Re: A review of Aira. What it is, how it works, and the ways it has changed my life, Mosen Consulting

['Sandy Tomkins' via VIPhone]

if anyone has difficulty getting this article to read, I found, by tapping on 
the link and going to Safari page and then choosing reader, it read perfectly.
Sandy

Sent from The dark side of the moon

> On 6 Apr 2018, at 19:02, M. Taylor  wrote:
> 
> Hello Everyone,  
> 
> I am posting the following article because it references an iOS app.
> 
> Mark
> 
> A review of Aira. What it is, how it works, and the ways it has changed my
> life
> by Jonathan Mosen, Posted on 03/04/2018
> 
> Introduction
> Recently, I was pleased to attend the CSUN assistive technology conference.
> I've had the privilege of going to 10 of these before, but it has been a few
> years since I was there last.
> When you're involved with an industry, you tend to watch developments so
> closely that changes usually seem incremental. But occasionally, something
> new comes along that is so game changing, it stops you in your tracks. For
> me, San Diego-based Aira is one such technology. I am late to this party.
> Aira has been rolling out for some time in the United States. And indeed, we
> covered Aira in an edition of The Blind Side Podcast last year. But since
> mentioning my Aira experience to people via outlet such as my Internet radio
> show, The Mosen Explosion, I've learned that not everyone yet fully
> understands what the service is or how it works. For those not familiar with
> Aira, or who would like to read someone else's impressions of it, read on.
> What is Aira
> According to the company's website,
> Aira is today's fastest growing assistive community. One tap of a button
> instantly connects you with a sighted professional agent who delivers visual
> assistance anytime and anywhere.
> Here's what that means in practice. At present, Aira is a smart phone app,
> available for iOS and Android. Since Aira is a service for blind people,
> it's no surprise that the app is exemplary in terms of its accessibility.
> And in iOS, it even sports Siri integration.
> Using the app, you can connect via video, much like a FaceTime call, with
> agents who can provide you with visual information. Audio quality is
> excellent, far clearer than a standard cell phone connection. Essentially,
> an Aira agent can tell you anything at all that a pair of functioning eyes
> can see, plus perform a range of tasks pertaining to that information.
> You can acquire the visual information using your smart phone's camera, or,
> when you become a subscriber to the Aira service (Aira calls its customers
> "explorers") you receive a pair of smart glasses. These are included as part
> of your subscription, so there's no hardware cost upfront.
> The service is available officially in the United States at present, where
> Aira has an arrangement with AT Aira explorers receive an AT MiFi
> device, allowing them to use the service on the go without the data consumed
> by the video connection eating up a customer's own cellular plan. If you
> have a cellular plan equipped with the personal hotspot feature, you are
> free to pair your Aira glasses with your phone using that method. For those
> with large data plans, this may be attractive because there is one less
> device to keep track of, carry, and charge. The downside, other than the
> data consumption, is that a video connection to Aira for a long time may
> cause significant battery drain on your smart phone.
> When you're at home, work, or anywhere that Wi-Fi is available that doesn't
> require web-based authentication, you can pair your Aira glasses to that
> network. As far as I have been able to ascertain, 5 GHZ Wi-Fi isn't
> supported at present.
> Because of the need for high quality video, the glasses pair via Wi-Fi, and
> not Bluetooth. The glasses are associated with your Aira account. This is
> useful if, like in Bonnie's and my house, you're sharing your minutes as a
> couple. More on that later.
> The upshot of all of this is that for 18 hours of every day, professional,
> well-trained sighted assistance is just a few taps or a Siri command away.
> Describing it like this makes it sound kind of cool. But I want to explain
> the impact that Aira has had on our lives in the brief time we have had it,
> to illustrate that, at least for some of us, this technology is more than
> just pretty cool, it's life-changing.
> My first Aira experience
> If you've been reading this blog or listening to The Blind Side Podcast over
> the years, you will know that in recent times I have come out as having a
> hearing impairment. I love going to these big conferences because I get to
> catch up with old friends and make new ones, as well as see the latest and
> greatest technology. I hate going to these big conferences because often, I
> find myself in difficult audio environments. It can be very noisy. Hotel
> lobbies and restaurants are often exceedingly crowded, with high ceilings
> causing noise to bounce everywhere. The environment is difficult and tiring,
> but I keep going and doing the 

A review of Aira. What it is, how it works, and the ways it has changed my life, Mosen Consulting

[M. Taylor]

Hello Everyone,  

I am posting the following article because it references an iOS app.

Mark

A review of Aira. What it is, how it works, and the ways it has changed my
life
by Jonathan Mosen, Posted on 03/04/2018

Introduction
Recently, I was pleased to attend the CSUN assistive technology conference.
I've had the privilege of going to 10 of these before, but it has been a few
years since I was there last.
When you're involved with an industry, you tend to watch developments so
closely that changes usually seem incremental. But occasionally, something
new comes along that is so game changing, it stops you in your tracks. For
me, San Diego-based Aira is one such technology. I am late to this party.
Aira has been rolling out for some time in the United States. And indeed, we
covered Aira in an edition of The Blind Side Podcast last year. But since
mentioning my Aira experience to people via outlet such as my Internet radio
show, The Mosen Explosion, I've learned that not everyone yet fully
understands what the service is or how it works. For those not familiar with
Aira, or who would like to read someone else's impressions of it, read on.
What is Aira
According to the company's website,
Aira is today's fastest growing assistive community. One tap of a button
instantly connects you with a sighted professional agent who delivers visual
assistance anytime and anywhere.
Here's what that means in practice. At present, Aira is a smart phone app,
available for iOS and Android. Since Aira is a service for blind people,
it's no surprise that the app is exemplary in terms of its accessibility.
And in iOS, it even sports Siri integration.
Using the app, you can connect via video, much like a FaceTime call, with
agents who can provide you with visual information. Audio quality is
excellent, far clearer than a standard cell phone connection. Essentially,
an Aira agent can tell you anything at all that a pair of functioning eyes
can see, plus perform a range of tasks pertaining to that information.
You can acquire the visual information using your smart phone's camera, or,
when you become a subscriber to the Aira service (Aira calls its customers
"explorers") you receive a pair of smart glasses. These are included as part
of your subscription, so there's no hardware cost upfront.
The service is available officially in the United States at present, where
Aira has an arrangement with AT Aira explorers receive an AT MiFi
device, allowing them to use the service on the go without the data consumed
by the video connection eating up a customer's own cellular plan. If you
have a cellular plan equipped with the personal hotspot feature, you are
free to pair your Aira glasses with your phone using that method. For those
with large data plans, this may be attractive because there is one less
device to keep track of, carry, and charge. The downside, other than the
data consumption, is that a video connection to Aira for a long time may
cause significant battery drain on your smart phone.
When you're at home, work, or anywhere that Wi-Fi is available that doesn't
require web-based authentication, you can pair your Aira glasses to that
network. As far as I have been able to ascertain, 5 GHZ Wi-Fi isn't
supported at present.
Because of the need for high quality video, the glasses pair via Wi-Fi, and
not Bluetooth. The glasses are associated with your Aira account. This is
useful if, like in Bonnie's and my house, you're sharing your minutes as a
couple. More on that later.
The upshot of all of this is that for 18 hours of every day, professional,
well-trained sighted assistance is just a few taps or a Siri command away.
Describing it like this makes it sound kind of cool. But I want to explain
the impact that Aira has had on our lives in the brief time we have had it,
to illustrate that, at least for some of us, this technology is more than
just pretty cool, it's life-changing.
My first Aira experience
If you've been reading this blog or listening to The Blind Side Podcast over
the years, you will know that in recent times I have come out as having a
hearing impairment. I love going to these big conferences because I get to
catch up with old friends and make new ones, as well as see the latest and
greatest technology. I hate going to these big conferences because often, I
find myself in difficult audio environments. It can be very noisy. Hotel
lobbies and restaurants are often exceedingly crowded, with high ceilings
causing noise to bounce everywhere. The environment is difficult and tiring,
but I keep going and doing the best I can, because the alternative is to sit
at home and rust away, and I'm certainly not going to do that.
One smart thing that Aira has done is to start rolling out a concept called
"site access". With appropriate sponsorship, or perhaps at times where there
will be many potential customers in one place, Aira can enable free access
to a location or even the entire city through their smart city project.
There are