[Nfbf-l] Melbourne Space Coast Newsletter

Tue Jan 31 16:17:39 UTC 2017

Please take a moment to peruse our chapter's monthly newsletter. 

Camille Tate

Melbourne Space Coast Chapter 

Volume 3, Issue 2 

February 2017 

In This Issue: 

NFB Pledge 

Meeting Announcements 

Thank You Division of Blind Services 

Annual Dues 

Agencies That Help the Blind 

Convention Season 

10 Things You Didn't Know 

Technology Tidbits 

NFB Pledge 

I pledge to participate actively in the effort of the National Federation of
the Blind to achieve equality, opportunity and security for the blind; to
support the policies and programs of the Federation; and to abide by its
Constitution. 

Meeting Announcements 

Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, February 11, at The Fountains.
The Fountains is located at 4451 Stack Blvd., Melbourne, FL, 32901. The
meeting is from 9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. 

Anyone needing transportation, please call Joe Naulty, (321) 768-9500, no
later than Tuesday, February 7. This is to ensure you will be placed on the
list. SCAT provides transportation for our meetings and charges a fare of
$1.50 each way, for a total of $3.00. Drivers are unable to make change.
Fare cards may be purchased by calling SCAT, (321) 635-7815, option 403 or
604. Fare cards are $15.00, which provides for 10 trips. 

Our February guest speaker will be Camille Tate. Camille is a Board members
and Editor of The Visionary, our chapter newsletter. In response to member
requests, Camille will give a short demonstration on JAWS, the most widely
used screen reader technology for computers. She will also speak about NVDA
and Windows Narrator, two other screen reader technologies available. There
will be a question and answer period to follow. Please join us if you have
questions about screen readers. 

Thank You, Division of Blind Services 

We would like to thank Phyllis Heath, Regional Director of Division of Blind
Services, serving the District that includes Brevard County. Ms. Heath spoke
before us, answering the questions we sent to her on your behalf. We would
also like to thank Jack Giordano, Julie Smith and Audrey Pincshaw for
attending this meeting. Ms. Heath has provided us with a list of some of the
agencies she touched on in her presentation. Those will be attached to this
newsletter as a separate sheet. 

Annual Dues 

Your dues to remain in the Melbourne Space Coast Chapter were due by
December 31, 2016. Annual dues are $10 and provide you with all the benefits
of membership in the Melbourne Space Coast Chapter and the National
Federation of the Blind. Some of those benefits include, meeting at The
Fountains each month; refreshments at each meeting and paying for materials
to conduct the mission of the chapter. Anyone who has not yet paid their
dues is asked to do so by March 31. We will no longer provide chapter
newsletters to those who have not paid their dues by this date. 

You may mail your dues to our mailbox: 

Melbourne Space Coast Chapter 

National Federation of the Blind

P.O. Box 120311 

Melbourne, FL 32912 

Agencies That Help the Blind 

We were fortunate to have a representative from Division of Blind Services
come and speak before us at our last chapter meeting. Ms. Heath talked to us
about several agencies and organizations out there that can help us in our
life-long learning experiences as blind or low vision individuals. Attached
to this newsletter is a list forwarded to us by Ms. Heath, with the names
and contact information of these agencies. 

In previous newsletters, we have written about several of the agencies or
organizations on this list. Under the FAAST program, we wrote about their
low-interest loans made available to persons with disabilities to purchase
assistive technologies or other equipment necessary to manage their
disabilities. We have now learned that there is a program, through their
Orlando Center, to loan products to qualified disabled persons for as long
as they need the equipment. 

Computers for the Blind has a simple, easy to navigate website that explains
how the program works. Qualified individuals can choose laptops or desktops
at a deeply reduced cost; these computers are donated by companies that have
upgraded their systems and given their older systems to the non-profit.
Computers for the Blind maintains strict requirements for these older
computers, place the latest operating system on these machines and will
train you on how to use them. They also provide a limited number of software
choices with these systems, including MAGic and NVDA. In fact, for less than
$300 (estimated), you may get a complete desktop or laptop with all the
software you need to get started. Please call them directly if you are
interested, as there isn't currently an online application to apply. 

If you have further questions, please contact your Board for help. 

Convention Reminder 

Each year, the National Federation of the Blind holds two conventions. As a
paid member, you have the opportunity to see the Federation at work at these
conventions. This year, the National Federation of the Blind of Florida will
hold its annual State Convention over Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29, 2017.
This convention will be in Orlando. Attendance at State Convention is not
mandatory, but is encouraged. You will meet others throughout Florida who
have also experienced life as a blind or low vision person. It is a time to
come together and share stories and ideas with one another. More details
regarding State Convention will follow in succeeding newsletters. 

The second convention of 2017, is the National Convention. This year, it
will be held in the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, Orlando, FL, from July
10-15. National Convention is the largest gathering of the nation's blind.
There are days packed with sessions from companies who work to make their
products accessible. Our National Office holds important sessions, over a
variety of topics, including Public Relations, Library Services, using
accessible technology and many others. At National Convention, all divisions
of the Federation also meet to conduct business. At this convention, all
members of the NFB exercise their right to vote for the next leaders of the
Federation for the upcoming year. If you wish further details about National
Convention, please see Joe Naulty or Camille Tate. We encourage all of our
members to attend National Convention. 

10 Things you Didn't Know About Amazon Echo/Alexa.

1. Amazon Echo, known in-development as Doppler or Project D, shortened and
referred to as Echo, is a smart speaker developed by Amazon.com. The device
consists of a 9.25-inch tall cylinder speaker with a seven-piece microphone
array. The device connects to the voice-controlled intelligent personal
assistant service Alexa, which responds to the name "Alexa". 

2. This "wake word" can be changed by the user to either "Amazon" or "Echo".

3. The device is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do
lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing
weather, traffic and other real time information. It can also control
several smart devices using itself as a home automation hub.

4. The goal of Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and conversational
system on board the starship Enterprise in science fiction TV series and
movies, beginning with Star Trek TOS (The Original Series) and Star Trek TNG
(The Next Generation). The name Alexa was chosen due to the fact that it has
a hard consonant with the X and therefore could be recognized with higher
precision. The name is also claimed to be reminiscent of the Library of
Alexandria.

5. A companion app is available from the Apple App Store, Google Play and
Amazon Appstore. The app can be used by owners of Alexa-enabled devices to
install skills, control music, manage alarms and view shopping lists. It
also allows users to review the recognized text on the app screen. Users can
send feedback to Amazon whether the recognition was good or bad.

6. As of November 2016, the Alexa Appstore had over 5,000 skills available
for users to download.

7. On November 30, 2016, Amazon announced that they will make the speech
recognition and natural language processing technology behind Alexa
available for developers under the name of Amazon Lex. This new service
would allow developers to create their own chatbots that can interact in a
conversational manner, similar to Alexa.

8. Amazon uses past voice recordings sent to the cloud service to improve
response to future questions the user may pose. To address privacy concerns,
the user can delete voice recordings that are currently associated with the
user's account, but doing so may degrade the user's experience using search
functions. 

9. Alexa uses an address stored in the companion app when it needs a
location.

10. Amazon retains digital recordings of users' audio spoken after the "wake
up word". While the audio recordings are subject to demands by law
enforcement, government agents and other entities via subpoena, Amazon
publishes some information about the warrants, subpoenas and some of the
warrant-less demands it receives. This allows customers some indication as
to the percentage of illegal demands for customer information it receives

Technology Tidbits 

by Paul Lilly - Tuesday, December 27, 2016

reprinted from
<http://hothardware.com/news/apples-first-ai-research-paper-puts-computer-vi
sion-into-focus>
http://hothardware.com/news/apples-first-ai-research-paper-puts-computer-vis
ion-into-focus

Apple's First AI Research Paper Brings Machine Vision Technologies Into
Focus

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are two intertwined and
fast-growing fields that are getting attention from some of the world's
biggest technology companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Google,
and now Apple. The latter joins the fray after having published its first AI
paper this month (it was submitted in November) that describes a technique
on how to greatly improve computer vision and pattern recognition in
machines.

This is a pretty big deal, and not just because of the technology involved
in the paper. Unlike many other companies involved in AI research and
machine learning technologies, Apple has kept its research tight lipped and
out of the public eye. Publishing this paper can be seen as an indication
that Apple wants a more visible presence in the field of AI, and sharing its
work will help the industry at large.

Apple's contribution here deals with how machines see and interpret images.
Machine learning largely uses synthetic images and videos to train AI. Using
synthetic images is more cost efficient than real-world images because they
have already been labeled and annotated. The problem with this approach is
that synthetic data is not always realistic enough and can cause machines to
learn details that are only found in synthetic images.

One solution is to improve the simulator, but that is an expensive
proposition and there is still no guarantee that AI systems will not pick up
on rendered details only present in synthetic images. Apple's solution is
something it calls Simulated+Unsupervised (S+U) learning where the goal is
to improve the realism of synthetic images from a simulator using unlabeled
data.

"The improved realism enables the training of better machine learning models
on large datasets without any data collection or human annotation effort. In
addition to adding realism, S+U learning should preserve annotation
information for training of machine learning models-e.g. the gaze direction
in Figure 1 should be preserved. Moreover, since machine learning models can
be sensitive to artifacts in the synthetic data, S+U learning should
generate images without artifacts," Apple explains in its paper.

To accomplish this, Apple researchers modified an existing (and relatively
new) machine learning technique called Generative Adversarial Networks that
has two neural networks competing against each other. Apple's method
involves a simulator generating synthetic images that are put through a
refiner. The result is then sent to a discriminator that must figure out
which are real and which are synthetic.

If nothing else, Apple's published paper could help the company attract
researchers who specialize in certain fields and want to be known for their
work. 

Resources for the Blind and Low Vision 

American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.

1839 Frankfort Ave

P.O.Box 6085

Louisville, KY 40206-0085

Phone 1-502-895-2405 or 1-800-223-1839

www.aph.org

More free braille books!     Braille Tales from APH

The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and Dolly Parton's
Imagination Library have partnered up to offer free print/braille books for
children under age 5 who meet the definition of blindness? 

Computers For The Blind

 <http://www.computersfortheblind.net> www.computersfortheblind.net 

Phone: 214-340-6328

Fees:  Desktop computer with monitor - $110.00   or  Laptop computer for
$160.00

FAAST   ( Florida Alliance for Assistive Services )

Regional Center for Atlantic Coast  - covers Brevard County area

Dept. of Communications, 3275 Progress Drive, Suite A, Orlando, FL 32826

Main Phone: 407-882-0468

Loan Program for Assistive Technology

National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program  (NDBEDP)

Florida Telecommunications Relay, Inc., 1820 E. Park Ave., Suite 101

Tallahassee, FL 32301

800-222-3448   Free telephone and free ringing device- cannot give away or
sell this equipment

Website:  <http://www.ftri.org> www.ftri.org

The   I Can Connect  Program promotes the NDBEDP program

To Be Eligible: 

1. the person must have a combined hearing and vision loss  

2. Be able to be trained to use the adaptive technology   

3.  Meet the program's income guidelines

Space Coast Center for Independent Living

571 Haverty Court, Suite W

Rockledge, FL  32955      Phone: 321-633-6011 

Their Continuing  Education  assists individuals with disabilities through
the five core services of Advocacy, Continuing Education Training,
Information & Referral, Individual/Group Peer Support and Transition from
other Institutions.    Transportation is provided for individuals of all
ages who have a disability by the use of wheelchair accessible vans.  Trips
are given to medical appointments and grocery shopping.  

Division of Blind Services 

Staff for the satellite office in Cocoa:  Jack Giordano (321-634-3681) and
Audrey Pingshaw (321-634-3680) are the DBS counselors and Julie Smith is the
administrative support.  

Center for the Visually Impaired   (1187 Dunn Ave., Daytona Beach, FL 32114)
Toll Free 1-800-227-1284

Serves Brevard County for Assessment, Assistive Technology  Training, Home
Management Training, 

O & M training, and other training as needed. 

Brevard Association for the Advancement of the Blind 

(B.A.A.B.) 

Baabhelpfortheblind.org 

(321) 773-7222 

Several times a year, BAAB holds an 8 week session, every Friday, for any
who wish to attend. 