Season 2 #1 – Glide into 2025 with Glidance

Welcome to NFB Newsline Tennessee presents the show that keeps you informed on blindness issues, up to date on innovations, and brings you engaging stories from people like you. Now on with the show.

Coming up on today's episode. Is Glide a robot?

Is it a robot? It's kind of a robot.

Listen to what others say about their Glide demonstration experience.

It is quick. I can get to where I'm going.

From those who pre order Glide, my.

Siblings and I had a call with the whole Glydence crew.

What does the future of Glide look like?

Many will be accompanied by some form of an intelligent guide.

Take a walk with me and Glide. Hello, Glyde.

Hello, Glide.

James Brown and the National Federation of the Blind of Tennessee organized a demonstration day for Glide. It definitely was an experience like no other. After everyone was finished, I asked them all the same questions. Was it what you expected? What was it most like, would you buy one? Some people have already pre purchased Glide. I found out what prompted them to take this kind of leap of faith to do this. Technology has advanced in the past year. It's made leaps and bounds in advancement for blind people as well. One of the newer pieces of technology is the Ray Ban meta smart glasses. And while I was walking with Glide, I videoed where I was going. So what my glasses saw is what ended up on the video. It was really cool to combine the pieces of technology. I've always been a firm believer in having lots of tools in your toolbox. And technology is no exception to that. I was talking to James Brown and he made a really cool, profound statement. He said that there's no better time to be blind. Right now we have several kinds of tech at our fingertips. Some of us willingly and readily embrace this technology. Some people are a little bit hesitant on it. And from the interviews and talking to everybody at the Glide demonstration, these are a lot of people who have embraced technology. And sometimes, yeah, it can be kind of daunting, kind of intimidating, a little bit scary. Where's it going? So one of the topics today is going to be the future. What does the future look like for Glide? What does the future look like for blind people? So I hope you enjoy today's episode. All About Glide.

My name is Amos Miller. I'm the CEO and the founder of Glideness of the company. I lost most of my site in my 20s during the time that I was doing my computer science degree and engineering. But I continued I worked for Microsoft. As I know you might be familiar with my work on Soundscape prior to working on Guidance. It's going to be a device, but I'm not really thinking about something that is in your ear that tells you what to do or tries to guide you. I'm also not really thinking about something that you wear on your body. Vibrations and haptics and things of that nature. I also don't believe, at least at this stage, that it's going to be some form of a humanoid that wears a hat, goes forward with you in the past. It's going to be some form of a device that is part of you, an extension of a device that has the ability to guide you if you are able to interact with it and pick degrees, you hold onto the handle.

And you basically walk.

And what happens when you walk is that the device uses its cameras and sensors to establish a safe path to guide you on. And it guides by autonomously steering the wheels a little bit to the left, a little to the right. Guiding you around obstacles on your way all the way to your destination will give you a profound sense of independence and confidence. You and your out in the what I would also say is that these kind of devices are going to be so easy to use, powerful and affordable that most blind people will be able to get out of their homes without dissertation. And you'll be familiar with the word dissertation here. When you're sitting at home and you're trying to decide, am I going to go to the store this afternoon or am I just going to order something online? Am I going to go on the bus and visit my friend today? Those questions, those hesitations that we have before we go out, we're going to do it, they're going to be a thing of the past because the devices will just empower us to just go when we won't go. And I bring it up because I believe that this is an inevitable future. It's a future that is going to happen. It's already happening now. And it's up to us in these kind of meetings and in these kind of discussions to shape it and discuss what it means so that you could shape it in the right way for the blind and lower people, really. And that's exactly why our company Glidance, is doing these early stage demos, early stage product, showing the product, early stage conversations so we can engage people in that conversation. You can imagine there is a lot of discussion amongst the orientation mobility training community. What do these devices mean for onm? What does safety look like? What happens when somebody who's in their 60s lost their sight from glaucoma and decides to buy One of these devices on Amazon, having never had any RNN training, what happens, you know, how does the public respond to these kind of devices? There's a whole range of questions and issues that we as a community have to think through. We, as a company, guidance, we can't really. We don't even know the questions. We also don't know all the answers for these questions. So, for example, if you listen to the davotab podcast, just last week, they had a good session and they decided that they're going to put together a panel of people of different opinions to start discussing these questions. I am delighted to hear, because that's exactly what I believe we need in order to bring this future about.

I asked everyone if glide was what they expected. I got several different answers, but there was one common theme. Listen and see if you can figure out what the commonality was. JANA Jackson.

You know, it's.

Yeah, yeah.

What I love about it is it's efficient. So, like, I love the fact that with my cane, I can find whatever, you know, I can find the. The bush or the whatever, and that's a good landmark. But what I love about this is it is efficient, it is quick. I can get to where I'm going. If I wanted to take a walk and get exercise and things like that, I'm going to be able to do that. I just felt like it was made for me.

Carlos Montes.

I was really surprised, like, how, like, it got me through the obstacles, you know, the walking me between things, you know, between bookshelves, you know, on the side. Yeah, I was, I was really impressed.

Connie Hoffman.

I've learned about this back in the spring and I've been doing all the zoom calls, read all the emails, read everything I can find about it. So I pretty much knew what to expect.

James Brown.

You know, I'm not sure yet. I used it in autonomous mode and was walking down a hallway and was expecting more of a sort of a smooth walk. But if I got too far close to the wall, it would kind of abruptly turn me away from it, which was slightly awkward. And so I talked to the engineer behind sort of what's going on, and he said that it's basically overcorrecting some and that's something they're going to put in the software and try to correct. So if that is fixed and it can sort of line up parallel and keep you more parallel with the wall without sort of jerking you around, that's going to be better. It's going to be more of a glide experience.

DESI I have listened to a whole bunch of podcasts about it ahead of time, so I kind of thought it would be similar to how it was. CHRIS PENNINGTON I mean, from what I've.

Learned so far before actually putting my hands on glide, just understanding the videos and the podcast and stuff that I've researched so far, I thought I had a pretty good idea and then actually putting my hands on glide and demonstrating with it. Yeah, it's pretty much what I expected and maybe even a little better for mobility.

Blind people use a cane, a guide dog, or a sighted guide. With this in mind, I asked the participants, what was glide most like?

CARLOS MONTEZ probably similar to using, using a dog because you are, you are avoiding obstacles and, you know, there's a sort of a trust factor that, you know, when I was there, was Luke there before, you know, before we started, he said, you know, just kind of, you know, he said trust it, you know, and walk with it and, and, you know, said I was doing great.

JAMES BROWN so I am a guide dog user, but I haven't had a guide dog in around a year. I recently got my dog a couple of weeks ago, so I'm really kind of both. And one of the interesting things about the glide, it is sort of a like a guide dog experience. So it was, it was kind of natural for me.

CHRIS PENNINGTON I am a cane user. I have had a dog before. It's definitely different from, of course, a cane because you can just really go along. You don't have to worry about getting stuck in cracks and all that. Now, compared to a guide dog, I may be closer.

JANA Jackson I would say it's most.

Similar to either a guide dog or a sighted guide, because if I'm walking with somebody holding someone's arm, I really don't care that much about, you know, I'm more interested in the conversation than I am what they're taking me around. And same with a guide dog. You know, I'm, I'm not worried about what I might be passing. I'm just glad that I'm getting around it.

ERICA actually, it felt more natural than.

I thought it would. I felt more confident than with a cane.

What do you think made you feel more confident using this?

Almost like I had a human sighted guide, really. I prefer being with sighted guide and it just felt like I was with a sighted guide, really.

Glidance has been traveling around and demonstrating glide and different parts of glide. It hasn't been put all together yet. The model is there, the blueprints Everything's there, but they're getting input now from people around the country. I'll admit when I was interviewing Amos Miller, I neglected to ask him about how many people have pre ordered Glide. That takes a lot of faith in a company and a product to do that. And several people who were at the demonstration have already pre ordered Glide. They have different reasons for doing it and a lot of it is, is the research that has been done. And word of mouth about this product is just crazy. Everybody is talking about Glide and what the potential is for this new innovative mobility aid. Ashley Montes My friend Terri, actually she raved about it.

She raved about it because of having.

Seen it at sea.

Carlos Montes talked to a friend who saw it at CSUN conference in California. And you know, she'd been using guide dogs for a long time, 40, over 40 years. And she said, you know, I, I, when I used it, you know, I felt like I was using like a guide dog for the first time, you know, and, and so you know, I, I, that, that was really just, you know, it was really intriguing to me. So you know, that's what kind of made me like, you know, pre order just listening to a lot of different information about it and you know, and the good thing is if I don't like it, if I don't end up using it, I'll, you know, I can always, you know, they have policies, refund policies and things like that. But that's why, you know, just, just really excited about the technology and the potential of it. And I just kind of took a leap of faith to be honest, to pre order, you know.

Emily Grooms I am a purchaser of the Glide because I am new to becoming blind and I want to be as efficient as possible. This glidance company has produced a wonderful mobility solution and I am very excited to be in the training in the business of development.

Kevin Klein, my boss, who's our CCO is blind as well and he had heard about it and kind of gave me some details and I was able to try it at the national ACB convention in Jacksonville this summer. So kind of got a feel for it then and was able to be be gifted the opportunity to get one on the way.

Content creator for the YouTube channel gliding through Blindness.

Connie Hoffman Definitely I hope to be a beta tester. In fact the whole reason for my YouTube channel, which is called Gliding Through Blindness by the way, nice plaid. Back in the spring, my siblings and I, there's four of us, we're all blind, but we had A call with the whole Glidance crew. And after that I'm going. I wish I could like, because I had been even thinking about doing a YouTube channel before that. But that was like the catalyst. I needed to get in gear because I was thinking, I have these meta glasses. It will be so easy for me to take videos of me out and about with Glide. And if I could get to be a beta tester, that would be even better. So I thought, well, I better get my channel started now. So that's how I got. That's why it's called Gliding through blindness.

Chris Pennington I do see myself looking to get one because I could see myself really deciding to say, you know what, I'm going to go for a five mile walk and just get going. I'm real active and so I can see Glide helping me continue to stay that way.

Emily Grooms I was using a cane and closing my eyes and trying to maneuver. I was constantly scared. Jessica, she pre ordered it and I definitely see myself using it. I'm not a confident O and M person. I have ptsd. Just being able to like navigate around crowds and do things that would be a little more challenging. I think with a cane that's what prompted me to do it. Just to want more independence and freedom. Over the past couple of years, we've seen a lot of changes and advancements in technology, and Glide is just the latest piece of adaptive tech on the market. I do see a bright future for Glide. I can see the potential. I can see where there's room for advancement and modifications. It's really amazing. I see a bright future for blind people using this technology, using these advancements. I ask everyone about, you know, what do you see for the future? Got some really good answers on that. Check it out. Amos Miller I believe that if you.

Imagine a city street in five, six, seven years down the line, you will see many more blind people now than people of all ages walking confidently and with purpose. People will be using the word K, some will be using Guido, but many will be accompanied by some form of an intelligent guide.

Connie Hoffman like, this is just a.

Prototype, so I think the real version is going to be even better. But this was a whole optical course and it just guided me around all.

That stuff like effortlessly from good maps.

Kevin Klein as our app is getting to a point where we can start thinking in, you know, the next year or so about collaborating with people like, you know, Glidance. I think that being able to have a device like this and it's already got A camera. So we can figure that part out when it comes. But I think it'll be a good, good partnership in the future, hopefully.

Was there anything about your experience that surprised you trying it out?

I was.

As Luke and I were walking earlier today, I forgot I was using it, which is good. You know, you're not. I don't have any hesitation as much as I thought I would and things like that. So it was a good experience. It's a great device and I'm excited as I keep improving it as well.

Well, look where goodmaps was. Look where goodmaps is. Look.

Look where we're going.

Look where we're going. Do you see more trend now toward technology and mobility and navigation?

Oh, yeah. I mean, imagine the Glide in an airport already having a map in directions with good maps. That's just a thought, but it's not. Not real yet. But there's. There's potential in the future, take you on your way without you even have to think about it.

Some of the people that I talked to had some very specific thoughts about how Glide can be used. I thought about several things. And the funny thing is, Carlos had kind of the same thoughts that I did about a good use for Glide. I know sometimes when I go somewhere, hospital or a hotel, especially lobbies, it's virtually a obstacle course. Go around this chair, go around this table. I have trouble with that myself. So that's what I would see me benefiting from Glide. I get frustrated a lot of times, really easy. So that would help out a lot. There are so many different uses and personal cases to where glide is going to be a huge benefit for people.

Carlos Montez In a hospital setting, you might be dealing with stretchers, equipment, trays, you know, carts, you know, getting around those things and getting around in tight spaces. I think that the possibility of indoor travel, you know, traveling in a mall. So in a mall, you got an open area, you know, you have these shelves and being able to walk around them without running into them or. Yeah, I think the possibility is great.

Desi. The whole concept completely fascinates me, really. And I am over 70 now, and I have who will probably be my last guide dog. And I figure that by the time I'm ready, I want this kind of thing to be really well developed. And I thought I would like to just see what it actually is like. After watching and talking to everyone and before I did my interview with Amos Miller, it was finally my turn to try Glide. I was excited and kind of nervous about it because it's Something different, something new. But I think I was a little more excited than I was nervous. And I had seen Luke talking to everybody while they were walking around the library, which was an obstacle course. There were shelves, there were tables, there were people. It was really cool. So here is my turn with Glide. And right after that, my interview with Amos Miller, CEO of Glidance.

Hi, Yvonne.

Hi, Lucas. Okay, guys, this is my turn to get to play with the Glide. And I'll be honest, I'm kind of a little nervous. So let's go, Lucas.

Okay, how about we do this first? Why don't you take a nice, big deep breath for me? The reason I like to do that is a, you kind of told me you're nervous. Two though this is the first time you're meeting Glide, and I'm sure you're excited. I'm sure you're a bit confused and I'm sure, as you mentioned, you're nervous. But I really want us to start from ground zero with each other and really work our way up. Does that sound good?

That sounds good.

Fantastic. So I have my first question. Have you used a guide dog before? Are you a full time cane?

I've had a guide dog and a cane and sighted guide.

So, Yvonne, I'm gonna put GL in your left hand tier, all right?

Hello, Glide.

Hello, Glide. Now, we are hearing a little bit of a crunchy sound. Everyone listening, you're hearing a little bit of the motors right now. It's called the worm gear. They're 3D printed right now, so they're creating a bit of friction between another, which is creating a bit of a clacking sound. That will not be the end case with Glide when you receive an Automa 2025. Actually, it'll be even before then. We're already working with new motors. And again, when we do full scale manufacturing, it'll be virtually a silent experience. So just wanted to make that quick disclaimer. Two other things I want to note here. So you're obviously used to holding both a cane and a guide dog. So two. Two positions you're very familiar with. You have midline and you have more to your side, which is how you'd hold a guide dog. I want you to be in between those two positions, right in front of your leg, the most dominant leg you have, and your left side. From there, I want Glide to always remain in front of you. I want you to follow the device. And you're a guide dog user, so you know this all too well. I want you to Trust the device. I want you to follow it. Trust it. Move with it. Okay, start walking. Start a little slower. Glide does not pull you. You push it always. So another big difference between you and the guide dog is glide is actually only relying on you. It just took you into a hallway. So now you're. You have one wall to your left, one wall to your right. So right now it's making a bit more of an exaggerated movement because it's only seeing the obstacle that you're walking towards. When we do more advancements in our software and feature set, it'll make micro adjustments, making sure that you stay in between those two walls, right in the middle of those two. But again, you walk through that wall, made that corner with that walk straight, and now you're actually going to see that you're going to be in between two sets of bookshelves. And this is going to be another one of those tests where it's doing the little bit more of zigzag movements, but keeping you from hitting both bookshelf sides. And it's about to get really narrow here, so we're going to slow down a little bit. But you'll find that you're going to be walking. I want you to feel this feel to your left, can feel to your right.

I can sense it.

Isn't it amazing? Yeah. And it's just keeping you from hitting both of those. It's going to make a turn now in between another two sets of bookshelves. We're going to continue to walk forward. Now you're back in that hall. We're going to see the corner and it's going to turn and take it. See that?

Before the interview, here's a few words about glidance, glide and the experience that participants had, me included. I absolutely loved it. It's awesome. It is a delightful feeling. It's exciting. So exciting.

I can see a lot of potential with glide.

I'm very impressed.

This is so cool.

It was awesome.

It's real cool. I like it real smooth.

It's liberating. Those of you who are familiar with some navigations are familiar with soundscapes, and Amos was the creator of that, and he moved on to creating this glide. Everybody's like saying, glide like robot, robot, but it's not really a robot.

So it is a robot, really. It's just that it's not really a robot.

It is, and then it isn't.

I mean, it is an intelligent guide. It uses robotics and AI and autonomous driving technologies and all kinds of things, but it's a mobility aid, first and foremost a mobility aid, and uses these amazing technologies to make good sense of the environment, interact with you as a user, guide you by steering its wheels. So, yeah.

So when you first came up with this idea, this conception of this kind of mobility aid, what was it that had happened before that told you this can be done?

It's a great question. I mean, as you mentioned earlier, I work on Soundscape for many years, and I've looked at all kinds of technologies. I think Soundscape really demonstrated to us that we can use audio and language to help us build a good awareness of our surroundings, which is very important for navigation, for orientation, for wayfinding. But I also understand the limitations of sound and some of the complexities that people have with using all kinds of apps, Especially people who lose their sight later in life or are not all that confident with their cane or guide dog. I was really trying to think, what is. How can we actually help somebody get through a crowded space with doors and obstacles and people coming across and really guide them? How can we enable the technology to guide somebody? And what I really concluded is we need something that is physically connected to the ground and guides and tried out a bunch of ideas and that evolved to what glide is today.

With your first conception of this, kind of give me an idea of how much this has developed. Like, what was your very first thought of this to where it is now?

Oh, dear.

My first first thought was a single wheel, like a stick with a wheel.

Oh, that's like medieval.

I know.

I guess I'm. I'm a bit too aware of some of the other technologies. Like, I didn't really think that that robot dogs and things of that nature are going to happen anytime soon. Not as something that is going to be a viable mobility aid that you can just pick up and get into a car with and stuff like that. Like the wheel at the end of a stick was the initial kind of, okay, can we do that? And I realized that you can't really do that because it will topple over every time. And so we moved to two wheels, and from there we experimented with a bunch of ideas. I really wanted to keep the device as simple as possible so that we can keep it light, versatile. You know, the moment you start to make it too complicated, it just gets expensive and unwieldy. Thirdly, quiet awareness campaign. It's not. I think it's that part of the reason we are here and doing those demo days is to build awareness in the community as well. Because I think we all have to work. If we're going to sign up to having a third kind of mobility aid. We have canes, we have dogs, and we'll have a third kind of mobility aid called Glide. Then let's figure out how we create the environment for us to succeed with these kind of devices. And that includes awareness. It includes awareness in the organizations and the rehabilitation organizations that work with us. It includes laws and regulations, a whole bunch of other things that need to be part and parcel of that.

Has anything surprised you through the development, even though you are the developer?

I learn things all the time from people and from experiences that people have. I mean, some, some, some very, you know, incremental changes like, for example, keeping, you know, the length of the handle really affects the. How, how responsive that people can feel the direction that the device is giving them. Like we learn from, from the, from these demo demos and user studies. New things all the time. And the device continues to evolve based on that kind of feedback that we get bigger wheels and a whole bunch of debates around weight and around the kind of scenarios. You know, one of the things that I really, from using it myself, really started to enjoy doing is to really start to understand the. Using the device as a tool that you can almost use to sense the environment around you as you kind of really learn how, how it responds to different things and how it responds to a wall and when you come to the corner, how it starts to turn the wheels, you can turn the device at an angle towards the wall and really use that as an extension of you and a way to really build up your awareness of your surrounding as well.

I hope that you've enjoyed today's episode. Glide is. It's a great tool. It's going to be great. Just remember, all the tools in your toolbox can work together. And you know, we could work together. That's what everyone has done with Glide by attending these demonstrations, giving their input to Glidance. Now all you have to do is go to Glidance. IO G L I D A N C E I O I hope everyone had a good 2024 and looking forward to 2025 and more. Coming up on NFB Newsline Tennessee Presents. It's been a work in progress and it's been a little bit of a learning curve for me. So I hope you've enjoyed this year and thank you to all who have participated. Thank you to all of you who have tuned in and listened over this past several months. I've had a great time doing this. Remember, this is done by NFB Newsline Tennessee I wish for all of you a happy and productive and prosperous 2025.

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