Meta and Vision Ireland announce free glasses partnership - Talking Technology extra

It’s a very exciting day in Vision Ireland as we finally get to share details of a groundbreaking new partnership that will see Meta donate 15,000 pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to eligible Vision Ireland service users.

On this episode, we catch up with Vision Ireland group CEO Chris White and head of Technology Sean Doran to learn about the partnership, and we’re joined by a range of guests who give their reaction to the news.

Expressions of interest are now officially open. Visit Meta.vi.ie or call the dedicated phone line on 01 882 1910

0:00 - intro
 1:55 - Chris and Sean share the big Ray-Ban Meta news
 15:45 - Brian Manning on the impact Meta glasses have for those who are blind
 24:00 - Hilary Devlin on how the Meta glasses help with parenting
 37:10 - Bobbie Hickey on assistive tech going mainstream and how they help her stay stylish
 42:22 - Denis Nolan on Meta glasses training sessions and upcoming roadshows
 48:55 - how to get your name on the list

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Talking Technology with VI Labs. At VI Labs, we believe technology is the single greatest enabler for people with sight loss and all disabilities. If you're looking for the latest news and conversation on tech from a more accessible perspective, you've come to the right place. Oh, you've come to the right place. All right. Hello, gang. Welcome in to Talking Technology with VI Labs, where, oh boy, do we have an announcement for you. Hello. Welcome in. It's an extra episode of Talking Technology today, Talking Technology Extra, because we have some massive, massive, massive news to share. And we will dive straight into that in just a second. But a reminder, we're sure that lots of you are going to want to share your perspectives. So a reminder that if you want to do so, there are loads of ways that you can get in touch and join the conversation. You can send us an email to content at VI.ie, that's content at VI.ie, or you can reach us on WhatsApp, any kind of message, a voice message, video message. We don't care today. You can send it to us at Talking Technology or 086-199-0011, that's 086-199-0011. But let's get down to business because we have news. So I don't even know where to begin. So I am not going to begin. I am going to welcome back to Talking Technology for the first time in quite a while, our group CEO of Vision Ireland, Mr. Chris White. Chris, how are you? Thanks, David. Yeah, so long time absentee from the podcast, but great to be back on. So the exciting news is the partnership with Meta and the donation by Meta of 15,000 pairs of smart glasses, which we will be distributing to all eligible users of Vision Ireland services. That's a huge number, isn't it? It's massive. It's huge compared to the fact that they're only giving 150,000 to the US and they're not giving any other glasses to any other European country. So this is an Irish only. And at that scale, the impact of those glasses will be huge. And what does this mean for our service users? I mean, you mentioned there that we'll be distributing them to eligible service users. What does that look like and what's the impact this is going to have? So I think all the experience that we've had from our service users and staff who have been demonstrating or trialing the metal glasses, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive, breaking down barriers, living a more independent life, engaging in areas of life that they'd never been able to engage before. So they are a massive game changer in terms of independence, in terms of the ability to live in an independent way and not rely on other people. And as Sean will talk about, I think this wearable technology revolution, which we're in the early parts of, are going to be transformational for people with sight loss, for our community. And I think this donation, which is going to be one of the largest ever corporate donations of accessible technology in the history of the state, is going to be, I'm saying the word transformational several times, but it's hard to get beyond that word. It's justifiable. Impact. Yeah. The impact is going to be so profound. And Sean, I'll bring you in here. Sean Doran, our head of technology in Vision Ireland. Sean, these things don't happen overnight. How did this come about? This massive announcement from Vision Ireland and Meta today, how did this happen? Well, it was a lot of hard work. It's always organic. Vision Ireland, we're always aware of emerging technologies. And Chris says wearable AI was something that we were looking at for a long time because we knew the benefits and how it could help our service users. But it was early adopters like Brian Manning and Moray from the labs team who got this technology very early and were using it in their everyday life and were heavily promoting the benefits of it. And that kind of inspired us in Vision Ireland to really, really chase Meta down and kind of promote this. And the influx of calls around the time, David, you remember when these glasses were first announced, our help lines were, what can they do? How can they help people with sight loss? So we had to have Meta days and we had big events around the country just talking about that technology. And obviously yourself and Brian were a big part of that. But that was getting the interest out there and Meta were very impressed with the work that we were doing and how it actually helped people with disabilities. I don't think people were overly aware at the time that a mainstream product had such benefits to our community. And it was lots of engagement back and forth with Meta. And you were there and we met in their offices. We were discussing the technology, myself and Chris have been working behind the scenes, having meetings at Meta all the time about what can we possibly do. And this donation is just, you know, there's never been anything like it in Vision Ireland. It's something you must be proud of as well as the head of technology. So it's a nice thing to get a pair of glasses for every adult in Vision Ireland and our books is absolutely, you know, it's breathtaking. Absolutely. And Sean, you mentioned there that puts it into perspective, a pair of Meta glasses effectively for every adult service user on our books. For those who are hearing this and perhaps they haven't tried the Meta glasses, they're, you know, learning about this now for the first time. They've seen maybe some of the media that's gone out around this today and over the coming days. What can they do now? How do they reach out to us? How do they do all of that good stuff? The easiest thing to do currently would be go to meta.vi.ie and we'll have all the information on that web page and it'll be, you can express your interest via a form for an application for a pair of glasses. And I'll say that'll go into, you know, our backend and we'll work through that as we get those numbers in and try and find the best way to get that out to people. Super stuff. Chris, if I come back to you, what does this say about the, I suppose, about the future for Vision Ireland? I mean, it kind of shows a level of intent, doesn't it? That, you know, we are there at the cutting edge of this new technology and that's quite exciting. I think you're right, David. I think that's a really good question. What does this say about Vision Ireland? And I think what it says is it's a recognition of the level of innovation that Vision Ireland continues to lead on. So this is not an isolated project. As you know, David, we've led on Bookshare, we've led on Eclos, we've led on Wayfinding, we've led on a whole range of projects that have continually put Vision Ireland to the forefront nationally with corporates, but also internationally. If you compare us to our colleagues in Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Blind and Low Vision New Zealand, Vision Australia, they're all asking, how did we achieve this? And it's recognition of the expertise that's been developed and attracted to Vision Ireland. It's the depth of our ambition. It's the support of the board. And it is the recognition fundamentally that we can't stand still, that to deliver for our community, we can't just look backwards. We have to be looking at the horizon about where is everything going? What is the next great leap forward? And for us, and in particular led by Sean, really setting the scene about what the impact of wearable technology will be and how Vision Ireland can actually engage and lead on that. There's a whole load of other engagements that we're having with technology companies that we haven't announced as yet, all of which will be impactful to our community and the people who need Vision Ireland the most. And it's the service users benefit at the end of the day, isn't it? Certainly. I mean, all we do every day is to benefit our community of service users and make their lives as easy as possible, as barrier free as possible, and to ensure that they have the support that we can provide. And I know people are frustrated that we can't do all that we would like to do. But in terms of what we do do, we are recognized internationally as best in class and we are leading from the front. Brilliant stuff. Sean, before we wrap up then, what does this obviously a huge announcement today that it's fun to say, isn't it? 15,000 pairs of meta glasses. But we'll be talking about that more in the coming weeks as well. But what does the future hold now? I guess it's an exciting time. Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. It's going to be obviously onboarding people into getting the glasses, having some training sessions, some ongoing training sessions. And we look forward to having more of those melodies and those road shows out in different offices so we can get people in, show them the glasses, get them fitted and show them how to use it and provide ongoing training. So this is a large undertaking. It's a large amount of work for us, but we have backing from both Metta and our own staff. And this is going to be, like I said, life changing for some people. Absolutely life changing for a lot of people. Sean, Chris, for now, thank you so much. Thank you, David. Thanks, David. Thanks so much to Chris and Sean for that. Do you know, it really is absolutely incredible and very exciting, it must be said, for us here in Vision Ireland. It's exciting for us. It's exciting for the service users we support. It really, really is a massive deal, as Chris and Sean have both said there. And Joe Lanigan of Kilkenny, it really is. There's no way to describe it other than huge and exciting. Joe really is there. It's massive news for anybody that wants this tool in their hands to help them with their independence. I think it's just great news. Look, everybody loves something free, but this is something free that you will use to help your everyday independence. And I think it's just great news, David. There's much more we can say than that. There's been a lot of great hype about these glasses in the last couple of years, and at least people get to experience it now. Absolutely. 15,000 pairs of Metaglasses. That's one for all of our adult service users. That's an incredible thing to be able to say that we have, that we can offer people. You know, we'll ask a lot of people this over the course of the next little while on the podcast, Joe. But what do you think the biggest kind of impact is for the Metaglasses? How are you using them day to day? Well, believe it or not, I went after buying a pair a few weeks ago. So that's sad news for me. You missed out. That's terrible, isn't it? But anyway, no, but the ones I have, I do love them. They're second gen place for optics. So I'll be able to put in the lenses I want to put into them. You know what I mean? But apart from that, the lenses aren't much use to me as such apart from maybe getting those UV rays off my bit of eyesight that I've left. But as regards to use wise, I do find Iraxplore, an absolute amazing service, because there's nothing better than being able to call a visual assistant or an interpreter, or an Ira agent, they call them. And you know, they're going to be able to help you straight away. There's no bones about it. They're experts in their field. And if you have an issue, whether it's reading something, or maybe you need technical assistance, or maybe choosing clothing, or you know, best of all is when you're in a strange place, and you're lost, they can actually use GPS to help you get to a doorway or to your destination. So they can see through the camera on your meta glasses. And apparently, you can see very well through the camera, it's 12 megapixels, so they have a real clear view. And anywhere you point your head, they can see and it's just that's just one of the best things. Also, if you run out of minutes, however, I do resort to using BMI eyes. So you can just say, hey, measure BMI eyes, cause a BMI eyes agent, which is a volunteer BMI volunteer, and the volunteer will stay on the line usually until they can help you with your mini task, whatever that might be, it could be finding something on the floor, or again, again, it could be choosing a color or you could be deciding maybe you're trying to find peas instead of beans or whatever. So yeah, all those little mini tasks are brilliant. Or even if you want to call a family friend on WhatsApp, they're the kind of things I do and turn the video on and they can see through my glasses, or even send a WhatsApp message, just a simple message, hey, send a WhatsApp message to David, you know, and, you know, remind you of this, that and the other or whatever it might be. So, and you can just say send and it's as simple as that. But it does take a little bit of setting up David, you know yourself, that's something we can help people with in Vision Ireland, but we'll talk with it later. But after things are set up, and you have, you're proficient enough to open the Meta AI app on your phone, leave it open in the background there somewhere. The Meta AI classes, they work excellent, I think, most of the time. Yeah, it's, and now more and more people are going to be able to experience that. And someone who you may recall, if you've ever attended any of our Meta days in Vision Ireland, or indeed, I think he's talked about them on the podcast here before, is Brian Manning. And Brian has been a massive advocate for the Meta glasses internally, has done huge work, both within Vision Ireland and also in encouraging Meta around this. And I caught up with Brian last week to learn about some of his perspective on this really exciting announcement. Brian, it is a good day in Vision Ireland. How are you, sir? You're well. I'm absolutely ecstatic, over the moon, delighted and really chuffed by the fact that we are having this collaboration going with Meta. But I think ultimately, the reason why I'm so deliriously happy is because I genuinely think that this is an achievement for the service user of Vision Ireland. It's something that would benefit and impact upon the everyday lives of our individual service users. And that has to be lauded and celebrated. Absolutely. And it's fantastic. We live for days like this when we get to share good news like this. Brian, I suppose, how do you use the Meta glasses? Well, I use them for their very simplicity, as I keep stating to people. I mean, a lot of what the Meta glasses do, we can achieve as technophiles, as people who know our technology. We can go to our smartphone and get a lot of these responses. Whereas what the Meta glasses does is it simplifies everything for us. And just by spoken command, we can get, you know, our correspondence read or mail or letters or, you know, menus. We can get them converted to Braille. If we Braille displays, we can get product identification, which again is brilliant. I don't have to, you know, drink five cans of Coke for one can of 7-Up because I can just ask Meta and they do that product identification for me and tell me if the light is on or off. Just it makes life more simplistic and more expedient. And it just gives me like with the voice command, I get so much independence from the Meta glasses. So it's great that we can share that experience with the service users. I know that we have been doing that for the past year or more anyway, but it's great now that we can position our service users in a situation where they too can have this brilliant piece of assistive technology. Do you remember your first time using the glasses or trying the glasses, Brian? I do. And I remember being very, very surprised at them. I remember it was my birthday last year, not just gone, but the year before. And I got the glasses and we set them up. My nephew was with me all the time, Corey, and we set them up. And I can remember like, hey, Meta, take a look what's around me. And the level of information that I got back or, you know, I started kind of just reading my own letters and stuff like that, because I have to admit there were times when I go to the post box and I'd get out a letter that was in the post box and I'd say, oh, look, I'll read it after, all right. I'd say, should the brother be long in the middle of the game to read it? Or, you know, I just want to go to the border of, you know, unlocking the iPhone and opening, seeing AI and taking the picture and holding the phone over the letter. And I remember the, you know, it was almost a simplistic pleasure of getting a letter out of the box, just opening it and just like anyone else almost, hey, Meta, take a look, read this text, you know, and I'm not having to listen to it all out either. Just say, when is the appointment or what is the bank balance or, you know, so, so, and even for little things like socks, I think I've demonstrated that before as well for color coordination, for the simple things in life, I think. And it's so expedient and it's so, it's so expeditious as well. I mean, you have the answer straight away, bang, that's it. So, and, and what, another feature that I really like is that WhatsApp video call function where you can kind of call someone that you, you know, you're familiar with, you're friendly with, and someone that knows you and your little idiosyncrasies, you know, even knows your personality. And you can say to them, hey, you know, make a WhatsApp video call to David. Hey, David, ask the story, where am I now? Hey, David, can you see my cable? Is it in the corner? Hey, David, listen, I know I'm on Blarney Street, but I can't find the chemist shop. Can you kind of just walk with me until we get to it? You know, just, just, just like the intimacy of that and to be able to communicate and get that support from anywhere at any time from people that you know, you respect, and that you trust, and people who know you and your habits. That's another really, really strong element of what the meta package presents to blind or vision impaired people. Brian, you know, you've been doing this, I don't want to age you now, but you've been doing this gig a little bit longer than I have, but you and I both know that, I guess, day in, day out, we meet people, some will embrace technology, some will have that little fear of it. And that's absolutely fair enough. But these glasses that are now available to people, they can benefit so many people, but some of those who could potentially benefit may be a little bit nervous of technology. What would you say to those people initially who perhaps haven't engaged with technology before, or, you know, this is a new experience for them? Well, first of all, David, I think that I've been doing this since before you were born. Well, Brian, I wasn't going to put it like that now in fairness, but yes. Yeah. But anyone who is an assistive technology trainer will tell you anyway, that you have to focus or design a training program for people individually. Some people will just take to the technology, you just have them the technology, explain, tell them what they can expect from the technology and the way they'll go. They'll almost figure it out themselves. And it's the same with the metaglasses. You could nearly tell a lot of people who are listening to this podcast, you know, you just, once the phone is connected to the glasses, then, you know, you can explain what the metaglasses will do and then figure it out. But there are other people, and I've experienced this over the past year or so, since we started working, you know, in a concentrated effect down here in Cork and Kerry. I've met people in that, and we've had to go back to them two or three times. And that's all right, too. But once you kind of get the message across or get the understanding across in the first meeting as to what they can expect from the glasses, and then just go back and invest the time, your time in the training of the person and the person's time, invest their time in what they will actually eventually get from the technology. But you will get there. Brian, you're excited then? I'm an old soldier in these particular things. And I can tell you, very little technology has excited me to the level that these glasses have excited me. Maybe when the iPhone came out first about 15 years ago, I was equally excited by that. And I would equate one with the other. I think they're both equally significant. Brian, for now, thank you so much. Thank you, David. Thanks so much to Brian for that. Really appreciate it as always. And well done to Brian on a huge amount of work on the Meta glasses and been singing the praises of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and the impact they can have. And that does make a massive difference. So well done to Brian on that. Another person who has been singing the praises of the glasses, mainly on LinkedIn, has been Hilary Devlin. Hilary is one of our ECLOs, our eye clinic liaison officers. And she's also a big fan of the Meta glasses. Hilary, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me, David. Thank you. I am in great form. How about yourself? Fantastic. Thank you. And all the better for 15,000 pairs of Meta glasses, Hilary. It is beyond words, to be honest. I think that is like a dream come true. It's one of the best things that ever happened to the organization. So it is, I can't get my head around it completely, to be honest. Yeah, absolutely. So I suppose I've heard you mentioning the Meta glasses a lot on LinkedIn and other places as well over time. You're a big fan of them. How do you use them day to day? Yes, I do love them. I got them spur of the moment, actually, in April. I got them made up in Spain after I had been there for a few days and I had to get new sunglasses because I left mine behind. And just talking to the optician, I kind of came up and just being in a way, I had got lost a couple of times. I kind of got frustrated and I went, you know what, I'm in a holiday mood. Let's order these Meta glasses. So from the day I put them on, things just have changed for me. I have an extremely busy life. I am a mum of one. I don't know how parents do it with two or three children. One young man, Matthew, who's 11. I work in Dublin three days a week, but I live in Belfast. So I spend hundreds of miles a week on buses and trains. So time for me is very, very precious. So the first thing I would say is sending messages, the usual kind of things people say, sending text messages, making calls, listening to music on my podcast, my audiobook on the train. But the other massive part for me is being able to see, to read, particularly in relation to my son's homework, medications for him. I was able to read, well, when I say I was able to read, but I was able to give him Calpol, the correct amount of Calpol. When I say I was able to, I mean, I didn't have to ask anybody else because Meta read the label for me. Homework for Matthew, a big one. So kind of use them every way. And I've just come back from holidays and I've used them in another way of translating languages and they just keep getting better and better for me. You mentioned they're kind of doing it yourself. And yes, you're doing it with the assistance of technology, but you're not asking for assistance from another human as such. And it is a level of independence, isn't it? Absolutely. I think I'm a really good candidate for Metaglasses because I have relatively good functional vision. So I'm not using them and they should really not, we know that they shouldn't be used as a mobility aid. So I'm able to see, generally able to see if there is something in front of me that's going to be a danger to me. Okay. But I would say from a moving around perspective and doing what I need to do, they've allowed me become more independent with that. I noticed it particularly traveling. So I travel between Belfast Grand Central and Connolly station. So I have a crazy schedule. I leave my house at five o'clock in the morning. I go down to the bus stop, take the bus and go into Grand Central and get on the train to Dublin. I did it the first time without asking anybody. So I didn't have to ask the train time. I didn't have to ask the platform. I didn't think that they would be that good when it came to being able to look at the timetables. I didn't think it would be able to do it. I just basically said, I actually have to turn them off now because they'll start talking. I basically said, Hey Matt, when's the next train to Dublin? And straight away, the next train to Dublin is at six AM from platform four. That's amazing. It was ridiculous. Yeah. So loads of things are just independence is phenomenal. Yeah. It's we, we use the word sparingly because it has a lot of different meanings to different people, but would you describe them as life-changing for you? You know, sometimes I think it's a bit, it sounds ridiculous because I think life-changing people use, like if somebody was very, very seriously ill and they got it, you know, some kind of treatment that saved their life, that's life-changing. Okay. So when you talk about putting on a piece of technology onto your, you know, onto your face and you talk about life-changing, you feel a bit, okay, really? Yeah. But it's all relative. Um, I suppose to the person, I actually feel that for me as a human being, my daily life has changed. So because my daily life has changed and my ability to do things, particularly as a parent, I feel that has had an impact on me overall as a person and as a partner and as a, as a parent. So that has changed my life, if that makes sense. Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. So you mentioned there things like the homework and stuff like that on parenting specifically, how are you using it? Yeah. Okay. So Matthew is, um, uh, this year he was doing, uh, he's, I live in Belfast, so he's moving into secondary school in September and he had to do a lot of extra homework cause he was sitting the, the transfer tests and, um, but also the homework that he had after, I could never see the sheets, the worksheets that he was using. They were just too small for me. And it got the older he got, the more frustrating it was for him. Cause I would have to pick up the page and hold it really close to my face, or I'd be taking a photograph and magnifying it. Um, so, you know, I ended up feeling a bit more detached from him, from his homework. Within the week of getting the meta glasses, he brought home a circular from school. And, um, he said to me, oh mommy, I'm supposed to, this was the morning, like, oh mommy, you're supposed to fill it, fill out that thing for me to go on the trip. Right. And I was like, Matthew, it's 20 past eight, we have to leave for school, I've got to start work. But what I did was I said, oh, I don't know if the meta glasses are going to do this, but I'll just do it anyway. So I ran over and Pat was gone to work. So I was under pressure. I just looked at it and said, Hey, meta, take a picture and read. It read absolutely everything on it. And I had made a sandwich by the time I had read the circular, listened to the circular and made a sandwich. Do you get me? Yes. Like that is bonkers for me to be able to do that. And then his homework, I could never see the passages he was reading. So I was able to take a picture, have it read to me, know what he was going to do. And then he'd read it through to me. So I kind of have an idea where he was at. And then the spellings, or the spellings were funny, David, because, um, you see, he could skip a note for you. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Um, whereas I taken a picture and knew what was on the list. Yes. Yeah. So getting past, you know, no, no. So yeah, that has been a big thing. And also just being able to, I suppose, get an understanding of what he's seen a bit better. Do you know what I mean? I think he's, he's been really good about it. I have to say he's a great kid anyway. Um, with my vision, but I think he's getting the, he got, can you see that now? Do you want, do you want me to work? Like he'd say to me what coffee there is, but now I can go up and go, yeah, I'll have that. You know, I can read it myself. And what do you think the reaction has been generally to them? Like, how have you found that using them out and about or whatever? Have you ever had any negative interactions? Um, do you know what? I haven't actually, David, I expected to, I'm a bit nervous speaking to myself. If you know what I'm saying, people might think I'm a bit silly. Like I'm standing there and I'm speaking to myself. Um, I've had people ask me about them. Um, and I had one or two people saying, you're not recording me, are you? And I would actually not be defensive, but I would say absolutely not. I'm a fully grown adult with my, you know, appropriate behaviors in place. And I actually show them how you can turn them on and off. And I think I would say at work, I would have them off because I don't need them at work. Do you know what I mean? I wouldn't use them at work. So once you show people, I think they're absolutely fine. So no, I haven't, I personally haven't had any negativity. Okay. Fair enough. Um, what would you say to people that are listening to this? And I've asked this to all of our participants who maybe are a little bit unsure about how it can help them. What would you say to them if they're thinking about visiting the website and putting their expression of interest in? I would have, think about the things from a day to day perspective, be really honest with yourself and say like, what is, what causes you frustration? What means that you have to bring something up to your eyes and hold it close and it's sore. And then you have to take your glasses on your glasses off and you want to listen to your music, but then you're trying to see it at the same time. Um, you want to listen to an audio book, but you know, you're, you're not sure where, you know, you want your hands free, all of that stuff, give it a go. Because for me to be able to, um, like be able to read everything from Matthew's homework to listening to an audio book with my hands free to be able to look around me, use my cane at the same time as, um, you know, listening to you, like not having to take a magnifier or a camera out to look at the signs in front of me. Think about what you find frustrating and give it a go. Um, if they're not for you, they're not for you. But I think if you are interested and you do genuinely feel that your vision is affecting, you know, reading a recipe or whatever it is, just give them, just give them a try and also just a little bit extra. The voices are cool. I mean, I love Judy Dench and I have Judy Dench in my ears, laughing away. She's got a great laugh by the way. She laughed for the first time for me there a few weeks ago. And it just brightened my day. That's so funny. Yeah. That's wild. Isn't it? I say, just give it a try. The guys at vision Ireland are going to be there to help you it doesn't matter if you're not super, super technical, technologically minded. Yeah, you have to have your smartphone, but you might only use them for a couple of different things, but that may take some of that frustration and lack of independence away. So I would say, give them a go. Awesome stuff. Hilary for now. Thank you so, so much. No problem at all. You're welcome, David. Thank you so much, Hilary for that. Joe, uh, just to come back to you for a second. Do you find the glasses really comfortable? Like how do you find them to wear? Would they be like, do you wear them all day as like your main glasses or do you kind of prefer to carry them around or what way do you do it? Yeah. Well, I always have the case with me. And, um, I also have the glasses with me. Uh, I don't wear them all day long, but, um, I generally, I suppose if you added it up, I'd have them on two or three hours a day. Um, so, um, yeah, between doing tasks and stuff, um, and maybe I might wear them when I go for a walk. They also have the, uh, use of being a Bluetooth headset really. So you can listen to your music if you want to as well, uh, or if you're using Soundscape. So, um, there is other uses for them apart from using the camera. So there, there, um, really are a pair of smart glasses. They have lots of different things you can do with them. So yeah, I don't just wear them because they have a camera on them and they can take a picture of my post or whatever. So I use them as earphones as well, if you know what I mean. Lots of people use them for audio books and calls and stuff too. Yeah. Audio books and phone calls. Yeah. Phone calls are actually really good in them because the microphone on them is actually excellent. So, um, when, uh, people sometimes ask me, why do you want a phone or whatever, because they, it's so clear, like, but, um, especially doing WhatsApp calls because, uh, why find WhatsApp calls are generally, um, clear than a normal phone call. So then we're using the glasses as well. Um, even, you know, I'm not sure how many microphones are on it. I think someone mentioned it could be eight, but, um, however amount of microphone is on it, they really do pick up your voice. So, um, really well. And, uh, yeah, so, uh, I do, I do wear them a couple of hours a day, but, um, I don't wear them all day. Some people, um, yeah, like to wear glasses all day long. I'm not one of those, but, uh, they do look really cool. So, uh, there's no harm in wearing them for as long as you can. Absolutely. Someone else we caught up with, uh, to discuss the Meta glasses and how she uses them is Bobby Hickey. You may know Bobby from TikTok and other places. Uh, Bobby, how are you? I am very well, David. Thank you for having me. And thank you for joining us. Uh, Bobby, like really exciting news to hear from Meta about 15,000 pairs of Meta glasses. This is, um, you know, I think you'd agree. This is huge for blind people in Ireland, isn't it? This is huge for blind people, huge for 15,000 people. And also 15,000 families, 15,000 groups of friends, 15,000 communities. It's going to be great. Absolutely. Um, Bobby, how do you use the glasses? I use them in a few different ways. So I prefer to use them when I'm cooking. Um, I would go through the Be My Eyes app on my phone a lot now. Um, but it's, it's great to have the glasses so I can always stay hands-free. So if I want to know what seasoning or spice that I'm using, I can just hold up the spice and use the Be My Eyes function, um, through the glasses. I also use it to take pictures of what I'm wearing. So a lot of the time I get asked how I know what I'm wearing when I can't see. And apparently I'm very color coordinated. Um, this is because I, I take little mirror pictures of myself every day with the glasses, I guess. Um, just to make sure that I'm matching and that what I'm wearing is, is all good for wherever I'm going. Um, and then I also use it to pick out my lipstick shades, which I feel like is so niche, but I'll hold up my lipstick and take a picture of it. Um, and it will describe the shade. Now I'm relying on a robot's, I guess, assessment of vibes to make sure that everything is good. But yeah, those are the top three ways that I use the glasses. What would you say, I've asked Brian this question as well, but what would you say to someone who maybe is a little uncomfortable about the idea of using glasses like this? Um, what would you say to someone as someone who's done it? I would say that I get it, particularly in public. I understand no one wants to stand at the side of the road going, Hey Matt, I take a photo. Um, the first few times you do it, you do feel like a bit of a spoon, not going to lie. Um, but once you can move past the feeling of being said spoon, um, you will realize that it's, it's really efficient and it's actually, it's just a smoother, easier way to live, not having to take out the phone and get verification from an app. And it's just better. It makes more sense. Try move past the embarrassment side of it. Cause I get it, it is a thing, but it is worth it if and when you are able to do that. Bobby, you talk there a little bit about style and that kind of needs to know that you look professional in a certain environment, whether that's work or whatever the case may be. The fact that the meta glasses don't necessarily look like assistive technology is probably one of their big advantages too. Would you agree with that? Or do you think that's fair? I agree. Yes. It's definitely an advantage from my point of view. Um, style matters to me. I don't have an issue with people knowing that I'm using assistive technology, but it's just nice to have the choice. You know, every human should be able to choose how they want to present themselves to the world and meta have multiple different styles of the glasses made with multiple different brands. So you can kind of go with whatever style meets your vibe. And I think having that choice is just really important on a human level and having the assistive tech piece added on top is just a bonus. Absolutely. And it's about making that tech mainstream as well, isn't it? Yes, this is really powerful. Meta is sending a very loud message to the rest of the world by doing this. The fact that we can access assistive technology through a mainstream company is huge. And I really hope that other brands are listening and we can all learn from this and hopefully assistive technology will become far more accessible, excuse the pun, in the years to come. On that note, Bobby, what's your hope for the future? I would love to see live AI come to Ireland. I know for me personally, that would be a massive game changer. But I would also like to see other brands follow suit. I think it would be fascinating to have a domino effect of other mainstream companies that are making technology and devices at the moment that are accessible. But if they really buy into the whole assistive technology piece, we could make everyone's lives a whole lot smoother, including those who don't necessarily need the assistive technology on paper, but we could all benefit from a bit of assistance sometimes. Fantastic, Bobby. For now, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Bobby, for that. Now, lots of you listening to this podcast may already have some familiarity with the glasses. Maybe you have a pair already or you've tried them, but that is not the case for everyone. And indeed, many of you listening may not have tried the glasses and may be learning about the glasses for the first time. So there is going to be a massive amount of training required, learning required. And that is a massive part of where Vision Ireland comes in. To discuss that and a whole lot more, I am joined by our technology training manager and indeed our jack of all trades, Mr. Dennis Nolan. Dennis, how are you? I'm very well. Thank you, David. How about yourself? Very good. Thank you. So Dennis, huge announcement for Vision Ireland today, huge announcement for our service users today, perhaps most importantly. But there's a lot of stuff that goes into an announcement like this, not least the training side of it. So I guess what is happening from your side of the house? There's a lot to coordinate here for sure. Yeah, there certainly is. But as you said, it's a great news story. It's on the ground. It's going to have far reaching and positive implications for the people that we support. So it's a wonderful story. It does call on a great deal of our resources to back this up. But it's wonderful to hear that there's 15,000 sets of metal glasses that we will now have and we can distribute to our service users. This is nothing new in relation to how we would support service users. The number, of course, is the big news. We've never had anything like this before. So we're going to try and roll this out through road shows countrywide. So the trainers that are located around the country are going to manage their different areas and the people that they support in those areas. We're going to demonstrate, organize these road shows. We're going to invite service users to the road shows where we're going to demonstrate the glasses and then conduct some training. So at the back of that, at the end of that training, we'll then issue each of the service users with their own set of metal glasses. It's really exciting to have this kind of resource for our service users. I suppose Dennis, you've been doing this training for quite a while. And we talked about this with Brian earlier on as well. You know, how exciting is it for you seeing the impact that something like this will have from a training point of view? It's very exciting, David. We've had, I've been involved in training for many years and the trainers range from experience of 25 plus years down to a number of years. So there's a great deal of experience amongst the trainers. And I don't think any of us has ever experienced something with this kind of impact and in these numbers, a set of glasses for an individual service user can be a game changer, whether they've got no sight or low sight. In any of those categories, these glasses are fantastic. They give that independence or increased independence to people using them. So it's very exciting. It is a significant amount of work required to support and to train people on this. And that training, by the way, will be ongoing after they get their set of glasses. There will be training organized on an ongoing basis, but it's immensely exciting. The entire team is very excited about this. Absolutely. And people, of course, if they do want to sign up, you can go to meta.vi.ie. We'll have that linked in the show notes as well. That's meta.vi.ie. Dennis, I suppose the exciting news that 15,000, there's an element of pride comes with this as well. You know, pride in what the trainers have achieved up to now. This isn't something that happens overnight. It's certainly not. And every every trainer absolutely recognizes the effect that the set of glasses will have on the people they support. We have been front and center of delivering training support, finding out what new technologies coming down the line, identifying the benefits of that and then giving that information and knowledge to our service users. I'm not sure that there has been any technology with the impact that these glasses have brought in recent years. So we're immensely excited and we're all ready to deliver that support, issue those meta glasses to our service users and then bring them back for ongoing support and training afterwards. There's lots of people, Dennis, who will interact with our training courses and our services on the regular. There are lots of people who maybe haven't interacted with Vision Ireland for a number of years. What would you say to those who may be hearing this and are thinking, goodness, I should link back in with Vision Ireland again? Yeah, I would say definitely connect back with us, whether it's been a while. You may never have connected with us before, but you have some form of vision loss or you may be a regular engaging in all of the courses that we deliver. The workshops and the road shows are nothing new. As you know, David, we've delivered and conducted road shows countrywide and we do that regularly. We've also done road shows on the meta glasses up to now, this is just in bigger numbers. So I would say if you haven't connected with us before, if it's been a long time since you connected with us or if you're an ongoing person that engages in the training that we deliver, the support we deliver, I'd say get back in touch, reach out to us, get your name, register your interest for a set of these meta glasses and then attend one of the many road shows that we will be conducting countrywide. It's a great opportunity to meet other visually impaired people as well and there's always a benefit in that I find too, even socially. Yeah, I agree. I think the social aspect for me has been very positive. The opportunity, of course, isn't strictly just connecting up physically in one of those many road shows. There will be opportunities for one-to-ones if you so need and there will be also opportunities to engage in the training and the support virtually as well. So we want to make sure that the opportunity is there for everybody. So people with vision loss, they may have other disabilities that may impact on them getting physically to one of these road shows. So there is opportunities for that virtual and where needed, if we need to get out to you to give you that support, those glasses, if the need is there, we'll absolutely support you also. Fantastic. Dennis, an exciting time ahead for sure, but for now, thank you so much. Thank you very much, David. Thanks as always, Dennis, for that. Really appreciate it. Now, that is about our lot for this extra episode of Talking Technology, but the overarching question is how do you express your interest? Well, how do you do that? Great question. The answer is you go online, the website that you need to go to www.meta.vi.ie. That's meta.vi.ie. When you go there, there is an expression of interest form that you can use and that will put your name on the list and we will get to you as soon as we can. Alternatively, you can give us a call, the number that you need, 1-800-911-110. That's 1-800-911-110. So either give us a call between nine and five or use the expression of interest form on meta.vi.ie and there you have it. You will be put on the list and you may be able to get one of those 15,000 pairs of meta glasses. One of the biggest donations of assistive technology. In fact, the biggest donation of assistive technology in the history of the Irish state. It doesn't get much better than that. That is our show for this week. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back in two weeks time for a regular episode of Talking Technology. But for now, we really hope you enjoyed the show. Go sign up, get your name on that list and we'll see you next time. For now, thanks so much and stay safe. Thanks for listening to the Talking Technology podcast with ViLabs. If you'd like to support our show, please visit vi.ie slash donate. 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