AI developments, live sport and backup power

00:08 S1

Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from April the 15th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolley, great to have you with us listening through Vision Australia Radio, associated Stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you need to do is search for the two words Talking Tech, and it can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. Vision Australia Radio Talking Tech Podcast. 

With me, Vision Australia's National Manager, Access Technology - Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.

00:50 S2

G'day, Stephen.

00:51 S1

Let's start by talking about another AI advance. This one with ChatGPT.

00:59 S2

You might remember a few episodes ago we talked a little bit about notebook LLM and the fact that it was an AI powered research assistant that allowed you to add sort of content related to a particular topic into notebooks. Well, ChatGPT have now sort of copied that functionality. They call them projects. The idea is that if you're doing research on a particular topic, you ask a number of questions. You can put those answers into a project, and then you can go back to that at a later date and open that project up and continue asking questions, uh, or doing doing further research. And what it does is it will remember the things that you've uploaded in relation to that project. 

So you might have uploaded pictures or manuals or any number of other things, and it'll also remember the information that it's already given you so that you can build on that. It allows you to sort of group the content... because, you know, people use these things a lot and for a number of different things, and sometimes you want to go back to it, you know, particularly if you're using it for coding or, you know, using it for information about a piece of radio equipment, which is one of my primary uses. You know, what's the the keyboard layout for this? How do you enter a frequency here? Those kinds of things. 

You know, I could... set up a project for a particular piece of radio equipment and gradually build on it as I discover that I need to know more information. So quite a handy feature. And it is available in both the web version of ChatGPT and also the ChatGPT app that you can access from your smartphone.

02:36 S1

That sounds like a good way of keeping track of what you've asked before.

02:42 S2

Definitely. I think you'll find it handy, given that you've been using it quite a bit for Linux and that kind of thing. You can sort of go back to it and group all of your little, you know, interesting tidbits about Linux that you've picked up.

02:53 S1

So let's just recap again for everyone, that one.

02:56 S2

So it is... a feature called Projects, and it is part of ChatGPT. So you can add particular answers, questions and answers, or things that you've uploaded to a project and give it a name so that you can go back to it at a later date.

03:12 S1

A ChatGPT subscription would be required for this feature.

03:15 S2

Yes, I believe so. At this stage, yes, they may, as they often do, sort of move it down to the free tier at some point, but at this stage I believe it's a paid feature.

03:26 S1

Let's talk about another AI tool now, a sort of closer to home. It's from Freedom Scientific, EFF's companion.

03:34 S2

Yes, this is just a little tip for people. The EFF's companion feature is something that came out with Jaws and Fusion 2025, and it allows you to ask questions about those products. So, for example, if you wanted to know how do I name row and column titles in Excel enjoys, you could go jaws Keyspace followed by F1 and it'll pop up the FFS companion webpage and you can type your question in, press Enter and it will come back with a detailed instructions on how to do that. 

So it's a lot more comprehensive than the old command search. What this tip involves is the fact that you can also ask your question via voice. So you can go Jaws, keyspace followed by F1 and then go Alt Shift D to activate the Dictate button. Speak your question, Alt Shift D again to stop the dictation and then Tab across and press Enter to send the query. 

So where you might use this is if you're not exactly sure how to spell something. Putting it into the keyboard with the keyboard might mean that you end up with results you don't want, or it might be that you just have a really quick question and you just want an answer very fast. Sometimes doing it by voice can be helpful, particularly if you're not the world's fastest typist. Or it might just be that for what you're trying to do at the time, that's the easiest way to get it done. It's always nice to have options. There are situations when you might want to type it in, because that ensures that it is spelt correctly and you don't have to think about, will that understand what I'm saying here? That kind of thing. 

But it's... nice to have the option to be able to do it by voice if you need to or you want to. So again, alt shift D to bring up the dictate button. Speak your question alt shift D again to stop dictation and then tab across to the the send button.

05:33 S1

Some people may not have used FS companion, it's for freedom. Scientific product users. Tell us more about what it can provide you with.

05:42 S2

Well, as I said, it can be useful if you are doing things like if you want to know what the Jaws command or the fusion command is for something, it will also provide help on Microsoft products. So you might want to know how to do something in outlook, for example, or Excel or Word. Uh, you may want to know things like, you know, how do I create alt text? Anything really to do with... the, the Vespero products, your Microsoft products, even Windows. Very useful for keyboard shortcuts and... you know, just general information like that that you may, you know, for commands that you may not use every day and may not have memorised, that kind of thing. 

Also, if you can't remember where something is in a menu, is the Settings centre in the Utilities menu or the Options menu, you can ask, Where do I find the Settings centre in Jaws, for example.

06:33 S1

PFS companion from Freedom Scientific. Now, when you were at CSUN, you saw lots of devices and you've been telling us about some of those. There's one that you haven't told us about yet and that's called One Court.

06:51 S2

That's right, One Court. The idea of this is, it's a way to experience what's happening with the sports game using Haptics. So it's a touch device, probably about the size of an iPad, and it has different rubber overlays that go over the top of it to represent different... types of sports courts. So whether it's a basketball court or a football one or a baseball pitch or whatever it might be, and so it has tactile markers that indicate where the... relevant points are, like the goalposts or the... hoop or whatever it might be on a basketball court. 

And the idea then is that you place both hands on the surface and you can feel what's happening and whereabouts on the court the play is happening. It is, I think, in prototype at this stage. We don't certainly don't have it here yet, but I think it would be a really interesting one for cricket or AFL or any of those things. The nice thing about this, because there was a trial or a device that was in prototype a little while ago that they were trialling with the AFL. 

But the nice thing about this one is that it is very much real time. So it'll respond, you know, within half a second of the the play actually happening. So you don't have the latency that you have with the, the other one whose name I can't remember. And also the idea is you'll be able to use this at home. You don't have to take it to the game. In fact, the demo that I saw, they were actually just had a couple of pre-recorded, you know, videoed sections of a of a baseball game, for example, and it was able to follow based on that. I think it's one that will be worth watching, Stephen, as as time goes on. And I do hope that at some point we get it here in Australia.

08:35 S1

Yes, it's good to see that there are a number of players having a go at this, providing people with coverage of events through a different lens, as it were, to supplement or complement the radio commentary. So we'll we'll keep an eye out on that one, particularly if it's a device that can be used from home. I reckon that'll make a real difference.

08:56 S2

Definitely. I think so too. And if we ever do get AFL or cricket covered here using it, I will definitely be buying one.

09:05 S1

So this particular one is called One Court.

09:08 S2

That's right. One Court. Yep.

09:11 S1

Now, Damo, to something I've been meaning to ask you about for over a month, but you've been very busy. Cyclone Alfred... impacted on a lot of people up in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. And I was one of those thinking of my blind friends... surviving through that incredible ordeal. Tell us how it was for you and your wife, Marion, and in particular, what you did in the technology space?

09:44 S2

Good question. We, I think, were fairly well prepared, and we're probably a little bit lucky in that we had some of the technology because of our interest in caravanning and camping. But we did lose power. But what we were able to do was we a couple of years ago, just as a preventative measure, because we do get sort of summer storms and things that will take our power out from time to time. I got a transfer switch fitted into our power box at home. So it's a three position switch. The top position is mains power, the middle position is off, and the bottom position allows me to connect a generator and run some of the circuits in our house. 

We've then got a portable generator, which for someone who hasn't seen them, the modern inverter generators are pretty safe for us to use. They look a little bit like a large plastic suitcase. The particular one we have has a handle and some wheels so you can pull it along. It has some power points at one end, a fuel cap on the top and a carry handle, a couple of switches, and then your recoil start and your stop levers on one side and the exhaust at the other end. So there's really the only part that's dangerous to touch. And it's only maybe the diameter of a ten cent piece is the exhaust. The rest of it is all cool touch and you're not going to fry yourself. 

The idea is that we use an extension lead plug the generator into the into our power box. Flick the switch down. Start the generator up and then we can run our kettle, the microwave, the toaster, our talking induction hob, all of those sorts of things. But more importantly, we can keep things like the laptop running. We can keep our internet router going, you know, and we can charge our phones and our battery operated radios and all of those things. So it means you can keep your communication alive. You've still got access to information. You know, we can sort of have a keep the ABC on or whatever, and also that we can keep our fridges and freezer running so that we don't lose food and we're not worried about food spoilage. 

So that made a massive difference to us, all of those options. There are other ways you can do it. There are some very sort of high capacity, they call them portable power stations that can do the same thing. You can plug two 40 volt appliances and things in, and they have a solar panel to charge. I guess the beauty of the generator is if it's still raining, you've still got power. And we can get about 8 or 9 hours to a four litre tank of fuel on the generator. And then it's just a question of refilling it from a jerry can with a spout or using a siphon pump. So that made a massive difference to us. 

Getting the transfer switch wasn't expensive. I think it cost us about 6 or $700, and it just meant that we could still cook, we could make sure our food stayed fresh and we still had full communication and and could keep all our devices charged. We were without power for about two two and a half days, and that would have been long enough for us to potentially lose everything in the freezer. And it would have been a long time to not be able to get internet access to check on, you know, when our power was coming back and what the weather was doing and all of those sorts of things. 

So it definitely made a big difference to us during that, that storm and just the the peace of mind of, uh, feeling prepared and knowing that, okay, if the power goes out, that's okay. We... don't have to live on cold baked beans for 2 or 3 days.

13:30 S1

If your mains power had been out for, say, a week, would that still have been okay? Or could you only go for 2 or 3 days this way?

13:38 S2

No. As long as I had enough fuel, I can, I could survive for as long as we needed. Really, I had, I think about 30 litres of fuel, so I had a few days worth of fuel - but my plan B, if the power was out for longer, would have just been to hop in a cab, find a service station that had power, and... top up the jerry cans.

14:00 S1

Well, good on you, Damo, surviving Cyclone Alfred. Before we go, a reminder to people that you can find details of what we've been talking about in this and previous editions of the program by going to VA radio. VA. To write to the program...

14:20 S2

You can email me. [damo.mcmorrow] at Vision Australia.

14:31 S1

At Vision Australia. This has been Talking Tech - with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damien McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.