Disability And the Modern World: How Will AI adapt to "Us"?

How will Artificial Intelligence  adapt to persons with various disabilities?

I just had a very interesting experience at my bank. The ATMs (Automated Teller Machines)  have just been upgraded with paper money recognition, meaning that you no longer have to deposit physical bills in envelopes. This actually poses a problem for myself, because of the actual real world speed I moved at. It's not exactly quick or even what I would call coordinated. This caused the poor back machine a minor fit as it accepted the deposit part way through me inserting the money. Suffice to say, I had to leave a message with my bank as this is the weekend. I'm sure everything will be straightened out. 

The average bank machine is a little higher than I am it also means I have to adjust my chair after inserting items and accessing the touchscreen. It can be done, but if I'm lower down but that puts my finger at an angle which causes errors with the touchscreen....  So basically this is modern technology not quite adapting correctly to any given user. This situation I understand because programmers have to make decisions, unless they want to write 4 billion lines of code, and sometimes one adaption for a segment of the population can get in the way of another put in place for a different situation or user.

All of this has me thinking about how will Artificial Intelligence (AI) adapt to persons with various disabilities. At the present time, AI may be consider to disabled itself, given the very early stages we are in, but that won't always be the case. 

See:
Max Roser (2023) - “AI timelines: What do experts in artificial intelligence expect for the future?” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/ai-timelines

Just how will it interpret the various, variations it sees in the human population. Will AI "get it"and propose novel ways of achieving a goal? Will it see something its original designers did not and come up with its own solution?

Getting back to my ATM experience. Clearly you can't really setup longer defaults, because the speed I go at would drive some people crazy. This is where AI could be a benefit by changing how the machine worked for a given patron. Not based on a bank profile of the individual but by observing how they were doing in completing a task. Slowing down or speeding up as necessary or changing the on-screen sensitivity. This would be just the beginning.
 

Image generated by Ideogram AI.
I had to post this 😀. It resulted from simply
inputting he first paragraph of this article.
Quite amazing! **  (See end of article note.)

To be clear, this is not a commentary on the particular bank or the machinery they have chosen. This is more a observation of how AI might be able to improve how we use technology. In it’s current state, the new technology can get in the way of itself. I recently purchased a Google Pixel 6a smart phone,  and  one of the odd decisions that was made by the designers was to disable Bluetooth auto answer support for headphones. This feature is basic that I never thought it would be removed, but Google did in the Pixel phone... Anyway to make a long story short. I found an app which essentially replaces that functionality, (MotoAnswer on the Google Play store) but it is not a perfect solution because it is not integrated into the OS. Occasionally strange things can happen like if a phone call comes in while I am dictating to the computer the app may auto answer the call because it knows I'm using the headphones but route the audio to the earpiece in the phone. – So Google, please enable Bluetooth auto answer on your phones.

My previous phone which was "simpler" only because it had a stock version of android never had this problem. The computer and the phone would switch over between devices with no problem and everything would come through my headphones. This is yet another case where AI could be a benefit. I didn't contact Google and their response was rather surprising. They stated in a public forum that they have no intention of enabling auto answer on Bluetooth devices. When I press them the response was. (Paraphrasing) "We have never had Bluetooth auto answer on any pixel phone and we do not plan to incorporate it in later releases." They declined to state exactly why. (The full discussion thread with the Google community representatives can be found here.)

So maybe AI will be the answer to all of this; with ultimately a customizing device which adapts itself to the user. I  have a feeling though, outside of special use cases, the current models of AI being developed may not be considering the variations in people out there in the world today. This could turn into be quite an adventure. 

Perhaps the opposite will come true, maybe Artificial Intelligence will wake up the rest of the world to incorporate variation instead of standardization.

But that's kind of artificial intelligence is far down the road, because by then AI itself will probably be considered a legal entity or person. Society is going to have to evolve culturally to adapt to all these changes. Who knows, the next hundred years people may look back on this beginning period in the early 21st century in the same way we now look at the distant past and think: "If people only knew back then how things were going to change." Forecasting the future has always been an almost impossible task, because any culture currently perceives the future by its own heavily biased current perspectives. Think the steam punk of Jules Vern or even the science fiction stories of the 1930s and 50s. Jules Vern's vision was full of large powerful machines made out of brass and iron, usually driven by steam, and the 1950shad everyone in the 21st century still using vacuum tubes. Indeed at some point our society which is based primarily on electricity and devices driven by such energy will itself be replaced by something not as yet quite foreseeable.

Here's a great story. It's a science fiction story from 1951 "The City at World's End" by Edmond Hamilton. It illustrates in it's telling of the future, how everything is biased on current perspectives. This is in the public domain and this is the LibriVox audio book version. Simply click the title or picture to go to the book.

Story synopsis: "A surprise nuclear war may cause the End of the World, but not the way anyone could have imagined. A classic science fiction tale from Galaxy Magazine."

Genre: Science Fiction
Language: English
Format: Audobook
Read by: Mark Nelson
Source: LibriVox.org Free Public Domain Audiobooks.

LibriVox recordings are Public Domain in the USA.
If you are not in the USA, please verify the copyright
status of these works in your own country before
downloading, otherwise you may
be violating copyright laws.

 Broadening the topic a bit, on a larger scale, will AI even consider the concept of disability? It may be that it just will ultimately see the entire human race as one singular group. "The Human Race" and not even perceive or care about the nuances societies define themselves by. Now there's a bit of an ego crushing thought. At this point I'm getting about as speculative as the science fiction story mentioned above.

When I was born, most disabilities were considered an understandable limitation by society. You were kind of branded and broader opportunities were simply out of the question. I wonder if the opposite might ultimately occur. With AI in the mix, will so many solutions be available that being disabled is not even considered when looking at one's potential. In much the same way with the advent, since the Covid 19 pandemic  , of the remote worker which is pretty much nullified the need to go into work physically for a lot of jobs. It's an interesting thought.

We shall see. Continue to have a great day.
Patrick Clark 

** NOTE: The picture "Image generated by Ideogram AI" displayed midway through this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Some background on the creation of the image from Ideogram AI. I literally just put the first paragraph from the article into the service and it resulted in this creation. I was frankly astonished. This was using the free version as well. As of this writing you are allowed 25 images a day. Talk about a real asset when it comes to visualizing. I only stumbled upon this service while reading a totally unrelated article.

The Smart Phone Market Is the Definition of Insanity

It's the 21st century and people are beginning to take recycling and conservation very seriously. So why do we allow and indeed participate in the throwaway mentality of current smart phones?

They should be built to last not expire in two or three years. People behave like they're involved in an arms race; constantly upgrading for the latest and best technology. Think about the number of resources that go into the short life cycle of a phone. Rare materials many of which are toxic and some almost impossible to recycle.

So what's going on here and why are people buying into this? My phone is barely 3 years old and has begun to fall apart. I investigated and found that the entire phone is glued together. I don't think there's a screw or a clip in the whole thing. $600 is what it cost me when it was new because I bought it out right, wanting to avoid getting locked into a plan because one never knows what my income is going to be in the years moving forward. In other words I was looking to keep my life simple.

My needs in regards to this technology are very straightforward:

1. A clean un-bloated operating system android like operating system.
2. I'm willing to pay extra for good hardware as I do use quite a few apps for work.
3. I couldn't care less about the camera as long as it is sufficient to grab the occasional QR code.

Sounds like a pretty simple shopping list doesn't? Yet the way phones are marketed makes finding out that information rather challenging. As a matter of fact the last online at will I checked out for a phone spoke about everything except those basic points. The entire 10 page manual was more of an advertisement and the last thing we talked about was the actual phone functionality. In other words it was a camera first and the phone was almost an afterthought.

The other issue that really gets me going is updates to the software, or lack thereof, two years in and you're pretty much out of luck as far as patches go from some suppliers. Can we at least begin to turn this around by insisting that the batteries are replaceable and recyclable?

TVs are now beginning to go this way as well. My first Smart TV it took two years to get all the bugs out of the OS and then the manufacturer started shutting features down. Boy I was not impressed.

The thinking should be the other way around and go something like this:

1. If the hardware and software are capable of keeping the device secure and safe, then in order to maximize its useful life manufacturers must maintain it. They can offer new products but the consumer must be able to use their device to the fullest extent. This keeps things out of the recycling and saves the new amount in energy and resources.
   
   
2. The idea of building something to last is a concept that I think many people would welcome back. True there would be a reeducation going on because many people have never thought in that way.
   
   
3. This would have the effect of freeing people up to choose when to upgrade.
   
   
4. If the consumer new that the device was created to last and be serviceable in its lifetime then it is likely they would see the price as an investment. This would build loyalty which is something that every manufacturer needs.

Okay gang that's the end of my rant. What do you think. Let me know in the comments or by sending a note.

Take care Patrick

There simply must be a better way to set up smart devices.

Photo by Jernej Furman on Flickr
Creative Commons CC BY 2.0  license

Like everybody else who even touches technology I have many accounts with a fair number of companies just so that all my smart devices work. I get worried though, most of the time, when I investigate the following two things:

1. Terms of service and privacy. Why the heck would a smart power plug need access to so much in my device? Some of this is really concerning because it becomes apparent that there doing something with all that data and for me this is a dealbreaker. When a product requires so much material that is unrelated to its operation a red flag really goes up
   
   
2.  Incredibly poorly written apps and overall design. I was just helping a friend and the majority of the apps interface is bright white with small bright green lettering. It doesn't even look aesthetically good, mainly because you can barely see anything.

Taken together if the company hits on the above two points, I run away had full speed because in my book it also means that the likelihood of them being around in five years is dubious. Making the very nice power bar into a "dumb" power bar with the added complication of the fact that it still transmits its Wi-Fi signal.

Pardon me but I just had the vent.

 All my friend wants to do is have a timer to turn off and on the charging on their backup electric chair. With critical equipment you don't want to leave it on charge all the time because some batteries will deteriorate even if it's a small amount of continuous charge and by the same token you don't want to leave them unplugged for too long either. Ideally you want your chair to be ready to go when you need it. 

But set ups like this are just ridiculous. And as I said I am not impressed with the app itself. It just looks janky. It will work but I expect better from companies.

Take care Patrick

Voice assistances and disability

 

Voice assistance whether it be Google or Amazon: are they sufficiently useful now for the disabled?

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January 22, 2023 update

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 The person who was to be the key focal point of this project has gone silent. Now it could be that they are dealing with other more pressing issues. Life as everyone knows can get very complicated awfully quickly.

So for now this project is on the back burner although my curiosity has been aroused, so I will keep investigating as time permits. That way if they do make contact again we will be able to hit the ground running.

Of course if I find anything of mutely interesting in either hardware or software. There's a high probability that I will post news of the device or application to this blog.

Take care Patrick.

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Pretty much everything now at least in the technology sector seems to be voice assistant capable at least in some degree. With the new Matter standard being talked about all over the Internet it seems that things are slowly improving. However at the same time a lot of companies are having difficulties because everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. The prime example of this is the smart lights market.  I bought into the LIFX lighting ecosystem verily early on because the hardware and colour accuracy appeared to be the best, even though the product line is expensive, upwards of $50 Canadian for a single smart light. Now it is hard to say with the huge amount of competition whether anyone company will survive.

So if you are looking toward the smart device to help in some way improve your life the first question that comes to my mind is which of the companies are going to be around long enough? It has only been about four years since I bought my first LIFX device and now I have over 25 of them mainly focused on lighting but because they require an Internet connection back to a LIFX server, things could get very dicey if the company collapses. Fortunately lighting is not a critical issue. One can get a light pretty much anywhere now days :-).

Let's say however I used to smart device to open or close a door, or automate a phone call. Or even a program on a computer like initiating a Zoom session or Microsoft Teams for that matter. The Matter Standard is supposed to be able to alleviate some of the issue by making control of the devices local and not dependent on a remote server. But the standard itself is new and although backed by many companies may or may not fly.

So how does a person with a disability proceed in enabling high tech features in their homes?

In the coming days I hope to have a few answers for you, as I personally dig into this issue. Stay tuned.
Patrick

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January 11, 2023 update

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I was eagerly awaiting meeting this person today in order to dig into their issues and solve or at least get clarification on where they were with technology and smart assistance.

I didn't meet them yet as they only use a single platform for communication and it became clear that before we could proceed that they had to agree to meet with me. Rather than just their representative. I know this sounds a little bizarre. But I also understand the concerns put forward.

So the standby. I have indicated my willingness to work with them and I am very curious as to what solutions I will come up with or what things will be discovered.

Apologies for being a little on the vague side but until we get the ball rolling any more concrete fashion, patients will have to be a virtue that is relied upon.

More in the next day or two.
Patrick

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January 13, 2023 update

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Sorry folks. Still awaiting a reply from this person as to whether they want to proceed with the project. These kind of delays are not uncommon when you are dealing with many layers of bureaucracy. Personally though the suspense is killing me.

I really want to get into this to see what needs to be done. What kind of limitations and/or parameters were dealing with. If funding is needed how to brainstorm on getting the required resources. I have been on this planet for 63 years and I know where there's a will there's a way. This may sound a little odd, but I truly hope that this situation is not to simple to fix. When I was young I was the kid who would take apart all their Christmas presents. This undoubtedly drove my parents nuts.

Stay tuned. The minute I know something. You will to.
Take care Patrick

"Hey Google Park the wheelchair."

 

New Year's and Christmas have passed, and so I found myself thinking: "You know, I really should get my self something novel but yet useful." (The word useful can be applied very loosely here in this context.)

I am a geek, and am always fascinated by creativity combined with technology. So I set my sights on finding something out of the ordinary in the truly gizmo range. I had no idea my quest would be so difficult...

When it comes to wireless technology it seems that everything relates to one of the following, it is either, smart lighting,-including thermostats and switches etc., smart cameras, smart speakers, smart assistance. While the list of devices goes on and on there doesn't appear to be any real innovation. Every year it appears to be a rehash of the same narrow products. With all the companies out there involved you would think there would be at the very least a plethora of good, for example smart coffeemakers that could grind your beans, so that when one staggers out of the bedroom you have an excellent cup of coffee waiting. The point is there there are a wide variety of potential products it uses that could benefit from automation but we seem to be stuck on a fairly narrow range.

So I have a question for you: Have you heard of any unusual devices that are part of the burgeoning smart technology? Something that really adds functionality or convenience to one's life.

Personally since I use an electric wheelchair, I would love to have a self parking chair. Thereby relieving the staff from having to drive it into its parking spot every night. (For new staff driving a expensive highly sensitive motorized wheelchair can be a little terrifying for both them and myself. 😄)
 

To put it another way, which might make the question clearer:
In regards to the "Internet of Things". Do you find the range of products diversifying into new uses and abilities or is it more of a rehash of a limited range of categories?

 
Leave your comments if you have any thoughts on this.

Internet of Things lifespan

Image by Tumisu.
Used in accordance with the Pixabay license.

It is the first day of 2020, and I find myself thinking of all the "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices I have. In my single bedroom apartment there are 17 smart lights by LIFX (company info-opens new window), a smart television, a Google Home, a Google Nest Mini and if I can ever find them at some point there will be smart curtains as well. All of these devices have one thing in common, they all rely on the respective companies to stay in business in order to function.

Each time I ask Google to adjust the smart lights, a message goes out across the Internet to the LIFX company who in turn send the signal back to the appropriate light. My Sony TV functions in a very similar way. Gone are the days of having local control over anything. Even if I use my phone to control the lights, the signals still travel to and from the company servers. This can have interesting effects when things get busy for LIFX, the lights may go on or off in stages, instead of all at once. There may be only a second or two of the delay, but it seems to me a very complicated way to achieve the simple goal. If the Internet connection goes down then everything simply stops, stuck in whatever state it was last in.

Don't get me wrong, I love all these lights and the potential of the evolving technology is tremendous. But why are we building in such an Achilles' heel with all the new products? It is taking built-in obsolescence to a whole new level. While it is likely that Google and Amazon for the foreseeable future what happens to the plethora of smaller companies and their associated smart gizmos. Last year, as a Christmas gift, the organization I volunteer at gave me a smart plug which was supported by Google home at the time. The company however ran into some issues with their online security and as such they were instantly not supported by Google anymore. The problems have been rectified with the company as far as I know but I still cannot control that particular smart plug via the Google assistant. The smart plug still works fine with my phone but it shows how at the mercy we are when it comes to the winds of change and the future of companies.

So for me for example if LIFX ever closes down that means that my investment of 17 smart light bulbs at an average cost of $50 each, $850 total, will be a bitter pill indeed. They will still work as ordinary lights, and thank God they are energy efficient.

Anyway this is been a spontaneous ponder or rant depending on how you look at it.