Date of Meeting: February 9, 2019
Where: MIT 77 Mass. Ave., Bldg 5, Room 134, Cambridge, MA
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. Following introductions, Jeanette appologized that minutes were unavailable because of a major computer crash. She also asked for volunteers for the membership committee. If people do not volunteer, the officers will work to appoint people to that committee.
Vice President Jerry Berrier said we have approximately 80 members, which Frank confirmed. Jerry also talked about our two email lists.
Bob Resnick reported: our revenue for paypal dues was $707.44. We had $180 dues paid by Cash or check for a total of $887.44. Operating expenses: holiday gifts, $$111.00, carrol tech fare, $90.00, a Jonathan Mosen book, $35.00, and spent $1200 for our computer. Total exspenses: $1619. Our negative amount was $728.00. Opening balance for 2018: 8112.92 with closing balance of $7342. Current balance for 2019 in Paypal $649.78. In Bank of America, $7201.98. Total: 7851.44
.Frank explained how the microphones work for on-line and in the actual VIBUG meeting room.
Vispero has a regional authorized reseller in Worcester called New England Low vision out of Worcster. They have a show room where people can come and see their products, and have "tech Tuesdays. You must reserve a spot but you can see products and get some hands on experience with them.
Maria Rueters talked about the app Lazarillo, which is a navigation app.
Clew is another navigation app which uses your camera, not GPS, for indoor navigation. It does have audio on it.
Dog Whistler allows you to type in a frequency and it will play a tone, and to do ossilations based on that frequency. You can set ios to static which is white noise, and it can do ring tones.
Bob Resnick discussed the Instapot, and the app which also works with an iphone.
David Kingsbury talked about some microwaves on the market which work with Alexa.
He also talked about the training available at the Carroll Center through June 2019 for Social Rehab Clients.
Students from Olin College are working with Microsoft to build a product to assist people who are blind or visually impaired. The web application VIA would be used at home to help people familiarize themselves with areas before they went out to travel the routes. This is for outdoor navigation. They went through some questions to get information to help them develop this app.
Kelsay Nicolay discussed how to select text on the iPhone and if you have an ipad with the new update you can actually use the iPhone 10 gestures on the ipad.
Jerry gave a brief introduction as to how to use google programs, including google drive, google docx, and google sheets and google g-mail.
A motion was made, accepted, and voted on to spend money on purchasing some cordless microphones to help with VIBUG on line participation. We also agreed in lieu of a March meeting to take some time at ACB's conference to introduce Vibug and give a brief overview of what we do, with short presentations on some products.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Jeanette Kutash, Vibug Clerk