In the first part of this two-part review of Aira, which appeared in the September issue of AccessWorld, I described the equipment, the agents, and how to accomplish some tasks using the service. In this second part, I will discuss Aira user experiences. I interviewed three Aira "explorers," two of whom work for Aira. I also evaluated Aira myself and will describe my own impressions.
Chancey Fleet
Chancey Fleet works at a library in New York City and subscribed to Aira in 2016. "I like to think of Aira as a Swiss Army knife, because it's relatively portable," Fleet explains. "It's there when you need it, it can tackle a ton of different, unanticipated challenges pretty quickly and easily."
Fleet likes to do origami. To find an origami project, she watches videos with an Aira agent and together they make a selection. The agent then gives step-by-step verbal instructions and watches while she completes the piece.
Fleet also tells about teaching someone screen-input braille. When the client was having difficulty, Fleet called an Aira agent who told her that the client was moving her hands from the original position where Fleet had put them.
Fleet uses Aira for both indoor and outdoor navigation. One time, when Fleet was pedal boating with a friend on a lake, an Aira agent described the scene and guided them back to shore. At meetings she can ask an agent how many people are in the room or where the coffee is located. Fleet also uses Aira to take photos for her social media. The agent can take a photo using the phone or glasses camera and then send it to her. She also uses Aira for grocery shopping at small stores. Fleet added that she prefers contacting Aira by phone rather than with the glasses and Mifi unit.
Fleet tells the story of the time she and a sighted friend wanted Indian food. They found a restaurant, but it was closed when they got there. To find another restaurant, Fleet knew she could use a combination of apps such as Blind Square and Yelp, but her friend was getting stressed and Aira was the fastest and easiest solution. An agent quickly found an Indian restaurant that had good reviews, wasn't fancy, and was close by.
She says, "I'm very happy that I have Aira to call if I'm in a new neighborhood and I want a bird's eye view and to find out really quickly what's cool, what's interesting, and what intersections I might want to find out more about."
Krishna Jariwala
"Independence is a big thing for me," says Krishna Jariwala. "I value my independence a lot and when my independence gets compromised, I freak out. Aira has really helped with that a lot. The agents are great. They're never condescending and they don't tell you how to do things."
Jariwala started as an Aira explorer in December 2016 and now works for Aira in their California headquarters. He started out as tech support, but now does product testing, agent training, and, as he put it, "a little bit of everything…whatever needs to be done."
Jariwala is a cane user. He uses Aira for both indoor and outdoor traveling. He explains that when offices have open floor plans it can be difficult to get from one office to another. In addition, outside construction can make it difficult to navigate. When training agents, Jariwala puts the agents through outdoor tasks. "Near our office is a 10-lane intersection," he says, "with a median in the middle. Without Aira I wouldn't even attempt that." He adds, "I don't mind taking risks, but I have my limits as well." He continues: "In my profile I have that I like quick and concise directions. That's the beauty of Aira; you can customize your profile as the need arises. We're constantly working to improve things."
Jariwala uses the glasses when he is "out and about" unless he needs to find something quickly, in which case he will use the phone because it is faster than taking out the glasses and Mifi. But, he remarked, "I tend to forget that I need to keep the phone in front of my body and that's a big challenge for me."
Before starting work at Aira, Jariwala signed up for the 200 minutes per month plan, which he thought would be more than enough. He discovered he had more free time for himself because he had Aira agents assisting him. He says, "I realized, and this is what I tell our users and potential users, it's not so much about what you might do or not do with Aira, it's more about what you are doing because you have it. I travel a lot more. I do a lot more things because I have a lot more time to do things. I don't have to plan ahead of time. I don't have to worry about how I'm going to get help; how am I going to get around. A lot of times, we ask family members and they mean well, but they get you to do things their way, cause it's easier, less challenging for them. Maybe they feel they are doing the best thing for us, but that isn't always the case."
Jariwala is extremely happy working for Aira: "I love what I do. I love where I work, I love the people I work with, and I feel really included in everything."
Paul Schroeder
Aira's Director of Public Policy, Paul Schroeder, says, "I often say that I'm one of our boring users. I do a lot of task-oriented things." In December 2016, Paul Schroeder began consulting for Aira and became a full-time employee in July of 2017. He lives in Washington DC and was previously Vice President for Programs and Policy for the American Foundation for the Blind.
Schroeder says he likes to review business cards with an agent to make sure he has the correct information because scanning the card does not always give an accurate result. The agent can take a picture of the card, if necessary, and read the card information.
Schroeder uses Aira for other tasks including sorting clothing, checking out products, looking at labels, and looking at directions. He likes using Aira in airports and says, "I enjoy the efficiency that I get with Aira: being able to find gates more quickly, being able to find food and amenities that are around which other apps that I'm using don't have, and avoiding the constant clutter people leave all over the place." He continues, "In the community, if I'm going to a new place, it's fun to walk with Aira and hear what's around. I like scanning the environment and checking out what kind of shops, businesses, streets, or whatever I'm passing."
Schroeder is a cane user. He says he uses the glasses and phone about equally. He explains: "If I know I'm going out for a bit or needing more serious interaction time the glasses are, of course, quite helpful because of the stability that's provided. I'm generally looking or facing the direction I want information about." Schroeder added, "I use the phone for document reading because I can get a better picture than I think I can holding my head still or holding something up to the glasses."
Schroeder has high praise for Aira's agents. He says, "Our agents are quite remarkable and that's because of the screening and training process that's overseen by Aira. It's really been quite strong." He adds, "The thing that I've enjoyed watching is seeing how the platform is continually amended with new services." He mentions Aira CEO Suman Kanuganti's announcement at the 2017 NFB convention, where he said that Aira would integrate with the KNFB reader. He adds that Aira would be launching Chloe, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent.
Schroeder describes Aira's integration with the Uber app, where an agent can call Uber and then direct the explorer directly to the car when it arrives. Schroeder has had an experience calling Uber directly and then having difficulty finding his ride.
Schroeder says, "It's those efficiencies that really make the difference. There's so much that's delightful about Aira, being able to have somebody read and provide visual information to you, give descriptions to you—and they do it in such a high-class, professional way." He tells a story of being in a donut shop and wanting to find the trash can. Instead of asking someone or using his cane to find it, he called an Aira agent who quickly located the trash can for him.
"My first time using Aira was at a non-blindness exhibit in a large building," Shroeder says. "I just loved the fact that I could walk around and an agent told me which booths there were and what was in the booth. I didn't have to go up and have a conversation with someone who either had nothing to tell me of interest, didn't want to talk to me, or I didn't want to talk to."
Schroeder continues, "The thing we're learning with Aira is how do we put sight efficiently and effectively back into our lives as a tool?" He mentions that he and his sighted spouse have gone to events and each of them go to different locations and then meet back to discuss what they found.
Schroeder says, "For somebody new to blindness, my hope is that Aira becomes…a complement and a thing they can use now with their training with a cane or dog to be even that more confident about venturing out. I think even if somebody has training, there's very often that fear about venturing out. Now you know you've got an agent with you and you are going to get visual information while you practice your skills. I think that can be a really powerful tool and a powerful incentive for people to take on more opportunities as they adjust to blindness."
He concludes: "What I want to do with Aira along with building partnership and alliances is to work up policies that I hope will help bring Aira into the hands of more people at a lower price. For many people price can be an issue."
My Aira Experience
I live in the borough of Queens in New York City and am a guide dog user.
The first time I used Aira was inside and outside the exhibit hall at the 2017 ATIA (Assistive Technology Industry Association) conference in Orlando. In my few minutes with Aira, I became very excited about the product. It felt like someone was next to me, giving me a description of where I was walking.
I tested Aira both indoors and outdoors. Some of the tasks will be described in this article. Sometimes I used the camera on the supplied glasses and sometimes I used the camera on my iPhone.
It is obviously extremely important that all your equipment, including your phone, is charged. Having a high reserve of battery power is important for continuous use of the equipment and you can never let yourself get in a dangerous situation because a piece of equipment has run out of power.
Since I didn't want to walk around outside holding my phone up in the air so I could hear it, when using the glasses outside, I put an AirPod in my ear. It didn't interfere with my hearing and I didn't have to hold my phone. Another option is earbuds or bone conduction headphones.
I originally received a pair of glasses and a Mifi unit that used the AT&T network. Because of where I live, the signal with this unit was very unreliable. Eventually I called Aira tech support and they sent me a Verizon Mifi unit and a different pair of glasses. The new Mifi unit worked extremely well and the new glasses fit much better.
During the trial period, I spoke with many agents. They were all professional, courteous, and helpful. I also spoke with several different members of tech support. They answered my questions and returned phone calls promptly.
Indoor Tasks
For most indoor tasks, it was easier to use the camera on my phone than the glasses.
With the glasses, I looked for a small gold earring (about .5-inch long) and an earring back that I had dropped onto a plush carpet. The agent had me scan the floor and he took photos, which he enlarged to get a better view. After several minutes, he located both the earring and its tiny back.
With glasses on, I called an Aira agent when I tried to switch from my cable box to my Roku and couldn't get any audio output. The agent informed me that there was a graphic on the TV screen that indicated the Roku was active. With the agent still with me, I hit the Roku's home button and it started speaking.
With glasses on, I called Aira and asked the agent to tell me which of the three wine bottles I had was white. I knew two were red, but I didn't know which two. I asked for the wine's name and other information on each bottle. The agent took pictures of each bottle just to insure he didn't miss anything in their descriptions.
I did many tasks using my phone's camera instead of the glasses. I asked an agent to tell me the colors in an eye shadow palette. Although each color had a name, the name had absolutely nothing to do with the actual color. The agent had no difficulty with this task. It was impressive especially since it was a male agent.
At home, in order to store cans in a kitchen cabinet, I asked an agent to give me the name of the product in each can.
I asked the colors of clothing items including skirts, pants, and shirts, and the agents' responses were all very helpful and descriptive. Although I know they won't give their opinion, after the agent told me that I was holding a green shirt and khaki pants, I asked her if they match. She explained that the shirt was a solid color and the pants were a neutral so they should go together.
I asked agents to read to me several documents. For example, I needed to sign and date a form. The agent read me what was on the form and directed me to the signature line. He told me when I was moving too far away from the line. Then he directed me to the date line and I added the date.
I needed to know which bottle of nail polish was a clear top coat. The first bottle I showed the agent was the correct one, which I'd thought was the case, but it was nice to have verification.
I needed to make sure that a can I had was baking powder. I tried to identify the can with Seeing AI (an iOS app), KNFB Reader, and with an Aira agent. I was unsuccessful with the two apps, but the Aira agent had no difficulty.
Outdoor Tasks
Most of the time, I used glasses for outdoor tasks. For very brief use, such as to spot a specific address on a door, the phone camera works fine.
I was at a shopping center and knew there was a Starbucks somewhere. An Aira agent guided me there, walked me through the line, and helped me find my drink once it was ready. He asked if I would like him to guide me to a seat. I declined since I was meeting my friends outside of the store and my dog could get me to the door.
Another agent guided me to a jewelry store. The store was on a main street but she took me there on a street that wasn't so busy until we were on the block with the store.
I wasn't sure which of several doors was for the nail salon I wanted to go to. The Aira agent got me to the correct place.
One evening, I wanted to go to Cold Stone Creamery. For the most part, the streets were not well lit, but the agent had no problem. We arrived and went inside and there was a very long line. The agent stayed with me and helped me navigate the line. He took pictures of the dessert offerings and he told me what was available. After I gave my order, the agent guided me to the cashier and then out the door. He asked if I wanted him to guide me home, but I knew exactly where I was and how to get back. I was especially impressed with the agent's ability to guide me through the long line and to read the many dessert choices.
My neighborhood is very residential and it's fun to take my guide dog and go wandering. There is a major highway about a mile away and I usually stay about two blocks away from it. I wasn't sure how much further I could go before I was too close. I walked as far as usual and asked an Aira agent. It turned out there were several more streets to explore.
I also asked the agent to track me as I walked to a major street where I wanted to know if there were stop signs or traffic lights. He said the small street I was on had a stop sign, but the major street, perpendicular to me, did not have any controls.
Times Square
I decided to go to Times Square, at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, in New York. It is also called the "crossroads of the world." The trip involved taking the subway from Queens to bustling Manhattan, which I knew would be a tough test. The subway station exits in Manhattan are roughly a block from Times Square.
In Queens, I was aware that there were two subway entrances on my side of a very large, eight-lane, busy, and divided thoroughfare called Queens Boulevard, also known as the Boulevard of Death because so many pedestrian accidents occur there. The agent had me scan left and right but could not see the subway entrances at a short distance on either side. Because of limitations on the map he was using, the agent said there was only one entrance for the subway and it was across the Boulevard.
I followed the agent's direction and cautiously crossed Queens Boulevard. He was very calm and successfully gave me the information I needed.
The agent then safely guided me to the station entrance, through the turnstile, and down the steps to my train.
When I reached my stop, I called Aira and got the same agent. He guided me smoothly up the stairs, out of the station, and onto the street. I walked around by myself for a few minutes and decided to walk over to Times Square. I got the same agent again. His map appeared to have Times Square a few streets further uptown than it really is. While we walked, the agent gave me a description of the various shops we passed. I decided to go into Starbucks. He walked me through the line and waited with me until my drink was ready. I asked him to help me find a seat and he did.
A while later, when I called Aira to continue my walk, I once more got the same agent. We walked around very crowded Times Square. He described what was going on as well as the shops and gigantic billboards. He guided me around obstacles and many, many people. My Mifi unit and glasses functioned perfectly.
Conclusion
Aira is an excellent option for accomplishing many indoor and outdoor tasks. It is not a replacement for a white cane or a guide dog. Agents are well trained, friendly, and trained to provide you with very useful information, but it must be stated that their information can be limited by available maps and they can only work with what they can see.
The Aira team is working to get funding from various government and non-government agencies for deserving people with visual impairments.
Aira technology is extremely promising and has already achieved a very substantial degree of usefulness.
Contact Information
Aira Tech Corp.
4250 Executive Square
La Jolla, CA 92037
Phone: 858-876-2472
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