese as part of my Shotokan Karate training.

When I asked Alexa, I got the answer in counting to 10. However, when I asked Siri, she translated “how do I count to 10 in Japanese” as a direct translation sigh.

Alexa and Google are still forging ahead, and can’t help feeling Siri is falling more and more behind.