Investing In Accessibility
We aren't waiting for change, we are investing in it. Investing in Accessibility is dedicated to exploring the intersection of accessibility, entrepreneurship, and impact investing. Join hosts Kelvin Crosby and Chris Maher as they speak with entrepreneurs and thought leaders who are focused on empowering people with disabilities and creating a more accessible world.
Kelvin Crosby is CEO of Smart Guider Inc., which develops navigation technology enabling deafblind individuals to travel independently. Known as The DeafBlind Potter, he funded his first invention, the See Me Cane, through pottery sales. Kelvin lives with Usher Syndrome type 2 and is a staunch advocate for accessibility.
Chris Maher is the Founder & General Partner at Samaritan Partners, a public benefit venture fund that invests in the disability sector. Chris founded Samaritan after spending 25 years as an operator and multi-time CEO at a variety of venture capital-backed companies, and 20 years raising two daughters with disabilities.
Investing In Accessibility
Tales from The Innovation Showcase: Talking Signage with Idan Meir, CEO at Right Hear
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In this episode of Investing in Accessibility, co-hosts Kelvin Crosby and Chris Maher wrap up “Tales from the Innovation Showcase,” a special series of conversations recorded at the Accessible Innovation Showcase at The Schoolhouse Hotel, home of The Accessibility Lab.
For the fifth and final episode of the series, Chris and Kelvin sit down with Idan Meir, co-founder and CEO of RightHear, a company transforming traditional signage into an accessible audio experience that helps people understand and navigate the world around them.
Idan shares the story behind RightHear and how the company is reimagining the way people experience public spaces, from hotels and airports to hospitals, restaurants, and parks. The conversation explores the important distinction between navigation and orientation, the limitations of traditional Braille signage, and how technology designed with the blind and low-vision community can create a better experience for everyone.
We also explore how RightHear is incorporating artificial intelligence through Rita, its new AI-powered concierge, allowing guests to ask questions and receive information about their surroundings.
We then take you to the stage at the Accessible Innovation Showcase where Idan demonstrates RightHear's talking signage technology and shares his vision for a future where accessible information is available to everyone, everywhere.
It's a conversation about independence, dignity, and how disability-driven innovation can transform the way we all experience the world around us.
Links & Resources:
Idan Meir: LinkedIn
RightHear: Website
Rita: Website
COMING SOON!
American Sign Language (ASL) and Captioning for each episode will be provided on our YouTube channel. Go to handle @SamaritanPartners.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
Kelvin CrosbyWelcome to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast. We're not waiting for change, we're investing in it. Join us as we speak with entrepreneurs and thought leaders that are focused on creating a more accessible world. Hey, hey, hey, it's so good to see you even though I can't see you. I'm your host, Kelvin Crosby, and I got my co-host Chris Maher. How you doing, man?
Chris MaherI am great because I am with you in real life today.
Kelvin CrosbyYes, my friend. And today you don't really smell like lemons. You just smell like a human being.
Chris MaherWell, it's been a long it's been a long couple of days with you.
Kelvin CrosbyWell, it's been about
Chris Mahermaybe a little bit of you's rubbed off on me.
Kelvin CrosbyIt may be. That's some pure sport. Old school old spice, pure sport right there, man.
Chris MaherOh yeah. You got a little axe body wash in there, too.
Kelvin CrosbyNah, I ain't doing that, man. That's that that's too much over the top. Anyways, but today we got a really cool guest. And I think this is gonna be a really interesting conversation because we're gonna be having a conversation on something that the blind community says it needs to be this way. But what I have found about this specific conversation that we're gonna about ready to have is that this is potentially the new toothbrush for signage. And so I'm interested to take a look at this. So introduce us to our guest.
Chris MaherYou got it. Thank you very much, Kelvin. So our guest today um is Idan Meir, who is the co-founder and CEO of a wonderful company called Right Hear. Idan, welcome, my friend.
Idan MeirI'm super excited. I've been listening for probably to all of your episodes from the first one, Chris. You know, we met in person multiple times, but it's my first time meeting you, Kelvin. What an honor, what a pleasure. I love the podcast, and I'm I can't believe I'm on it now. Yah!
Chris MaherWell, it's so good to have you and Idan. We we met um actually we spoke on the phone in like the summer of 23, and then um it was actually the first time we met was in person, which was which was October of 23 at M-Enabling.
Idan MeirYes,
Chris Maherduring a very, very hard time.
Idan MeirYeah, yeah.
Chris MaherUm, and um you and I hugged it out that day.
Idan MeirYeah, yes,
Chris Maherand I think we just had a special bond moving forward and we've stayed in touch and I've seen the progression of the business, which is doing really well, and we're gonna dig into that today. But before we get into what you do it Right Hear, um, because as Kelvin said, we're gonna and I'm gonna really let kind of Kelvin and and Idan run with this a lot of this conversation because Kelvin was actually using the product earlier today when we were all together, but it really is around um the topic of, and there's a lot of nuance to this of wayfinding,
Idan’s Story And The Idea
Chris Mahernavigation, orientation. And so we're gonna get into that. But before we get into that, can you just share with our audience a little bit of your background and the journey and path you took to the founding of the business?
Idan MeirAbsolutely, absolutely. So so I'm Idan, I'm 39 years old. Uh, I co-founded right here about 10 years ago. Oh my god, it's been a long, a long journey. Uh, we've been operated in the US for the past five years. We're based in Maryland, Rockville, Maryland. Um, and yeah, our story begins with I've always been, you know, I always had orientation challenges or navigation challenges. I'm that friend that always turns right when it's obvious to turn left, uh, because we've just been there five minutes ago. Um and that was like a I have a lot of stories to you know to share about how I got lost here and there.
Kelvin CrosbySo at the end of the day, I should never trust you guiding me.
Idan MeirOh no, no, no, never no.
Kelvin CrosbyOkay. That's good to know. Yeah, okay.
Idan MeirYeah, yeah, absolutely. I I could probably it's I should trust you on that. I'm really bad with this. And when we started to work on on the on on Right Hear at the beginning, it was a product uh um approach. We're like, okay, if we'll address those that have most severe orientation challenges, eventually we'll be able to solve it for everyone else. And okay, who has the most severe? Well, the blind community, they have no idea where they are, right? They they cannot see anything. Um, we gotta, you know, we got to talk with a few friends, a few people from the community. This is how we got exposed to that community more. At the time, my grandfather, who used to be my best friend, actually turned to be blind, and that was kind of in the background for me. And like, sure, let's see what that means. And we just fall in love. We fall completely fall in love with two things. First of all, their reaction, it was like, wow, oh my god, if you can make that work, that's completely gonna change our lives. Uh, again, we're talking 2016-ish time, and and secondly, we fall in love with the opportunity because when you think about it, and and and we're probably gonna dive into that more today, but you know, every day there are new hotels, new hospitals, new shopping malls, new restaurants that are open up for the public, they all opening up with braille signage. Now, well, Kelvin, you can talk about the statistics, but for those listeners who are not familiar with that, over 90% out of the blind community cannot read braille.
Chris MaherSo that's cannot.
Idan MeirCan not. So nine out of ten.
Kelvin CrosbyI'm one of them.
Idan MeirThere you go. So now
Kelvin Crosbyif you want to play cards with me, yeah, I'll play card with you. But I am one of them.
Idan MeirNow, now is so again for the listeners, nine out of ten people who are blind cannot read braille. The one who can, uh, from what we're hearing, having a hard time to find the sign, right? Because you need to know where the sign is in order to actually read it. Since COVID, we're also hearing that touching the sign isn't as appealing as it used to be, if it's ever been appealing to actually touch it. And and I could go on, those who are touching it getting very limited amount of information, maybe one word, restrooms. Good luck with that. What's next? And and even that, not the time, not not always accurate.
Kelvin CrosbySo is it in a male or female bathroom, or is it a multi-gender? Like, who knows? I don't know. There you go. I mean, that's a million-dollar question.
Idan MeirThere you go. And and the person who put that sign on the wall has no idea as well, because he doesn't read braille. So a lot of times it's just mistakes there. Now, the fact that there are braille signs everywhere is is a great thing. That was the right steps or the right direction almost 37 years ago with the ADA. I think that's what we're celebrating this year. Uh 36. 36 this year, okay. Um, and it's great, and we're glad it's there, and we want to keep it there, but we do believe it's time for you know raising up the bar, and and you know, we're gonna maybe talk about the ADA later, but in any way, we were falling in love with the fact
Why Braille Signage Falls Short
Idan Meirthat it's unbelievable that places are opening every day, everywhere, and there's not enough that is being done to allow everyone to feel independent and find their way around. And yeah, so we've been doing that um for the past 10 years, currently operating in over almost 3,000 locations worldwide. Um different segments, different sector, awesome team, which I'm very privileged to work with.
Kelvin CrosbyYeah, so I I think one of the things that we need to really make clear here is because uh this isn't like Good Maps, this isn't like some of these other navigation apps that are out there for the visually impaired.
Chris MaherAnd and that's like take me from point A to point B.
Idan MeirCorrect.
Kelvin CrosbyAnd and I think that's where I want to be really clear here because I think there's an opportunity here in our conversation to really see what the the potential of this product is, because it's not for the blind, it has a component for the blind, but it has a bigger component beyond that, and that's that's where I kind of want people to start seeing here because uh honestly this should have been done years ago, right? That this invention, and so I think this is where I I'm still playing around with it. So I'm not 100% sold on it yet, but I'm I'm still playing around. But I think there is a massive amount of details that are where we're gonna cover today, and I think if you keep your mind in our conversation about signage more than navigation, this product will make sense, and it'll be essentially like the electric toothbrush. And it and and not I wouldn't say as far as the curb cut, but definitely like the electric toothbrush. When it made for somebody that couldn't brush their own teeth and be able to have that, and I think that's where I want to kind of dive into today. Kind of talk to us about Right Hear.
Speaker 11Sure. So so let's put some definitions here, right?
Chris MaherSo navigation definitions would be terrific, I think.
Speaker 11Right, and and they'll be my definitions just uh for for listeners, and I think they're pretty
Orientation Vs Navigation Explained
Speaker 11common, but at least my definitions. Navigation is, as you said, Kelvin, taking you from point A to point B. So let's say take me to Chris's office, turn right, to left, turn right, to left, to right, to left, you've arrived. That's navigation. Orientation on the other side is just knowing where you are, knowing what's going on there, understanding the environment. Okay, just like when you're an employee onboarding, it's not just like how do we book meeting rooms. There's a lot of other things you learn about that facility, that space, that environment, right? Um, signage in general helping us getting cues of the environment. This is how we know that we're in gate B5 in the airport, right? So a navigation app could you can tell a navigation app, take me to B5 gate and turn right, turn left, to right, you've arrived. But if there's no sign there telling you B5, how do you know you've arrived? Am I at B5? Who knows? Well, yes, you are. Do you see the sign? There is a sign now. Maybe I don't see the sign. Maybe I see the sign, but I cannot read the sign. Maybe because I don't speak the language, if it's an airport, I mean B5 is pretty simple, but it could be something more longer than that. Or maybe I have uh you know reading challenges, cognitive disabilities, or something else. So that's our focus, and uh, we believe that if there is something that the facility, a building, is trying to communicate in words and braille and tactile on the wall, make it audible. Yeah, make it all that's that's the thesis, and when you make it audible, and I really love your analogy with the electric toothbrush, it's helping not just for the blind, although we've been focusing primarily on this audience from the beginning, it's helping a lot more.
Kelvin CrosbyWell, and I I think this is where I think in my discovery of this, where I started honestly, I was a little very skeptical when I started trying it. And I was like, uh, it's another one of those navigation apps. And and but when it started coming to re- we had this conversation, we started really pulling it together, and I was like, you know what? I go to a lot of airports, and I don't really want to use navigation. I just want to know what where my what where the bag is claimed, where is this, right? Where is this? And if I could just sit this walk and it tells me as I go, like poof, hey, tap my my glasses or clo tap the the app or whatever, and be like, all right, we're now complete that task. Look for the next sign or yeah, or whatever. And I think this is where it's different. And and I think this is what this is gonna be hard for people to understand from the broad community to really disconnect these because when you're doing navigation, you're just planning on just continuing the walk and it tells you when to turn left or right. It tells you this isn't that the and and I think this is where it started making sense after a couple of times, and I'm like, oh, there's my room. Oh, there's the elevator. But when I realized I needed to listen, not just react, and then make my decision, I was like, this is actually more natural,
Idan Meiryes,
Kelvin Crosbyright than the navigation where you're having to move your body based off of left, right, forward,
Idan Meiryes,
Kelvin Crosbyand so forth. And that's where I'm like, you know what? I this is something I want to explore more because this this is for me the natural ability of humanity,
Idan Meiryes,
Kelvin Crosbyunlike artificial, which is where and so I I I again I'm not 100%
Chris Maherso we done react to what Kelvin said.
Idan MeirNo, I love it because when you think about the human experience, first of all, as we said in team getting lost is a human right, right? When I I'm I'm serious, getting lost is sometimes fun. If you're in a mall, like okay, let's see what's going on. I don't want take me to whatever Zara or whatever that's there. I just want to let's explore them all. Like, let's let's explore. Oh, there's a fountain here. Oh, there is this pet relief area, whatever that you're looking for there, right? You can just experience the environment. You know, when I the I usually you know I'm excited for for our listener. When I use navigation apps, it's usually when I'm driving, and then like like when I drive here, right? And and I a lot of times just miss the whole journey, right? Because I was so focusing on turning right or left, turning right. Hey, have you seen that monument? What monument? I was so focusing on turning right, turning left, right? So that's the difference. And um yeah, I'm super, I'm super um, I'm super uh, you know, I I'm super glad that you mentioned the word natural because that's the natural human experience. Yeah, we're looking with our eyes. If there is a sign there telling us there's an exit, we'll know it's there.
Chris MaherRight. So I want to come back to something you mentioned earlier and um want you to elaborate on it because I I think I understood what you were saying, but I want to confirm it. So earlier you talked about the signs today that have braille on it.
Idan MeirYeah,
Chris Maherright. Nine out of ten blind people can't read braille.
Idan MeirRight.
Chris MaherThe other one out of ten
ADA Effective Communication And Audio
Chris Maheruh who can, and I didn't even think about it, may not want to go touch something that maybe thousands of other people have touched and it's never been cleaned. Right, especially exactly, especially around restrooms, of course. And so but that is part of the ADA, that is law, yeah, that has to be there. And so is Right Hear bringing uh that ADA compliance sign into the new age with new technology. Can you yeah, am I going in the right direction there?
Idan MeirYes, yeah, I love it. You're taking us there because we we've been reading and researching a lot the ADA, and what we found there under the ADA, there's a whole section there that is talking about effective communications. Now, under effective communications, signage is part of it. You're basically communicating something with that sign, right? And 36 years ago, the you know, in order to make that effective for all, including people with disabilities, how we'll make it effective for the blind. Well, the best idea in their room was to put the braille on it. As we said before, it was a great idea, great decision, but in order to make it effective. But now, 2026, we understand this is this, but I'll just put it this way the effectiveness of this is can be doubted. Right. Uh, at least for 90%, right? So it's it's a it's a number worth looking at, and we believe it shouldn't be the floor anymore, right? Right. So I believe that the floor should be at least, you know, have it in multiple formats as possible. You have it in braille great, you have it tactile, great. It's time to have it. Yeah, well, you cannot put all languages on it because again, it's just a limited real estate, if you will, on that on the sign. But in audio, and you know, when you think about it, Chris, and you're you you've both been to the accessibility, it's actually also relevant to you, uh Kelvin. When you think about captions, captioning is a visual expression of audio. Right. Audio could be an out the audio expression of the visual, right? So we basically do the same thing the other way around for that medium called signage.
Chris MaherYeah, I mean it makes sense, it makes total sense.
Idan MeirYeah, so I so just to your point on the ADA, you know, I in our view, it's already allowing you facilities to improve their ADA compliance. In our view, in order to actually fulfill the thesis of the ADA of ensuring effective communications, not having it is actually being in compliant, right?
AI Concierge Rita And Facility Answers
Chris Maheryeah, no, thank you for for uh clarifying and elaborating on that. So before we wrap up, um let's talk a little bit about AI. Like, how are you incorporating AI within your platform? I don't know if you're ready to talk about kind of a new feature to the platform.
Idan MeirWhy not?
Chris MaherUm, would be because I've used it and it was incredibly helpful. Okay, I loved it. It was here in the hotel.
Idan MeirYeah, great
Chris Maherat the accessibility lab, but but talk a little bit how you're how you've incorporated AI here.
Idan MeirYeah, and you know, thank you for asking this. And AI, obviously, right? We don't need to talk about the power of AI and how it's changing everything. I'm sure if you're listening to this awesome podcast, then you probably subscribe to it. If not, do it. Here you go. I I'm a big fan. Sorry I had to do that, Chris.
Chris MaherThank you.
Idan MeirUm, you probably know how AI is changing the whole ball game. Um, so also for us, you know, I we I found a uh slide from our pitch deck from 2020, June 2020. And we were described, we were thinking about like a long-term version of what's gonna happen, and we were showing that slide what you familiar with a company called Walk Me? They were doing like a yes, yes, you do okay. So we were looking, we were actually putting a slide there, and in the slide there is a person in entrance to a hotel, and their app is giving him this descriptions of where their you know the elevators are, where's the exit is the rooms are, but also there's like an interaction there. When is my next flight, or when is my the gate of my flight? So you can actually learn even further. And we put that like what if it's kind of well, what if we could combine Walkme and Siri to the physical world? That's AI. Yeah, that's the vision we had it like a while ago. So today, back to sorry to today. I'm really thrilled about the fact if we talked about orientation, understanding the environment, it's not ends with wayfinding. There's a lot more, right? So now that you find where the pool is in the hotel, you might want to ask some question when is it open? Right? Or if you find a uh meeting room in the office space, so how do I book it? Or there's a lot of questions you can ask in different facilities that you can just start asking the app. And what different that you know in asking our app and asking Chat GPT or any of those, but you can just do that, and people are actually doing that, I'm pretty sure that you know, is that you're gonna get the authoritative answer by the facility, right? So if I'm in a museum or a hotel or whatever, am I asking a question about the facility, about that environment, I'm gonna get the facility's answer, which is most up to date rather than just internet answer. That's one. And secondly, the facility gets to know what people are asking, not who they are, but what are they asking? So if everyone is asking if there's a Starbucks in his you know, whatever section or terminal, maybe we should think about it. Yeah.
Chris MaherI mean, I so I used that feature called Rita.
Idan MeirRita, yes.
Chris MaherWhen when I I checked into the hotel late last night, and it was, I think, after midnight. Yeah. And I was like, at the time, I was like, you know, I'm gonna get up and work, try to work out in the morning. Yeah. And I I and I saw the QR code on the little side, the little signage on my night table. Um, and I just held up my camera, it it the browser loaded, yep, and I and I could have typed it or I and I did the audio.
Idan MeirRight.
Chris MaherAnd I said, Where's the gym the fitness gym in the hotel? And Rita came back and told me, Oh, it's downstairs on the ground floor. And then I said, What time is it open? And then it came back and says, Oh, it's open, it's from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Idan MeirLove it.
Chris MaherAnd I was good to go.
Idan MeirLove it. Love it. So that would just time of the receptionist, yeah, right? That will give you the answer in your own language, who who the receptionist might not necessarily speak. Yep. Right. Um, and it's gonna get the receptionist, maybe or the hotel more data, what people are trying to get here. So, yes, it's called Rita. It's currently separated from the Right Hear app. It's uh if you want to learn more about that, it's a its rita.com. So it's a separate website. Uh, we haven't launched it yet, honestly. We're just testing in a few pilots like in here at the schoolhouse hotel. Um, but we're going to combine it into our app down the line, and there's a lot more AI things that we're bringing in. Um, you know, we haven't remembered.
Chris MaherSo, so you just mentioned Rita, but for our listeners that want to learn more about you and the company, uh, how do they do that?
Idan MeirYeah, first of all, reaching out to me in uh any platform, whether it's LinkedIn or just email. My email is idan id a n at r- i-g-h t-h-e-ar dot com. So, yeah, it's like right here. You hear where you are. So it's right, yeah, you got the pun in there. Um, sometimes it's tricky. But yes, I I would love to hear from listeners. I again, as a listener, I'm sure there's a lot of great people listening to you and they're all enthusiastic about accessibility and innovation. We're looking for feedback, we're looking for you know connections. The app, our app is anonymous, so we don't know who our users are. If you are users of ours, please let us know what you like, what you didn't like. Yeah, that's our only way to grow.
Chris MaherAnd the best way to so the website is uh right-hear dot com.
Idan MeirCorrect.
Chris MaherBut you do need to download the app. So can you download the app off your website or you have to go to the app store?
Idan MeirUh you have to go. Well, you can you can find the links for our website, but they're not in the app store, just look for right here as one word, R-I-G-H-T-H-E-A-R, uh App Store or Google Play.
Chris Maherand the app's free.
Idan MeirThe app is completely free, indoors, outdoors, out of Space underwater, wherever you are, we never charge for that. We'll never charge for that. It's uh we believe it's a society duty to make places accessible. Um, and it's anonymous, so we all learned that if it's free, you probably do something where our data. No, we don't. There's no sign in to the app, there's no registration to the app. Um, the app supports 36 different languages.
Chris MaherAmazing.
Idan MeirSo, yeah, popular ones. And uh yeah, I'm super excited about the future, and I'm super excited about the opportunity I've I had to to speak with you guys.
Chris MaherWell, Idan, thank you so much, my friend. It's so great to see you in person. Um, and congrats on the progress of the business.
Idan MeirThank you
Talking Signage Demo Presentation
Idan Meirso much.
Kelvin CrosbyLet's jump to the Right Hear, right now presentation.
Idan MeirI'm Idan, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Right Hear. And I'm excited to speak with you all today. And I also want to really maybe start with a round of applause to Chris and to Charlie and the whole team for this amazing event. I'm thankful. Okay. There are braille signs everywhere in the country. Have you noticed that? Everywhere you go, in every room, in every hotel next to the door of your number, in every public restroom. You probably noticed that, whether men's restrooms or women's restrooms, um, in every elevator, inside, outside, on the sides. They're all around us, from here all the way to the West Coast, to Maryland. I'm from Maryland, everywhere around us. And it doesn't matter if it's a small environment, like a restaurant, or if it's a big airport, hospital, you've all seen them. You probably again here you've seen at least 10 of them today. Okay. The other fact that most people are not aware of is that over 90% out of the blind community cannot read braille. Raise your hand if you didn't know that. Yes, most of you didn't know that. Yes, that's good. That's why I always share this fact in all of my opportunities of speaking. Only one out of ten people who are blind actually knows to read Braille. Now, for them, finding the sign is a challenge by itself. It's a challenge, right? You need to know it's there in order to actually read it. And assuming you know to read Braille and you've been lucky to find the sign, you also need to be a little bit brave because since COVID, nobody wants to touch it anyway. Especially in public restrooms. Okay. Um, and I can go on, the list goes on, even if you're brave enough to touch it. A lot of time the information is not being accurate. In any case, it's very, very limited. Um and therefore, we invented a talking signage system. We ask ourselves, what if signs could talk, could speak in your own language? If you're a tourist, we've been talking a lot about travel in your own language, in your own pace, from a distance, without trying to find it, in your own in your own rules, in your own way, if you will. Um, and I want to start maybe with a three or four minutes video. We might we don't we'll watch all of it, why not? Uh and then I'll go I'll I'll take it from from there. But here's a little bit about what is this talking signage at all.
Video PlayingMore independence for people who are blind or have low vision. There's a solution, technology that's being used in more than 2,000 places. And now, for the first time ever, it's in a state park. I first noticed vision changes in January of 2020. By June of 2021, I was declared legally blind. So a blind hiker by the name of Lane Johnson has spent many days hiking our park and really loved it. My name is Lane Johnson. I'm a hiker. Still weird how I can't hear the water, but the river's definitely lower this time of year. When I first got the diagnosis and I first let the kids know, my oldest son asked, Dad, is there anything you want to do while you still have eyesight? Which was the best possible thing he could have asked because that was the beginning of my blind bucket list. He came to park management and said, you know what would really enhance the experience for blind visitors is this new technology called right here. I'm Dave Myers. I'm the assistant park manager here at Natural Bridge State Park. So the app is really cool because it can tell you a lot of information. So Right Hear, tell me what it can do. So as you come to the visitor center, it'll it'll introduce the visitor center. Welcome to the Natural Bridge State Park. But the really cool feature about this is we have input directional settings. So when you face your phone to the east, you push the middle. It gives you additional orientation. Talk to me about why you wanted this technology here at Natural Bridge. It's not just about here at Natural Bridge, really. It's uh getting the ball rolling so that this becomes everywhere so that we have the same access to everywhere that anybody else does. Its first owner, Thomas Jefferson, called it the most sublime of nature's works. It has inspired visitors for hundreds of years. What's the reaction then? People are really excited. We're getting many phone calls, and we're having new visitors to the park we've never had before that are experiencing the park because of this new system. It gives a person who is blind the ability to totally independently navigate a trail. Glenwood and Penbour Ranger Station, 12 o'clock. Explorer Mountain, 3 o'clock. I want to check out the app. Oh wow, I can do it by myself. I don't need anyone with me. That's the sense of freedom that we're hearing from many of our users who are using it for the first time. From this mountain, 1 o'clock. I think that this has the potential to really increase my independence to navigate a trail or a situation such as this as a person who's blind. I think it's a big game changer for a couple of reasons. On the visually impaired community, certainly. We have folks that come from all over the world to visit our state parks. The translation capabilities in this as well will help them experience the park as well. So this is an accessible spot. This is a blue beacon, and that's what allows our users to hear the audio description of where they are. The natural bridge is estimated to weigh 36,000 tons or as much as 2,500 school buses. What is it like to be the first one in the country to have this? It's an honor to be the first. We hope that we are an inspiration to parks across the world to look into technologies like this. So all people, no matter how they they experience life, can enjoy the park. Are there any limitations that you're finding with this kind of technology? Red Not Overlook, 1 o'clock. Let's put it this way: I don't think it's reached its potential yet. I think that there are things that uh I haven't even imagined yet still to come through these beacons that are going to improve my quality of life and the quality of life for people like me in ways that I haven't even been able to conceive of yet.
Idan MeirAll right. Thank you. Uh definitely, we just get it started. Didn't reach the potential yet, and I'm gonna talk a little bit about it at the end. But we've been doing that for almost 10 years. Uh, five years here in the US, in over almost 3,000 locations worldwide, from state parks to hospitals to shopping malls to airports to small restaurants to big restaurants to hotels. If there is a sign on the wall or next to the door, we want to make it audible. We think it's about time it will be audible. And it's we were we were talking a little bit about dignity today. It's just people's right to get access to that information. It's not just a night thing to have, it should be expected. Um, a little bit about how it works. I'm gonna do it very briefly, although I can be very geeky about this one. We have an app. The app is free, the app is runs on Android and iPhone. It's completely free wherever the user goes, and it's also completely private. We have all learned that if it's a free app, you probably do something with our data. No, we don't. There's no sign-in, there's no registration, we don't know who you are, what's your name, what's your Facebook or what's not. So it's completely private. You download it, you launch it, and it works. And what it does is basically give you three answers to three main questions. One is where am I? Secondly, is what is here? And thirdly, is what's around me. So no, it's not navigating you anywhere, but it does give you the cues that the sighted person would get if it would be in that area. The second component is our beacons and markers. Beacons are small, like this. There are Bluetooth devices that we set usually at the entrances in main points of interest or strategic points of interest at the facility. Once our users are coming in proximity to those beacons, the app starts to talk to them and basically invite them to look around. And when they look around, they might see what you have hopefully looked around this hot uh hotel. Have you seen that? Raise your hand. Yeah, good. This is us, good. This is a talking sign. Uh the app basically picks it up from a far distance. We have two patents pending right now on this. Um, and basically, this is not a QR code, it could be identified from a far distance, also in hard angles. And when it does that, when it when it identifies that, it also gives the user the distance and the direction to that point of interest. Okay, so for example, men's restroom, 30 feet in this direction, 20 feet, 10 feet, you've arrived. All the content uh is controlled through the online portal, uh a cloud portal dashboard that we developed. Uh it's in 36 different languages. All the content can be reprogrammed and changed. So if it's not a men's restroom anymore, now an old gender restroom or what's not, it can easily be re-programmed from remote. What about AI? I've been talking here for a few minutes without saying AI. What's wrong with me, right? Yeah, so we haven't reached our potential. We're just getting started, and AI came in and smart glasses came in. Oh my god, that's awesome for us. I we couldn't hope for a better timing for this because now our users don't need to look around with their phone like that anymore. They can just start looking around, just like any other person with their smart glasses. The camera on the on smart glasses will pick it up. This is still under development. And the other thing is AI. What can we do with AI? So Rita is our new product. We're currently running it in only a few locations in the schoolhouse hotels. The Schoolhouse Hotel is one of them. You might have seen that QR code in your room. It's basically our concierge assistant in the places we work with. It's currently separate, but it's going to be in the app very soon. And we're now tapping into answering questions that we couldn't answer before. For example, where is the cafeteria? So a sign, you cannot ask a sign where is something, just tell you where you are. So you could be where is the nearest emergency exit? Again, talking about dignity and rights and what should be expected. Exit signs and emergencies part of it. Or question like how do I book a meeting room if I'm uh in an office space environment. So it's not just this is the meeting room, also, how do I book it? Specifically here for the Schoolhouse Hotel. Did any of you notice this uh QR code in the room? Did you? If you try to engage with it, yeah, awesome. Did it work? Awesome. Yes, even better. Uh good. It's very much at the beginning. It's new. We're seeing a lot of questions being asked for this. Questions like, when is the checkout time? I'm always asking that question wherever I go. Or is there a pool here in the hotel? Can I bring my pet to the hotel? Questions like that we're now able to answer. And the answer that the users are getting are not just from the wide web, are answers that are authority by the facility. And another cool thing is that the facility gets to know what people are asking, not who they are, but what they're asking. So if everyone is asking about a pool here, maybe there is something to do with that. Um, I'm super excited about what's ahead of us. And uh, I thank you for listening. And if you have any questions to me, ask me. But if you have any questions about your staying here, here's your Rita to ask as well. Thank you so much.
Kristy DursoFantastic. I love the variety of products we have at the innovative showcase here.
Audience Q&A Setup And Voice Choices
Kristy DursoIt is truly amazing. So at this time, we're opening up the floor to any questions. Charlie.
Question #1So I was that was gonna be my question about AI, but in a different way. Not about information, but are you gonna be able to use AI to get the voice less motorized? In terms of like, you know, in the video it sounded very old school versus even GPS now, you know, when you're in your car, it sounds a little more fluid and such. So what's the thought on that?
Idan MeirYes, no, that's a great question. Thank you, Charlie. So the reason for the voice to be kind of synthetic in our app is because we're using the voiceover, it's the screen reader of the app. What we've learned from the community, that's the same voice they're hearing or listening to when they read an article on the CNN or any other app they're using. So they're very much used to that, and they actually prefer that. Many of the community members we ask actually prefer that because they can speed it up, they already understand exactly how it goes. Um, but yes, we that being said, we do have others who do prefer the more like natural feel of the tone. So we're looking into that as well. Absolutely. I think those capabilities as well. By the way, if for those of you who see the QR code and haven't tried it, you don't need to download any app for this. You scan it, it's gonna open up a web page and you just start asking. I'm not gonna ask you to register or anything like that. Yes.
Chris MaherIdan, great presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Um if I have a location, whether it's a a park or a building like this, how easy is it to get Right Hear set up at my location?
Idan MeirYeah, that's a great question. Um the answer is very easy, very simple, very fast. This hotel took us probably three hours, four hours. Um so it depends on the scope and the project and the the large, you know, how complex and large or small it is, what exactly you want to do with it, because we have a lot of different things we can do with it. But uh in most of our projects, it's within hours. Restaurants can take 10 minutes. And restaurants, by the way, we were talking about that as earlier. I'm super excited about those types of tourism in general, because this is not when you think about accessibility, it's the the underlying or the core for inclusion. And and that inclusion is the dignity, which I love talking about earlier. So, in a restaurant, although it's a very small environment, think of Starbucks. It's such a small place. You don't need indoor navigation there, right? No, but you do need to know where the restrooms are and where the counter is and where the exit is. So for that type of facility, it could take five to ten minutes. Thank you for that question. I heard that I heard that timer. I heard that timer. Thank you so much, I'll be around.
Kristy DursoThank you so much, so much.
Closing And How To Support
Kelvin CrosbyThat wraps up Investing in Accessibility. As I always say, go live beyond your challenges and I'll see you in two weeks. Thank you for listening to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast, where we invest in change for accessibility, not wait for change. If you want to follow us, you can find us on YouTube or LinkedIn at @Samaritan Partners. If you would like to invest in Samaritan Partners, email Chris at chris@SamaritanPartners.com. If you'd like to learn more about us, go to www.samaritanpartners.com. You can take the first step in investing in change by giving us five stars and sharing this podcast with everybody that you know so we can spread the word so that we can give access to all by Investing in Accessibility.