Dan Scarfe is the CEO and founder of XRAI, a company that develops augmented reality solutions to break down communication barriers, particularly for those with hearing loss and across language differences.
Key Takeaways:
- Origin Story: XRAI was born from Dan's personal experience with his grandfather who had lost his hearing, inspiring the idea to combine real-time subtitles with augmented reality.
- Evolving Technology: Starting with assistive technology for hearing loss, XRAI expanded to facilitate cross-language communication and make events more accessible.
- Innovative Features: XRAI's "Auto Reverse" feature allows for seamless two-way conversations across languages, a significant improvement over traditional translation methods.
- Market Timing: Dan emphasizes the importance of timing in tech innovation, balancing between being too early and too late in the market.
- Hardware Challenges: While software capabilities are advancing, XRAI is still waiting for hardware breakthroughs to achieve the ideal AR glasses experience.
Dan's journey with XRAI began two and a half years ago, evolving from his background in enterprise IT. The company's initial focus was on providing real-time subtitles for individuals with hearing loss. However, they quickly expanded their vision to address language barriers, enabling conversations across 140 different languages.
XRAI's technology goes beyond simple translation. Their "Auto Reverse" feature allows for fluid two-way conversations, automatically detecting the spoken language and providing captions in the listener's preferred language. This approach significantly improves upon traditional translation methods by reducing communication delays.
Dan highlights the importance of balancing customer feedback with maintaining a focused vision. While open to user suggestions, he emphasizes the need to "stick to their knitting" and excel in a few key areas rather than trying to do everything.
The company faces challenges in hardware development, as the ideal AR glasses (lightweight, all-day wearable, full-color) are still a few years away. However, Dan sees this as an opportunity, positioning XRAI to be ready when the hardware catches up to their software capabilities.
Looking ahead, XRAI aims to continue refining their technology and expanding its applications, potentially revolutionizing how we communicate across languages and accessibility needs.
A "glow up" signifies a positive transformation, reflecting the journey of becoming a better, more successful version of oneself.
At The Glow Up, we humanize the startup and innovation landscape by focusing on the essential aspects of the entrepreneurial journey. Groundbreaking ideas are often ahead of their time, making resilience and perseverance vital for founders and product leaders.
In our podcast, we engage with innovators to discuss their transformative ideas, the challenges they face, and how they create value for future success.
If you're a founder or product leader seeking your own glow up, or a seasoned entrepreneur with stories to share, we invite you to join our guest list via this link.
Nathan C: Hello and welcome to the Glow Up! Fabulous
00:00:02
Conversations with Innovative Minds.
00:00:05
Today I'm here with Dan Scarfe of XRAI.
00:00:08
Dan, it's so good to see you.
00:00:10
Thanks for joining us.
00:00:12
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Thank you for having me.
00:00:13
Nathan C: The work that you do is incredibly interesting to me.
00:00:17
rather than spoil it, I'd love it if you could, introduce
00:00:20
yourself and, explain what you do, in, the space of innovation.
00:00:25
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Absolutely.
00:00:26
So I'm Dan Scarfe CEO and founder at XRAI.
00:00:30
But before XRAI, I spent nearly 20 years in the enterprise IT
00:00:33
helping organizations move to the cloud, which was all very
00:00:37
dull.
00:00:37
So when we sold that business to Cognizant, we wanted to do
00:00:42
something that was a little bit more exciting.
00:00:44
so around the same time, I was back in the UK with my granddad
00:00:47
who had lost his hearing.
00:00:49
And I kind of was with him one day and just kind of had this
00:00:52
epiphany about why can't we combine real time subtitles with
00:00:56
augmented reality?
00:00:58
It just seemed like such an obvious use case of the
00:01:01
technology.
00:01:01
We just couldn't understand why no one had done it.
00:01:04
And so we thought, well, if not them, then why not us?
00:01:07
And the rest, as they say, is history.
00:01:10
Nathan C: Amazing.
00:01:10
Can you describe a little bit more, about, the interactions or
00:01:14
some of the capabilities that the XRAI tools, both XRAI,
00:01:18
glass, and your hardware solutions, enable?
00:01:21
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Yeah, so I mean, effectively, you know, we
00:01:23
create life subtitles.
00:01:25
We want to turn audio into visuals.
00:01:28
So as conversations are happening around the wearer,
00:01:31
we're subtitling those conversations in real time.
00:01:35
Mainly We've taken that same kind of technology and extended
00:01:38
it out into augmented reality.
00:01:40
So rather than people having to walk around with the phone the
00:01:42
whole time, they're actually able to engage in conversation.
00:01:45
So much of communication is Non verbal, it's the facial cues,
00:01:49
it's the smile, it's the frown, and actually being able to have
00:01:52
a conversation with someone and be able to see the subtitles and
00:01:55
what they're saying in real time is a real breakthrough.
00:01:58
Nathan C: How long has XRAI, your journey with XRAI been?
00:02:03
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: So we've been going two and a half years now,
00:02:05
so we're still a tiny baby little company, but we've done
00:02:09
already so much.
00:02:10
we started out in the, Assistive space and, providing subtitles
00:02:15
for individuals who've lost their hearing.
00:02:17
But we very quickly saw that there were, many opportunities
00:02:20
beyond that.
00:02:21
So hearing loss is, of course, one barrier to communication.
00:02:24
There's another fairly major barrier to communication, which
00:02:27
is, of course, language.
00:02:29
So imagine we were now able to facilitate conversations across
00:02:33
languages, allow people to be able to have conversations in
00:02:36
140 different languages.
00:02:38
That's now what we're able to do.
00:02:40
So this is now, you know, game changing technology, so that we
00:02:43
can actually make this available to far, far more people.
00:02:46
But we didn't stop there, because many people said to us,
00:02:49
well, this is wonderful whilst I'm sat at home with my family
00:02:53
having a conversation, but I like to go out.
00:02:55
I like to go to events.
00:02:57
I like to go to theatres.
00:02:59
Why can't we make Those venues and events and everything else
00:03:02
more accessible?
00:03:04
So we took that technology, adapted it, and effectively
00:03:07
created a version of the software for events and
00:03:10
theatres.
00:03:10
And so we can now, you know, make even more places
00:03:14
accessible.
00:03:15
Nathan C: There's a couple of I want to jump in on.
00:03:16
I love this idea.
00:03:19
And I just want to be like really explicit with it because
00:03:21
I think it's a gorgeous, idea, using the XRAI, glasses or phone
00:03:28
app.
00:03:28
You're saying that, people who speak two different languages
00:03:33
could converse with each other in their native languages and
00:03:36
get live captions either on their phone or in their, in
00:03:40
their glasses of what the other person is saying customized to
00:03:44
their preferences.
00:03:45
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Exactly right.
00:03:46
In almost real time.
00:03:48
A fraction of the second longer than transcription, but it is
00:03:52
magical.
00:03:53
we Our flagship feature we call Auto Reverse.
00:03:56
So you can select, I want all these different languages and I
00:03:59
always want them in English, for instance, so that's one model.
00:04:02
Or, if you select two languages, we have our auto reverse
00:04:06
feature.
00:04:06
So if I were to select English and Italian, for instance,
00:04:10
anything it hears in English, it will automatically caption in
00:04:13
Italian.
00:04:14
But anything it hears in Italian, it will automatically
00:04:16
capture in English.
00:04:18
So we're doing, you know, real time analysis of which language
00:04:21
is being spoken, trying to figure it out.
00:04:23
What that means to consumers or to users is that they can just
00:04:25
use this app, and magic occurs.
00:04:28
Like, they don't have to worry about all the technicalities
00:04:30
behind the scenes.
00:04:31
We can now have a fluid two way conversation.
00:04:33
It's a very stilted, demo or, you know, experience, because
00:04:36
when you're having to listen to the translation, you're
00:04:41
effectively doubling the communication time, because I've
00:04:44
got to hear it, it's then got to process it, it's then got to
00:04:47
read it out to me in the foreign language, I've then got to speak
00:04:50
back in the foreign language, the other person's got to wait
00:04:52
for it to then, you know, for me to finish and then be spoken out
00:04:55
in the other language.
00:04:56
It's just, it's a beautiful demo candy, but it's not particularly
00:04:59
practical.
00:05:00
Whereas using augmented reality glasses, you can actually be
00:05:03
reading the text as the person is saying it in real time.
00:05:07
So by the time they finish what they're saying, you can
00:05:09
immediately respond.
00:05:11
Nathan C: That demo that you're describing, is basically
00:05:14
digitizing the existing translation model, right?
00:05:18
If you have a translator, they take what the first person says,
00:05:21
they translate it, and there's that intermediary step.
00:05:24
and what you're saying is, by putting it in AR glasses, by
00:05:27
putting it in a heads up display, and making it real time
00:05:31
instead of audio, You're sort of disrupting that whole
00:05:33
interaction and making it fluid.
00:05:36
You know, I'm so curious to see what culture could be, with a
00:05:42
few years of multilingual communication as a default, like
00:05:47
"what happens if we always understood each other clearly?"
00:05:50
Is a very interesting problem statement for me.
00:05:53
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Yeah,
00:05:53
Nathan C: Okay.
00:05:54
I love that you described listening to your customers and
00:05:57
better understanding the problem space for the technology that
00:06:00
you're working on and evolving it, right?
00:06:02
These are core things that I talk about at Awesome Future all
00:06:04
the time.
00:06:05
I often say that the ability for you to take consumer feedback
00:06:10
and put it into your product is probably one of the best
00:06:15
indicators of your long term success because it shows how
00:06:18
flexible and responsive to the market.
00:06:22
You're able to be.
00:06:23
and so, but in two and a half years, you also described a lot
00:06:28
of product innovation, a lot of change, and being a small team.
00:06:33
And so how do you balance, being a small team, being ambitious,
00:06:39
And, how do you set yourself up to be able to take advantage of
00:06:43
this feedback and how do you choose like the right size bites
00:06:48
so that you're not overextending yourself?
00:06:50
You're not like pushing product, roadmaps into infinity.
00:06:53
like how do you actually deliver on that and make those choices
00:06:57
on which ideas to follow?
00:06:58
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: it's a great question.
00:07:00
And it's the one that I struggle with the most, of course,
00:07:03
because, you know, I'm a product guy, I love shiny things.
00:07:07
So, you know, our biggest problem is not what not to do,
00:07:11
because, you know, we're spoiled with opportunity.
00:07:14
And, you know, on the one hand, you want to listen to your
00:07:16
customers.
00:07:16
So our auto reverse feature, for example, was as a direct result
00:07:20
of getting this into the hands of the user.
00:07:22
So before auto reverse.
00:07:23
We had one way translation.
00:07:25
So you could go from English to Italian.
00:07:27
Great, you know, except then what happens when the Italian
00:07:30
person wants to talk back?
00:07:32
Doesn't work, of course, because it's still trying to go from
00:07:34
English to Italian, so it just gets confused.
00:07:36
So that was a great example of, you know, a useful piece of
00:07:40
technology that we then made into a breakthrough piece of
00:07:42
technology just with this one way translation.
00:07:44
Auto reverse feature, because it goes from being a novelty to
00:07:47
something genuinely useful.
00:07:49
On the flip side, you know, if I had a dollar for every person
00:07:52
that had said to me, oh my god, it would be amazing if it did
00:07:55
Insert new feature.
00:07:57
I'd be retired already because like there's so many cool things
00:08:01
that this could do.
00:08:02
And I just have to learn the discipline to say that's a
00:08:05
fantastic idea, but it's not cool for us.
00:08:08
You know, there are a hundred other startups doing all kinds
00:08:11
of other stuff and we've got to stick to our knitting.
00:08:13
you can only be brilliant at a small number of things.
00:08:16
So pick the things that you want to be brilliant at and,
00:08:19
sacrificed the rest.
00:08:20
Nathan C: Pick the things that you're brilliant at, I think, is
00:08:23
like one of those core pieces of advice for founders.
00:08:26
You know, if a founder has a unique perspective on the world,
00:08:31
is this kind of one in a million who can see opportunity, when I
00:08:35
talked with Elizabeth Bieniek, a lot of her advice was like, hey,
00:08:39
if you have these ideas, you're probably the only one with them.
00:08:42
And like being able to protect that core focus, that
00:08:46
inspiration, that vision, while you go out and do all of these
00:08:50
things is like one of the key challenges, you know, my
00:08:54
experience in, being somebody who's representing an innovative
00:08:58
technology and having people be like, oh, you know what this
00:09:01
would be good for?
00:09:01
Oh, you know what this would be good for?
00:09:04
It's not always, like you said, great product advice, but what
00:09:08
it shows is that, you've sparked an inspiration, and a proof of
00:09:14
value idea for that person.
00:09:16
And they've started to internalize it usually to the
00:09:19
things that are important to them, and, the problems that
00:09:23
they're interested in solving in the world.
00:09:25
So I think it's a great piece of feedback that, like, yes,
00:09:29
There's something here.
00:09:30
and that note that you were saying of like, is this core for
00:09:34
us?
00:09:34
Or is this a very far edge case, you know, that's going to
00:09:38
distract and cost money?
00:09:40
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Yeah, I mean, you know, statistics are, always
00:09:42
useful here, The third time someone has asked for the same
00:09:44
thing, then maybe it's something you should start thinking about.
00:09:47
But, until that point, probably not.
00:09:49
Nathan C: So, the story and timeline of XRAI is really
00:09:53
interesting in this conversation around, an innovator's journey,
00:09:57
right?
00:09:57
Because oftentimes one of the things that you have to do in
00:10:01
that journey is wait for your idea, to be ready in the greater
00:10:06
market for other technologies, companion technologies to meet
00:10:10
that idea.
00:10:12
we're seeing a lot of, you know, smaller, lightweight AR glasses,
00:10:15
headsets that have passed through, you know, there's some,
00:10:18
some maturation overall in the XR market and the AI market that
00:10:23
you seem to have caught that wave pretty expertly.
00:10:27
How do you find the right moment for an idea?
00:10:32
How would you call that?
00:10:33
And, what is the importance of timing been in your journey
00:10:37
overall, I guess?
00:10:38
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Timing is everything.
00:10:39
in my old business, the consulting company that I did,
00:10:43
our great success was jumping into the cloud early.
00:10:47
And it was just perfect timing.
00:10:48
we built one of the first apps in the world on top of the
00:10:51
cloud, which was still a new thing 15 years ago, and we
00:10:55
caught that wave and, timed it just right.
00:10:58
Hopefully, we've done the same again with XRAI and, timed that
00:11:01
AR curve.
00:11:04
It's a huge danger because, you don't want to be too early.
00:11:07
everyone has been saying for years that, this is the year for
00:11:10
AR and we're still waiting but on the other hand, you don't
00:11:14
want to be too late because if you're too late then the ship
00:11:16
has sailed and you've lost some or all of your opportunity.
00:11:20
but it does mean that you spend quite a lot of your time
00:11:23
apologizing.
00:11:24
so back in the day, I used to spend all day apologizing for
00:11:27
the cloud.
00:11:27
I was like, I'm really sorry.
00:11:29
You can't quite do that thing yet, but soon you'll be able to.
00:11:32
And it's the same with AR.
00:11:33
I'm really sorry.
00:11:33
It's got a wire.
00:11:34
I'm really sorry.
00:11:35
The resolution's not as high.
00:11:37
I'm really sorry that it's got tinted glasses.
00:11:39
But at some point, we won't have to apologize for anything
00:11:43
anymore.
00:11:43
And there won't be any drawbacks, and there won't be
00:11:46
any foibles.
00:11:47
And we'll be able to say, here's a device that does exactly what
00:11:50
you want.
00:11:50
All day, wearable, all in one, full color, everything you
00:11:55
wanted.
00:11:55
We're two to three years away from that, perhaps, and that's
00:11:58
really quite exciting.
00:11:59
Nathan C: I was hoping you might be able to give me an example of
00:12:01
technologies or market readiness, in specific, that
00:12:05
this vision that you have.
00:12:06
For this high fidelity, color, lightweight, all day wear, what
00:12:10
are some of the technologies or, market indicators that you're
00:12:14
still waiting on or that you're, looking for advancement in?
00:12:18
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: I mean, it's, it's hardware breakthroughs.
00:12:21
We need more than anything, to be honest, at this point.
00:12:23
you know, we need something a bit like the Orion, but, you
00:12:26
know, available right now, for maybe about 500.
00:12:32
That would be quite nice.
00:12:33
Like, if we could get to that, then, like, we're, we're there.
00:12:36
But as we all know, we're a couple of years away from that.
00:12:38
So.
00:12:38
Right now, you know, what can we get?
00:12:40
I mean, we can get all day wearable, Bluetooth tethered,
00:12:44
monochrome glasses.
00:12:46
And actually, they're probably fine.
00:12:48
And so, you know, that's something that we're investing
00:12:50
in, something we support.
00:12:51
We've got all in one, full color waveguide that lasts, you know,
00:12:58
About an hour or so, but again, I think probably viable.
00:13:02
The devices are there.
00:13:03
There are just a couple of trade offs still at the moment, and
00:13:06
we're hoping in the next 6 to 12 months, we're just going to
00:13:09
start ticking off each one of those drawbacks, to get closer
00:13:14
and closer to that fabled device that we've all been imagining,
00:13:18
that hopefully we're quite close to.
00:13:20
Nathan C: I've been making content about VR for about the
00:13:24
last 10 years, and we've been waiting for that fabled device
00:13:27
the entire time.
00:13:28
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: To say, this is the year for AR, they're
00:13:30
like, oh bless, That's the new guy.
00:13:32
We've been saying that for the last five years.
00:13:34
Nathan C: the place where I think, XRAI really, has a smart
00:13:38
approach is something that I often describe as like"taking
00:13:41
the right bite of innovation or the right approach.
00:13:45
A right amount of AR for the purpose that you have,"right?
00:13:49
And if the idea is we want to make communication and
00:13:53
connection easier and seamless and real time, then having some
00:13:59
lightweight glasses that put text up that the person who's
00:14:02
using them can read easily, and that works in real time and it's
00:14:08
comfortable for the length of the conversation, That's the
00:14:11
kind of real value, defensible use case that gets other people
00:14:16
interested and, pushes, some of those, you know, starts to
00:14:19
challenge the status quo and be like, look, there are real,
00:14:23
valuable applications and it's not over engineered.
00:14:27
it doesn't have to be 24 hour full color HD, where if you're
00:14:31
just trying to communicate, the deliverable is the
00:14:34
communication, not necessarily the high fidelity graphics.
00:14:38
and I love that, approach to innovation.
00:14:41
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: You're right.
00:14:41
And I mean, I have debates slash arguments with some of my new
00:14:45
brethren in this new world about, you know, what is AR?
00:14:48
And, you know, you describe HUD devices as AR.
00:14:51
And I'm like, oh, that's not augmented reality.
00:14:53
How very dare you describe that as AR?
00:14:55
And you're like, you know, It kind of is.
00:14:57
And then you go, well, what about 3DOF, you know, like
00:15:00
spatial positioning, like, can I have that at least?
00:15:03
They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:15:04
It's got to be full immersive, 6DOF, SLAM, you know, that's,
00:15:09
that's what we're talking about.
00:15:10
You're like, well, that's all very nice, but you know, that
00:15:12
requires these incredibly sophisticated devices that are
00:15:15
very expensive.
00:15:17
Drink the power, and you know, we don't think you should have
00:15:20
to use one of those experiences.
00:15:22
Now, we do, and again, one of the things that's interesting
00:15:24
about XRAI is that it's one app across experiences.
00:15:28
You know, we work in 0DOF, we work in 3DOF, we work in 6DOF.
00:15:31
So, the more capable the glasses you have, the richer the
00:15:35
experience you have.
00:15:36
But, to say that you have to have 6DOF in order for it to be
00:15:39
true, AR, VR, XR, like, I don't agree.
00:15:43
Nathan C: It's funny to me that the people insisting that the
00:15:45
market's not ready are the people who are trying to make
00:15:49
money from the market.
00:15:50
That feels a little counterintuitive to me.
00:15:53
Like, why not figure out where the opportunity is and push it
00:15:57
forward?
00:15:58
Oh, well.
00:15:58
So, Dan, it seems like XRAI has already, been able to solve a
00:16:03
lot of problems, connect with folks, really be ambitious in
00:16:06
your approach.
00:16:07
Dan, you've already been really successful over the last two
00:16:09
years, two and a half years, launching multiple products,
00:16:12
getting hardware out there, learning from customers.
00:16:15
So I'm super excited to get a sense of, what's the glow up
00:16:19
you're looking to bring to XRAI in the next six months to a
00:16:22
year?
00:16:22
And, you know, a glow up is a transformation, a leveling up, a
00:16:26
dramatic, rebirth even.
00:16:28
What are your big goals, in the coming months?
00:16:30
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: think our glow up is to blow up XRAI, if I
00:16:34
might be allowed to adulterate your word in such a way.
00:16:39
But, you know, we believe that we've created something quite
00:16:43
incredible.
00:16:44
You know, our biggest challenge right now is that No one knows
00:16:47
that this technology exists.
00:16:49
You know, every time we put this technology on people, they're
00:16:51
like," oh my god, this is like the most incredible thing I've
00:16:54
ever seen in my entire life." so, you know, right now it's
00:16:58
take what we've got and scale it and tell the world that this
00:17:01
technology exists because, you know, so few people know about
00:17:04
it.
00:17:05
even know what augmented reality glasses are, never mind the fact
00:17:08
that you can do subtitles on them in real time.
00:17:11
So that's, you know, a big part of, of course, what we want to
00:17:14
do.
00:17:14
There's so much innovation happening in glasses.
00:17:16
literally every eight weeks, there's a new set of glasses
00:17:19
coming out and, we are very excited about what a few of our
00:17:22
partners are working on.
00:17:24
we anticipate some further big announcements over the next six
00:17:28
months of new form factors, new glasses, new things that are
00:17:31
coming out.
00:17:31
And again, just make this even more widely adopted.
00:17:35
with our streaming technology, we want to make every venue,
00:17:39
every event, everything in the entire world more accessible.
00:17:43
And so, That's also something we hope to Glow up to blow up,
00:17:47
Nathan C: Glow up is gonna be a blow up.
00:17:49
I love it.
00:17:51
tell me a little bit about this venue use case.
00:17:53
I'm pretty familiar, but, and I think it's lovely and worth a
00:17:57
little bit of a spotlight on its own.
00:17:59
How does XRAI support like live events and venues?
00:18:03
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: So effectively, you know, we can
00:18:04
take that same technology that is within the phone app or
00:18:07
within the glasses, and we can turn it into, let's say, a
00:18:11
server version.
00:18:12
And so this server version you could run on a laptop, for
00:18:15
example, behind the scenes, AWE, for example, like we did, and
00:18:19
you can actually take the audio from the presenters and you can
00:18:23
then actually transcribe that and then broadcast it to all of
00:18:26
the attendees in real time.
00:18:28
So it's about making, you know, events like AWE more accessible.
00:18:32
Some of the other use cases that we're, you know, really excited
00:18:35
about are things like theatre, for example.
00:18:38
So right now, Theatre, perhaps one performance a week, maybe,
00:18:44
if you're lucky, might be subtitles, and that's because
00:18:47
right now, there's a man or a lady that's got to sit there and
00:18:51
say, next, next, next on the subtitles, because it's live
00:18:55
performance, it's like, they might say it at slightly the
00:18:58
wrong time, so it's very expensive to do, which means,
00:19:02
you know.
00:19:02
Very few performances are subtitled.
00:19:05
Now, using our technology, we can make every performance
00:19:09
subtitled.
00:19:09
Accessibility shouldn't have to be a choice.
00:19:12
Accessibility should be the default.
00:19:14
And, you know, we want to empower that.
00:19:16
you know, you look at movie theaters, you look at airports,
00:19:20
you look at train stations.
00:19:22
You know, frankly, I struggle to hear the announcements at
00:19:25
airports and I have fairly good hearing.
00:19:28
So, yeah, we just want to, again, make everywhere that
00:19:31
people go in their lives accessible.
00:19:33
You know, not just pockets.
00:19:35
Nathan C: Thank you.
00:19:35
that's so gorgeous.
00:19:38
you've already expressed a pretty bold vision, right?
00:19:40
Make everywhere more accessible.
00:19:42
Amazing.
00:19:43
how will you know that you've made it, with a goal that big?
00:19:49
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: It's a great question.
00:19:50
I'm not sure whether there's a great answer to it.
00:19:52
it's always fun when you introduce yourself to someone,
00:19:54
and you say, I'm Dan from XRAI, and they go, Oh!"Heard of
00:19:57
XRAI!"?
00:19:58
it's happened to me a couple of times now, and so I think at
00:20:01
some point in the future success is, of course, when you say it
00:20:04
to people and they recognize who you are.
00:20:06
Success to us is ultimately, not about us though, it's about
00:20:10
helping people.
00:20:11
success for us is, when we have people emailing in every day
00:20:15
saying, you've changed my life.
00:20:17
I can now leave the house for the first time, or I can now
00:20:19
have a conversation with my son on the phone for the first time
00:20:22
in 10 years, or whatever it is.
00:20:24
And again, we get those regularly.
00:20:26
we just look forward to getting even more of those stories.
00:20:29
that's how we know we've really made it because we've changed
00:20:32
people's lives.
00:20:33
Nathan C: Well, I can only imagine, you know, as a founder,
00:20:37
walking through the ups and downs of, taking multiple
00:20:41
products to market, you know, bringing on and then apologizing
00:20:45
to customers for the state of technology and others, that to
00:20:49
get feedback like, you've changed my life, you brought
00:20:53
something back that I thought was gone, there's no better
00:20:56
encouragement, to keep on going.
00:20:59
So, on this journey, often, you know, founders and
00:21:02
organizations, need help along the way.
00:21:05
I'm curious, do you have a, is there anything that you're
00:21:08
looking for?
00:21:09
Whether it's, community, help, network, research?
00:21:14
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: Yeah, I mean, we just need help taking this to
00:21:16
the world.
00:21:17
You know, that's capital, that's networks, that's endorsements.
00:21:23
one of the most powerful things we think we can achieve is to
00:21:27
get governments and insurance companies to pay for this.
00:21:30
that is really going to take this mass market.
00:21:32
So, help in terms of how do we work with different health
00:21:36
authorities and insurance companies around the world,
00:21:38
again, would be hugely helpful to us.
00:21:41
Nathan C: Health policy makers, Regulators, Payers, let's get in
00:21:46
touch with XRAI and make AI accessibility, heads up in AR
00:21:52
glasses, commonplace.
00:21:55
in every, clinical and doctor's office.
00:22:00
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: That's our dream.
00:22:02
Nathan C: Dan, did you have a, community spotlight or a org
00:22:06
that you wanted to give a little shout out to?
00:22:08
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: So one of the companies that we're really
00:22:10
excited to be partnering with is another startup.
00:22:12
so they are a company called VSL and VSL actually do what we do,
00:22:19
but in relation to Sign Language.
00:22:22
So one of the other kind of glow up things that we're really
00:22:25
excited about is how can we extend this technology into Sign
00:22:29
Language.
00:22:30
So, To begin, you know, text to sign, at some point sign to
00:22:34
text, but an ability to create a virtual avatar of what the
00:22:37
person is saying in real time.
00:22:39
That's what VSL do, we're partnering with them, we're
00:22:41
hoping to bring their software into XRAI in the next six
00:22:44
months, and we are super excited to be working
00:22:46
Nathan C: I'm, forgive me if I'm jumping ahead too far, but does
00:22:50
that potentially mean like heads up avatar based ASL,
00:22:57
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: with them.
00:22:57
That's exactly what we're doing.
00:22:58
In real time, so text to sign, whatever the person is saying
00:23:02
and Avatar signing what the person is saying, that we have
00:23:07
basically.
00:23:08
The other way is more difficult, so if I didn't understand sign
00:23:12
language and someone was signing to me,
00:23:14
Nathan C: Yeah.
00:23:15
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: a couple of years away yet because it's
00:23:16
motion capture and it's a whole world away.
00:23:19
But to sign very soon.
00:23:21
Nathan C: within the Deaf community, there are many who
00:23:25
prefer sign, you know, ASL or sign language to captioning, and
00:23:30
that ASL is a more native language, for many of them.
00:23:34
And so the idea that text to ASL translation would enable, like,
00:23:40
a better movie going experience, a better theater going
00:23:43
experience, and that folks could engage with it in a more, you
00:23:47
know, personal, natural way, to me is, you know, even that bit
00:23:50
is, is pretty powerful.
00:23:52
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: They speak sign language.
00:23:54
Nathan C: Exactly.
00:23:55
Exactly.
00:23:55
Thank you.
00:23:56
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: You're forcing them to use a second
00:23:58
language by making them read captions.
00:24:00
an ability to be able to use their first language of sign, is
00:24:04
of course what we want to aim
00:24:06
Nathan C: it's it's not as accessible as you'd think if
00:24:09
you're forcing people into their second or third language.
00:24:12
Dan, it has been such a pleasure to catch up with you and to
00:24:16
learn about, the amazing, ambition, speed and, success
00:24:21
that you've had from learning from your customers and, and
00:24:25
this passionate mission.
00:24:26
That seems like it it.
00:24:28
could possibly provide endless inspiration on your innovator's
00:24:32
journey.
00:24:33
How can people follow up with you to learn more and engage?
00:24:38
Dan Scarfe - XRAI: So just head on over to our website, which is
00:24:42
xrai.
00:24:43
glass.
00:24:44
You can download the app for free.
00:24:47
You don't have to have the augmented reality glasses, so
00:24:49
you can try it out.
00:24:50
If you do have a set of glasses, you can, of course, give it a go
00:24:52
with that as well.
00:24:53
We'd love to hear stories about how this technology is changing
00:24:56
lives.
00:24:56
Nathan C: Amazing.
00:24:57
Dan, always a pleasure to chat with you.
00:25:00
Thank you again for joining me on the Glow Up.
Related Episodes
Using Art and Science to Make Emotions Visible - Sarah Ticho & Niki Smit
Sarah Ticho and Niki Smit are the creators of SoulPaint, an innovative virtual reality (VR) experience designed to make emotions visible and help people connect with their bodies and feelings. Here are the key takeaways from their conversation:Origin Story: Sarah's personal experience navigating the healthcare system and feeling unheard led her to explore VR as a tool for expressing complex emotio...
When Revolutionary Business is as Fun as Talking to Friends - InnoVationGirls - Tereze Bogdane & Richard Zreik
Richard Zreik is the founder of InnoVationGirls, and Tereze Bogdane is a student and active member of the community. InnoVationGirls is a global community of young Gen Z girls and non-binary individuals working on innovative solutions to global problems, with a current focus on solving fast fashion waste using new technologies.Key Takeaways:Origin Story: InnoVationGirls was born from Richard's per...
Solving the Massive Skills Gap in Creating Spatial Computing Experiences - Moody Mattan -
Moody Mattan is the co-founder and CEO of Brand XR, a company that offers a no-code augmented reality platform and professional XR services, focusing on making AR technology accessible to non-technical users and businesses.Key Takeaways:No-Code AR Platform: Brand XR's Studio allows users to create AR experiences without coding, similar to website builders like Squarespace or Wix.AR Murals: A uniqu...