I used my friendly neighborhood Chatbot to tell me this story. All I gave it was the scenario and a copy of a ‘how Glideance actually works’ page. There are issues, but I found it a useful thought experiment that I share with you all.
“As you step outside your home, you feel the gentle breeze against your skin. The fresh scent of morning dew lingers in the air. Holding Glide’s ergonomic handle firmly in your hand, you feel a slight vibration signaling it's ready to guide you.
You begin your walk, feeling the familiar texture of the pavement under your feet. Glide's wheels move smoothly, gently steering you towards your path. As you walk, Glide’s voice feedback keeps you informed of your surroundings. “You’re on the main sidewalk, approaching the first side street in 20 feet,” it says.
You hear the distant hum of cars and the chirping of birds, blending into a symphony of morning sounds. Glide guides you to the edge of the sidewalk, and you feel the slight incline as you step down to cross the first side street. “Side street clear, proceed forward,” Glide announces. You step confidently, knowing Glide is keeping you safe.
Continuing your journey, you notice the subtle changes in the surface beneath you. The sidewalk transitions from smooth concrete to a slightly rougher texture, indicating a different section of the path. “Approaching another side street in 30 feet,” Glide informs you. You listen for the sounds of approaching cars and, once again, feel secure as Glide confirms it’s safe to cross.
After a few more crossings, you reach the main road. The traffic noise becomes more pronounced, and you can feel the slight vibrations from the passing vehicles. Glide’s voice calmly states, “Main road ahead. Wait for the signal to cross.” You stop and wait, hearing the rhythmic beeping of the pedestrian signal. Glide vibrates slightly, signaling it’s time to move. You step forward, each step guided by the gentle nudge of Glide, safely leading you across the busy road.
On the other side, the environment feels slightly different. The pavement is smoother, and you sense more people around. Glide continues to guide you seamlessly. “You’re on a commercial street. Sainsbury’s is 200 feet ahead on your right,” it says. You can faintly smell the aroma of freshly baked bread and coffee from nearby shops, mingling with the crisp air.
As you near Sainsbury’s, Glide’s sensors detect the automatic doors. “Approaching entrance. Doors opening,” it announces. The whoosh of the doors sliding open greets you, and the cool air-conditioned breeze brushes past your face. You step inside, feeling the change from the outdoor roughness to the indoor smooth flooring.
“Welcome to Sainsbury’s,” Glide’s voice confirms your arrival. You hear the bustling sounds of a busy store, the clinking of shopping carts, and the murmur of conversations. Glide has brought you safely and confidently to your destination.
With a sense of accomplishment, you pause for a moment, feeling grateful for the technology that helps you navigate the world with such ease and independence. Now, you’re ready to explore the aisles and find what you need at Sainsbury’s.”
Fifteen months to go?
Comments
Impressive.
It understood to focus on senses other than sight to tell its story. A couple of negatives though, first you’ve given away your location. Hackers could easily retrace your route and find Lotties Lair. And also it was being hopelessly optimistic with the feel of air conditioning. June 2024, you’re more likely to feel the hot air curtain on the back of your neck than your body being swallowed by the cool embrace of air conditioning. lol. Also Sainsbury’s is so convenient from your house. I have to walk like 2 miles. :P
Food delivery apps have a lot to answer for.
A couple of months ago I was having about 3 food deliveries a week. It’s too easy to get into the bad habit. I noticed though and started behaving myself better now its once every couple of weeks. Remaining on topic though, I wouldn’t want to be told off twice in one day. It really was impressive how much AI was able to Taylor your story with so little information. I feel like aI is going to intuitively understand what being blind is and how it needs to adapt. As long as it has the right data fed into the training models anyway. It’s an exciting thought that as 10’s of millions of jobs are subsumed by AI over the next 10 years or less that the AI might be more competent understanding and empathetic than a lot of the people its replacing.
Keeping on topic.
So does mine. It’s really good at adapting what it says but I think as its trained with more data like maybe this site well first it won’t realise that I have been told off because my indescression was thankfully hidden from the history of the interwebs but as long as it doesn’t conclude we’re always fighting too much to be bothered with the results could be really helpful. Also staying on topic, I’ve found that it’s very good at writing its own custom prompts. If you tell it all the things you’d like it to take into consideration in the custom prompt and explain its writing a custom prompt for an Open AI GPT. The results are really effective. Also staying on topic, well thats actually it. I just couldn’t help rebelling a little more. I’m half tempted to prefix all my posts about apples announcements later with staying on topic but I think thats too petty even for me. Hehe
Exactly what I would hope for
Yes but that description is exactly how I imagine Glide working. Once I get it if I could walk to Sainsburys like this with everything that the AI indicated I would be very happy. In theory, Lottie could have taken it one step further and had a walk around the store. Now if Glide could also tell you when you found your bottle of Pepsi and guide you to picking it up we really would have an all inclusive bit of kit.
@Eileen
You're not the only one but we can just skip past these posts.
Stop being so mean
Seriously guys. You don't have to vent about how you don't like these kinds of posts. Skip them, move on with your lives. Saying you don't like these posts and people can't think for themselves is both a little mean and pointless. It's only a step to name calling and arguing for the sake of it.
Imagining a Sainsbury's....
Regardless of who came up with what, or whose idea was better, or which one of you silly, silly people have nothing better to do than snipe at one another. The fact is that, I, now imagine that a Sainsbury's near me would be, as you folks across the pond would say, bloody awesome!
Fresh coffee and freshly baked bread is a win win in my book.
Sidewalk?
I'm never, never buying the bloody thing if it talks to me about sidewalks, trash cans and shopping carts! Lottie, gentle breeze? You're obviously experiencing very different June weather from the rest of us in the UK. sainsbury's? No no - I'm a waitrose man except where you want to stock up on frozen food in which case it's Iceland all the way! Praise the Lord for the multi-pack! Apart from all of that, you've a splendid imagination and it is very exciting to think that we're not all that far away from this happening. so, Lottie, your next task is to persuade Bingo to make a sainsbury's return.
@lotty
Well I'll just skip these posts in the future as I do feel they can get a bit irritating.
If you want to call me agreeing with someone nasty then so be it.
Return to waitrose!
Lottie, the app isn't that bad now. I moaned about it rather publicly on twitter (formerly X) notwithstanding that I loathe that particular channel. They've smartened their act up a bit.
I've reread this thread as had a bit more time...why hasn't anyone yet written a comment with the subject line 'Come on, Eileen'? I cannot believe someone hasn't got there before bingo did! Brad old lad, just skip the stuff you aren't that keen on. I was going to add: or, ask AI to skip it for you; but that would have got me into a whole lot of trouble judging by the general tenor of some of the contributions to this thread.
Glide helping you inside Sainsbury's? I have had some thoughts about this and I think it's probably asking a bit too much for it to help you find items. However, how about asking it to be a really aggressive guide so people don't crowd you? I mean, perhaps there could be a setting to make it swear at people? 'Oy! F***ing move will ya?' 'Oh, come on, granddad, some of us need to get somewhere!', or 'Yeah thanks mate, really helpful when I'm trying to guide someone who can't see'.
In fact, thinking about it, some days this is how I would like my Siri in IOS18 to behave towards my good self. 'I just bloody did tell you, didn't I?', or: 'Yes this is that photo of you and Ian making arses of yourselves at the Oxford Union garden party...the one where that woman said she hoped her daughter didn't turn out like either of you.' now, that would be something!
Back to glide, I must confess it makes Bingo feel slightly nervous. It would take a lot of time to learn to trust it. I have to admit, I can't rule out that's being beyond me.
I'd love an AI that could click on things for me.
It would make clicking on youtube not interested buttons so much quicker. Ah, to dream.
As for the machine itself, i'm kind of 50 50 on it, part of me likes the newness and is interested in how it would work but another slightly bigger part of me worries about what happens when the thing runs out of battery, I think the first units can only go for 4 hours, when our canes can go as long as we need them to.
How can your cane go as long as you need it to?
Surely, if it's a 140cm cane it can only go as long as, erm, 140cm? Or have you invented a cane that will grow?
Sonic Screwdriver
The future of mobility canes.
Also, I still long for a Sainsbury's near me now.
Darn you, Lottie, darn you! *shakes fist*
@bingo
Har har :)
Ark at mr English teacher 'ere thinkin e's smart or somethin:)
I bow to your knolledge, oh smart one.
Battery Life.
I would expect the battery life to be pretty fantastic, in the last monthly meeting with Glidance I asked if they were planning on harvesting energy from walking by constant resistance and steering breaking. They said they are developing that right now. In theory we might get to a situation where we can tell it how much energy to recover from the magnetic breaking and feed straight back to the battery. That could make the battery last literally until the thing falls apart. It might never need charging at all. It just depends how much energy the device uses vs how much feels comfortable to recover from the regenerative breaking. In short. I think battery isn’t going to be a problem. Cellular service and latency are likely to be more of a problem but hopefully the device has enough processing power onboard to drop back to a simpler mode when it doesn’t have connection. Maybe it just avoids obstacles and keeps you safe but doesn’t do any of the advanced GPT AI vision stuff.
I am smart
I'm a jolly clever fellow, really; far too clever to shop at Sainbury's. Brian, we really need to shift this hankering of yours...Sainsbury's ain't all that great, you know. If you want a UK supermarket near you, wish for waitrose, moan there's no Morrisons, imagine an Iceland. The Sainsbury's cheese counter, when last I looked, didn't have sufficient British regional cheeses to be classed as right up there. I forgot M&S, too. their peacan and maple shortbread rounds are just the ticket with a cup of looseleaf Yorkshire tea - again, something I couldn't find in Sainbury's whose tea appears to be all in bags.
Incidentally, it looks as though the original author of this post has had all her comments expunged. Knew Eileen/Brad would get her in the end. Don't mess with 'em.
@bingo little I had nothing to do with this at all.
Well damn, I didn't always agree with @lotty but I hope applevis devs haven't removed her comments, I'm assuming she did it.
The AI posts can be a bit annoying for me to read but like I said, I can and will just skip them in the future.
@Andy Lane that honestly sounds amazing!
@Bingo
You know. I almost wish I could travel to London. Why London? Because a friend of a friend recently travelled there and enjoyed some amazing plays. Also, I kind of always wanted to visit there.
maybe it's the American in me. 😳
@Brad
Her account has been deleted I believe. Whether that was by her own hand, or by the powers that be, I am uncertain. 🤷
Lotte
We can confirm that Lotte chose to delete her own account. This was her personal decision and not the result of any action from the moderation team. While we regret losing valued contributors like Lotte, we respect our members' choices regarding their participation on the site.
I Sherlocked Lottie
This is my new AppleVis account 'Assistive Intelligence' and was entirely my own choice.
The AV pilot scheme was a time to experiment and hopes where high ahead of WWDC. Just as we didn't get the Siri we all dreamed of, we aren't living in the age of Intelligent Assistive Technology yet.
But I am still using my Meta Ray-Ban glasses every day and am going ahead with ordering Glide later in the summer, so it isn't al doom-and-gloom!
I wasn't banned or thrown out by anybody. I just did my thing for a few months until it became more boring than interesting!
Fair enough.
I've thought about leaving from time to time too, but I probably won't.
I'm hoping to move out either this year or next and will be making myself do more things instead of spending all my time online which will allow me to relax and destress from going on the same sites day in and day out.
I read...
Most of my 'Screen Time' is school-related, as I am still working on my Network Engineer certification. When I am not doing my studies, or surfing the interwebs, I am reading a good book on Kindle and escaping from the really, real world. 😄
Oh nice
I do think that if I get a chance to check out glide at site village either this year or, more likely next year; I'll do it and report back.
Honestly, it should be fun, it's a new mobility device and that's exciting to me. @Assistive Intelligence doesn't like the idea of going out with the device without a cane and I get it but to me that's the most exciting bit, how long will it take to get lost and how lost will I get? :)
To cane or not to cane...
I can understand the anxiety of going outside without a cane. I mean, if you have had any sort of official mobility training then you know what I mean when I say that we are pretty much brow beaten into never leaving the mighty cane behind.
Then again, I went to a guide dog school, and tossed everything I ever learned about the mighty cane out the window.
I imagine the Glyde will be similar. People will be hesitant to leave behind their cane. People will likely be anxious, maybe even a little terrified. Still, if Glydance delivers as promised, it really will be a game changer.
Just wish I could afford to invest on a "promise"... 😅
@Brad
Just think, one day you might walk with your shiny new Glyde to a local cafe, order a cuppa jo and sit down to a nice, enjoyable Kindle e-book.
@brian
It's youtube for me, but yeah, that would be the dream.
This interview video might be interesting to some people.
Here, it's called Glide from Glidance, with Amos Miller | Tech Connect Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42KuD0uuZls&t=465s
I think he articulated my issue in this video
When I say I can't 'see' myself out-and-about without a cane, using a device to get around - it is the idea of having both hands free, of just being me, myself, on my own, in the middle of nowhere. I can't describe it better, but what Amos says about having a device that connects us to the ground really spoke to me.
confirmation, of sorrs
After seeing an in-depth demonstration of the Glide, I think this is pretty accurate. I can see myself using it!