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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
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Speaker 1:
This is your citizen technology update.
Josh Anderson:
Welcome back everyone for our third and final episode of our holiday 2020 gift giving guide. Thank you so much for sticking by us for the past three weeks. We promise next week to return to our normally scheduled programming. And also, here in just a few weeks on December 25th, we will be celebrating our 500th episode. That’s right, the big five-oh-oh, I guess. And we’ve got some surprises in store for you, so make sure you don’t miss that. But right now let’s go ahead and get back into the gift giving guide again. Thank you so much for sticking by us these last three weeks. We really do appreciate it. We really do appreciate all of you, and thank you so much for listening, and have a wonderful holiday season.
Josh Anderson:
As I’ve told you before, one of my favorite events of the year is the ATIA annual conference. Every year I look forward to meeting with a global community of folks who use assistive technology to enhance their lives or the lives of their family, friends, students, or clients. Now, like so many other events, this year the conference will be held online. This virtual format means there’s more opportunities for flexible scheduling and registration options. And I hope that means each of you will join me online for ATIA this winter. ATIA 2021, AT Connected, will be held online January 25th through the 28th and February 1st through the 4th of 2021. The conference will feature the same professional development opportunities we’ve all come to rely on, with educational strands dedicated to AAC, vision and hearing technologies, education and learning, and AT for physical access and participation.
Josh Anderson:
Plus, leading assistive technology companies will be showcasing the latest in AT. There will be CEUs available and more than 150 education courses. And there are a ton of flexible scheduling options, so you can attend some sessions live and catch up on recorded sessions that will be available through June of 2021. This year there’s also a range of registration options, including full conference, single strand, one day, and even a free option. In addition, you can also join into the daily social activities with your friends and colleagues. I will be attending, and I really hope to see all of you there. You can learn more by visiting atia.org/atupdate. Again, that’s atia.org/atupdate, and I’ll see you all at ATIA in January.
Josh Anderson:
Do you find yourself with a little bit more time on your hands? Maybe you’re really busy and only have a little bit of time to listen to podcasts. Or maybe listening to this has you thinking, “Well, what about this? What about that?” Well, if you’re short on time or if you have questions about assistive technology, we have other podcasts that might just fit your needs. The first one is Accessibility Minute. This one-minute long podcast gives you a little taste of assistive technology and really wets your whistle to have you go out and find out more about a piece of technology and how it might help those you work with, yourself, or maybe a friend or family member. If you happen to have questions about assistive technology, we have Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, or ATFAQ. This show is hosted by Brian Norton and features yours truly, along with Belva Smith and Tracy Castillo as we all talk about assistive technology with questions that come in from email, phone calls, and other means.
Josh Anderson:
We also don’t always know the answer, so it’s very important that we have listeners that can help us out with some of those questions. Because while we like to think every once in a while that we may know everything, we’re proven wrong almost daily on that one. So if you’re looking for more podcasts to listen to, if you’re short on time and need a really quick podcast, or if you have questions about assistive technology, make sure to check out Accessibility Minute and Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions wherever you get your podcasts.
Josh Anderson:
Well, guys, we’ve looked at 2020 and it’s been a bit of a weird year, but as we look at the holiday season we’ve got to look forward to New Year’s. So what are you looking forward to in 2021? Brian, you haven’t got to go first yet. So what are you looking most forward to in the new year?
Brian Norton:
Well, I think maybe this is an answer for all of us, but I’m really hopeful that 2020 will just go away. Because it’s been a really hard year. It’s been really different, but in 2021, how about we get a vaccine for this COVID-19 kind of thing? I think that’s probably something that we would all like to see, but in 2021, I don’t know, it’s going to be an interesting year for me and my family. I’ve got a daughter headed off to college this next year and another one that’s going to be a junior in high school. And so we’re really just enjoying our time with them this year.
Brian Norton:
This year we’ve really enjoyed our time because we’ve had a lot of time with them, with school being shut down and those kinds of things. But looking forward to getting things back to normal, hopefully that they’re going to be able to enjoy school as a normal high school teenager should and be able to be involved in all of the different activities that happen at school. They seem to like those kinds of things. But yeah, I don’t know. I’m really hoping things can come back to a little bit of normalcy. However, I think our new normal is going to be a lot different these days. I think we’ve learned a lot here at Easter Seals Crossroads specifically in our AT program and with the INDATA project about how we can better serve people using some of these tools, these remote tools that we have.
Brian Norton:
We can help be more present with folks when they need it, more immediate in the way we provide services to folks. And we found some unique ways to be able to use the tools that we have now to be able to provide those services that we do. So I don’t know, there’s a whole mix of things. Really, 2020 has been super hard. I think it’s opened our eyes to a lot of things. I’m hopeful that we can get back to some sort of normalcy, that there’s a vaccine, and we can get past this. It’s been hard.
Josh Anderson:
David, what about you?
David Dreith:
Yeah, well, obviously I’m with Brian. We hope we have a vaccine. And I’m also with Brian in, I’m kind of excited about 2021. And if we can put at least some of the restrictions behind us, safely behind us, we get a chance to explore some of the forced learning, forced change we had because of the pandemic. But Brian alluded to remote services, we’ve learned new and different ways of working together. We’ve learned how valuable some things we have taken for granted are, and I’m looking forward to those to return. One of the things I am looking forward to is, at the time we’re taping this the baseball season ended last night, and not in the way that I wanted it to, by the way. But baseball is a game about eternal hope kind of situations. So I’m very much looking forward, hopefully, to a baseball season starting on time this year and running the way baseball does through most of the year.
Josh Anderson:
And Nikol, what about you?
Nikol Prieto:
Yeah, same thing. I think I’m looking forward to, I didn’t realize how dependent I am on seeing people’s lips to hear. So just being able to communicate better, being closer to family, especially grandparents and things. My daughter is a junior. I would like her to get back to going to school full-time in person and doing all the fun activities that we all enjoy, like football games and basketball games. I’m looking forward to concerts and just all those things where it’s not safe together in large groups now or they’ve been canceled. So obviously health for everyone, a vaccine, and then selfishly some social situations that I’m looking forward to when we get back to regular scheduled programming.
Josh Anderson:
And I have to go along with all those too, definitely health, wellbeing. I really hope that those things really do come back in 2021. Sports, I’d really like to not have to see a COVID-19 list for football every week to see who’s playing or when weeks are going to actually be played. I must admit, and don’t tell Brian, hopefully he’s turned off his, he can’t hear me, but I miss …
Brian Norton:
I’m listening.
Josh Anderson:
I miss presenting in person. I never ever thought I would say that. I’m probably going to eat those words if things open back up. But I realize, we were doing presentations at least probably once a month in front of people here and there. And my last time I presented in front of people was March, I think, 10th at ISU, two or three days before everything shut down. And it’s weird to not do that. I never realized just how much attention deficit disorder I have until I have to stare at a computer screen. And as soon as a bird flies by or a squirrel or something, I’m not paying attention any more. So it’s amazing. I don’t know, just being able to be there and be around people. And hopefully when we do this one year from now, you can all actually be in the studio. Because I miss having the occasional guest in the actual studio to be able to record.
Josh Anderson:
So I think we’re all looking forward to the same thing, but I do love to hear that everyone is hopeful and looking forward to 2021 and all that it can bring. We hope our listeners are as well.
Josh Anderson:
Well, guys, for our last segment I want to talk about just some fun things, some things for kids, some things for pets, because really and truthfully this holiday season, that’s who it’s all about, having a good time, especially in a year like this. So let’s talk about some of the fun things for kids, for pets, and really for all of us. And Nikol, start us off by talking about a smart dog collar?
Nikol Prieto:
Yeah, this is pretty cool. Now, I track my daughter all the time, but did not know until researching this that you can also track your dog. This is a …
Brian Norton:
Nikol, you put a collar on your daughter?
Josh Anderson:
I just learned that all three of you track your children. That’s amazing. I don’t want to know where the 19-year-old is.
Brian Norton:
Yeah.
Nikol Prieto:
She has a tracking device called her iPhone in her hand 24/7.
Josh Anderson:
Okay.
Nikol Prieto:
Other than when I frisk her and take it away at bedtime, but this is called the Link AKC Smart Dog Collar. So it’s very cool. It’s a smart dog collar that is GPS and an activity tracker for your dog. So it works with iOS devices and Android devices, and you’re able to locate your dog within the nation, tracking through the United States. I will tell you that it does require AT&T cellular service plans, but there are plans available for like $6.95 per month. So you’re able to, if your dog would run off, you would be able to track them. You can also track their activity if you have a lazy pup on your hands, you’ll know, “Gosh, I’ve got to get him up and take him on a walk,” and you can record some fun walks you’ve had, remember where you liked hiking with them or taking a walk.
Nikol Prieto:
It also has a really cool feature where you have a remote where you can turn on the LED lights. So if you let your doggie out at night to go to the restroom and you can’t find them, you can turn the LED light on and track them. You can keep vet records on it, healthcare reminders. So just a really cool way to keep your dog tracked, healthy, safe, and know where they are at all time. It runs $59.99. They do come in different sizes, and it did say if you happen to get the wrong size they’re very forgiving about returning and paying the coverage to ship that back to them and get the right size. And they also have a 90 day risk-free guarantee. Lightweight, pretty cute, and waterproof. And so I know we all love our animals, and the worst thing that could ever happen is to your doggie to go missing. So this is a great gift for folks that love their animals. You can find more information at linkmypet.com.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. And if we have a smart dog collar, why not a smart dog toy? So I found the Wicked Bone smart bone. And the device looks just like your cartoon dog bone almost, the white with the little joints at the end. And it connects to an app on your phone. And then the two ends of the dog bone act like wheels, and they’ll work either independently or together. And you can use this app and just drive the bone all over the place, which will in turn drive your dog crazy. And it turns out you can even hit an auto mode and it will just automatically play with the dog. It’ll go up and bump him and stuff and then run off and do all these other things. It actually features replaceable tires. So the two ends, you can replace those, so if they get chewed up or if you’re using it outside on concrete a lot, you can replace those sometime just to keep it up and going.
Josh Anderson:
And it’s actually able to react to the actions of your dog and work for hours. So if your dog is very, very playful, it’ll work even more, go a little bit further. You can set parameters, so if you want to play with it outside it can only go so far from where you are. And like I said, there’s an auto mode. So you can just hit that and completely ignore your dog while it still gets a whole lot of exercise. It retails for about $100, but there are some sales of course going on leading up to the holidays, so you might be able to find it cheaper. You can find it on Amazon.
Josh Anderson:
And then they also make something called the Wicked Ball, which is a dog toy that’s more ball-shaped, doesn’t have quite as many features, but it’s about half the price. And it still has some of those really cool features so that you’ve got an automatic dog toy that can play with them just in case you can’t. Or if you’re working from home and you just want to be able to play with the dog but still do your job, it might be a great accommodation to help you out with that as well.
Josh Anderson:
And then David, you actually found, and I really want to hear about this, a smartphone controlled paper airplane? How does that work?
David Dreith:
Yeah. Yeah, it’s one of the … As soon as I saw this as a possibility and came across it I went, “Oh wow, I’ve got to find out more about this.” I must have known I was probably at least going to go into engineering for education based on my love for paper airplanes as a kid. And when you had to start the school year off with a ream of notebook paper, that was 500 chances on 180 days to make paper airplanes. And it was something that landed me in a good bit of trouble but also gave me a lot of enjoyment. This is basically a propeller and a motor with a rudder that you’re attaching to a paper airplane that you build, and then you’re controlling it with your smartphone. Again, it’s adjustable length. The big thing about this, though, is it comes with a couple of things.
David Dreith:
One is designs for airplanes that work. I’ve experimented with many different designs growing up, some work way better than others. It would be so disappointing that you’ve spent the $50 to get this and then you can’t come up with a paper airplane design that really works with what you’ve got. The other thing it comes with is extra propeller and an extra rudder. If you’re like me you’re going to crash that plane more than once. And you’d hate to have to just ruin your plane in the first five minutes of your using it. So the extra propeller and extra rudder are going to come in handy.
David Dreith:
The first thing I do when I see a product like this is, “Yeah, right. Well, this is what the manufacturer says. Let me go check this out.” And usually I’ll dial up a YouTuber that has tried the product and is talking about it. In this case I found someone that has used this and watched him fly it about. He said it takes a few minutes. So your controls basically are, you’re using the gyroscopes in your phone as you keep that phone level. So that’s going to steer the plane in which direction you go. You hold your phone horizontally and you rock it back and forth to steer it. You also have a throttle button, so you can increase the propellor speed if you want. And then you have gauges that have to do with the battery life left. It says fuel, but it’s battery life. And then you have gauges as far as how strong your Bluetooth signal is.
David Dreith:
It is run by Bluetooth, so your range of your airplane is going to be the range of your Bluetooth. Watching the YouTuber that did this, said it took him a few minutes to learn how to master the controlling of the airplane. But once he had it going in his backyard, it looked like a lot of fun. While I wouldn’t recommend it for use in a school classroom, in your backyard looks like it would be a great, great, great afternoon.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. I definitely want to try that.
Brian Norton:
That’s really cool.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah, I really want to try that one out. That looks like a whole lot of fun. And Brian, you found probably not one of the oldest toys ever, but one of the most frustrating toys, at least in my life, but a new version of it. Can you tell us about the Go Cube smart Rubik’s Cube?
Brian Norton:
Yeah. So I don’t know about you, it sounds like, Josh, you’re in my boat, but I’ve always loved trying to solve or fix a Rubik’s Cube. However, despite my best efforts I’d often have to take the stickers off the device and restick them so that I get all the matching sides again. I don’t know if other folks have done that before, but amazingly, with the old Rubik’s Cube you could just take the stickers off and solve it in really quick turnaround. But if you’re not interested in that and you really want to take the time to learn how to solve it, there is this new smart Rubik’s Cube from Go Cube. And so what you can do is, basically it’s actually a Rubik’s Cube, but it connects through Bluetooth to your phone or tablet, and it’s going to help you learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube in some fun, interactive ways by playing games or battling others.
Brian Norton:
If your kids are interested in STEM toys, if you will, this is a great, great toy or an activity that they can get involved in. And so essentially it does, there’s an app you can download from the Google Play store or from the Apple Play store, or the Apple store. And basically you connect this Rubik Cube to it. The Rubik’s Cube itself has some smart sensors, and so it can track the movement and measure your activities. And then again, it’s all interactive. So you’re playing games, you’re battling others. And it really is just a cool way to interact with one of these old toys that’s been around there for a while. It costs about $50. You can purchase it from Amazon, and again, the app can be downloaded from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. But a great way to reinvent with some new technology what we’ve always loved, or a lot of folks have loved, is that Rubik’s Cube experience.
Josh Anderson:
Well, I found something that’s a new take on something that’s been around for a long time as well, and that’s the drums. So if you really think to be able to play the drums you have to have a heck of a lot of room, for one, to set up a whole drum kit, very, very patient neighbors, parents, and everyone else living in the house, and probably a little bit of skill. But the skill’s maybe not the most important part. Anyone can learn, I suppose. But I also think about, if you have any mobility challenges, using an entire drum kit has got to be kind of difficult. You have to reach out for the snares, for the cymbals, for all the other drum pieces and parts that I don’t know the names of. But I found something called the Senstroke connected drum kit, and that’s S-E-N-S-T-R-O-K-E.
Josh Anderson:
And the kit includes these sensors that will actually slide onto your feet and onto drumsticks, and then it turns anything you drum on into a drum kit. So basically you can still use your foot for the hi-hat, just like you would if you were actually drumming, but there is no hi-hat. It just thinks that there is and will actually work the same way. There’s a lot of different packages available, depending on how many sensors and how many features you want, but all of these connect to an app on your phone. And then you can broadcast this to an amp if you want so that you still have that big drumming sound coming out and going around. Or you can have it go into headphones so that you’re not making everyone in the entire house go nuts with all the noise.
Josh Anderson:
So it’s very, very cool. I watched a few videos on this. You can watch a video on it and find it on senstroke.com. And the kits run from about $180 to $280, but essentially you can sit on the couch and drum on the cushions, drum on the coffee table, drum on the side, and use these as all different pieces of a drum kit. So very cool. And really all you have to have besides this kit is a set of drumsticks. And again, you can put it on your foot, or if you don’t have the mobility to do that, you could put that on a hand, on another piece, so that you can actually have the features of an entire drum kit without having to have the whole thing sitting there. Brian, you had another one called the Play Pack. Can you tell us all about that?
Brian Norton:
Yeah. So this is another product from Firefly Friends. It’s really something that focuses on therapy for babies and young kids, but again, it’s fun therapy for what they refer to as little learners. Usually, when they say babies, the young kids think zero to four, I think would be an age range for folks. But really what it is, it’s a lightweight bag that contains an entire activity center. Inside you’re going to find rolls and wedges and other kinds of supports that you can stick together in lots of different ways to let your child practice what they refer to as developmental postures. So if you’re wanting to play with your kid and they can’t sit up, they’ve got all of these different foams, rolls, different kinds of wedges for you to be able to help them sit up and keep them sitting up while you play with them.
Brian Norton:
And so again, fireflyfriends.com. Again, this company has really great tools. They may be a little expensive, this is $499, but it does a whole lot. It really allows you to get kids into different positions to help you work on therapy, whether that’s with your therapist or at home as parents. But a great way for folks to do that. It’s really practical, it looks great. It’s not something that looks any different than the shoulder bag that you might carry your computer in, or other kinds of things. It looks a lot like that. It looks great. It doesn’t look like therapy equipment. It’s not going to maybe attract some sideways glances from other folks who don’t know quite exactly what you might be using over there. It just looks like a practical everyday device, but it’s called Play Pack. It’s, again, from fireflyfriends.com. But again, a great way for you to work with your child, again, zero to four, on some different ways to do different developmental games, work on sitting, work on lying, and other kinds of things with them.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. Well, Nikol, I saved this one for last because this is maybe … Well, it was already maybe my favorite thing we’re going to talk about on this show. But after knowing I touch my cell phone 2,000 times a day, it’s definitely my favorite thing we’re going to talk about on this show. So tell us all about the cell phone jail.
Nikol Prieto:
Yeah, I thought this is really cool. Yes, 2,617 times is how often average cell phone users touch their phone. I just find that astonishing. And if you have teenagers you know it’s a real problem how often they’re on their phones. So this is really cool. It’s a cell phone jail, and it’s called Cell Lockup. And sometimes you just need to have a break from your phone. And it’s so easy to pick it up, and just even out of habit pick it up and start scrolling through. And then you’re just sucked in and you look up and where’s the time gone? So this will lock your cell phone in there, and you can set a timer on it. And you can set the timer for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes, and it’s locked safely in there. And then it has the timer going.
Nikol Prieto:
Now, if you have an emergency, you can get your phone out, but it makes this really awesome breakout alarm sound if it’s opened. So that will alert you to consciously think about, “You don’t really need that phone,” or if you’ve got a kiddo who’s trying to break their phone out, you’ll get that alert. It also has funny audio effects when your time is up. It’ll say things like, “It’s time to rejoin the digital society.” So I think it’s really cool. I’m not sure if teenagers would really appreciate it, but I know teachers in a classroom or parents during family time or homework time, it would be a great tool. And it was only $16.99. And it might be a great gag gift for your teenagers as well. So I thought that was super cool, and we’ll put a link in the show notes to it.
Josh Anderson:
Well, guys, I can’t thank you all enough for coming on the show today. And even though we’re not in the studio and we’re doing this all over Zoom, it is nice to have something that, always a nice tradition that we still get to participate in, even if in a little bit different way. So as we wrap up here, I just want to give you all a little bit of time to go ahead and say goodbye to our listeners. So David, thank you so much for being on here for the first time of hopefully many. And again, hopefully we can do this again next year, but you want to go ahead and say goodbye to the listeners?
David Dreith:
Yeah, yeah. I want to say goodbye. I’ve been a longtime fan of this podcast and of our assistive technology services here at Easter Seals Crossroads even long before I lived here in Indiana. So I do want to wish everybody a happy holiday season.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. And Brian?
Brian Norton:
Yeah. Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Josh, appreciate it. Love this podcast, and to all of our listeners to all of our podcasts, we’ve got AT Update here and we’ve got Accessibility Minute, we’ve got Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, or ATFAQ. Want to just say thank you for being faithful listeners. We appreciate that, and have a great, great holiday. Take care.
Josh Anderson:
And Nikol?
Nikol Prieto:
Yes, thanks for having me on. To all our listeners, merry Christmas, happy new year. I hope you enjoy the season.
Josh Anderson:
And listeners, I’ll echo what they said. Have a wonderful holiday season, stay safe, stay well, and we can’t wait to see you back here next week. Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If you do, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject, or check us out on Facebook. Are you looking for a transcript or show notes? Head on over to our website at www.eastersealstech.com. Assistive Technology Update is A proud member of the Accessibility Channel. For more shows like this plus so much more, head over to accessibilitychannel.com. The views expressed by our guests are not necessarily that of this host or the INDATA project. This has been your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana. Thank you so much for listening, And we’ll see you next time.