MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020
Help beyond what a
guide dog can do
By SUSAN WOOD
The North Bay Business Journal
F
or visually impaired people, their
guide dogs have their backs. But
what’s missing sometimes is the
vision to see beyond what a dog can
provide.
That’s why Guide Dogs for the Blind
in San Rafael joined forces on Sept. 14
with Be My Eyes, a software platform
firm founded in 2012 by Denmark native
Hans Jorgen Wiberg, a furniture crafts-
man who is also visually impaired.
The company began operating in San
Francisco in 2018.
“If only I had another pair of eyes…I
wouldn’t have to ask family and friends
for help,” Wiberg said with whimsy,
explaining the app during
the TED talk.
The app connects sighted
volunteers with Guide
Dogs for the Blind clients
with a video and audio
service on the mobile com-
puter app that the user can
tap and ask for help identi-
fying little unknowns they Will
encounter through the day. Butler
Four million volunteers
have signed up with Be My
Eyes to provide real-time
assistance.
Think of it as a spe-
cialized, advanced cross
between Siri, a telephone
switchboard and the
Yellow Pages combined
for those with a visual
Theresa
disability. For example, Stern
clients may need to know
how to negotiate knots in their dogs’
harnesses and would point the device
to the objects they need help untying.
The volunteers on the other end of the
mobile device may help with that or
with reading labels of the clients’ dog
food.
Be My Eyes’ clients, like Guide Dogs
for the Blind, are able to tap into volun-
teers recruited by the tech firm. Those
start-up volunteers serve as the eyes
and ears for app users and their canine
companions faced with tasks such as
reading labels and gauging the guide
dog’s physical condition.
“For many visually impaired people,
the app is a lifeline,” Be My Eyes Vice
President Will Butler told the Business
Journal. “We’re about human support,
PHOTO COURTESY OF GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND
Guide Dogs for the Blind users may tap into
volunteers to help pick out the right dog food or
determine whether their canine helpers are in
distress.
when the blind want to talk to a person.
It creates a connection.”
Be My Eyes has gained partnerships
with computer industry giants such
as Google and Microsoft, which pay
monthly fees for listings that offer tech
service. Proctor & Gamble lists brand
profiles with video-calling capability for
fees as well. The company declined to
reveal what those fees are.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Be My
Eyes executives have waived the month-
ly fees to nonprofits such as Guide Dogs
for the Blind for philanthropic reasons,
Butler added.
“We’re donating software solutions
to these nonprofits during these
See DOG page 30
North Bay Business Journal 7
Wine business worries about
smoke taint as harvest continues
By JEFF QUACKENBUSH
The North Bay Business Journal
than in 2018,” Shannon said.
His team has sent in grape samples to
testing labs to check for key chemical
The Rowan family’s vineyard and home markers to suggest the ashtray and other
was spared from the massive Walbridge odors and flavors connected to “smoke
Fire that approached the property in the taint” will show up later in the wine. But
western reaches of Sonoma County’s with long turnaround times for results
Dry Creek Valley, but their wine grapes quoted from major local labs, Shannon
won’t be harvested this year over vintner is employing a technique that seemed to
concerns of smoke damage. line up with reality with the 4,000 tons of
Their 18 acres of grapes — 75% cabernet rejected Lake County fruit he purchased
sauvignon and the rest merlot — were in 2018: whether he smells fresh fruit or
under contract with a large Sonoma smoke as grapes are dumped into the
County winery crushpad hopper.
But a clause in that document added St. Helena-based ETS Laboratories, a
four years ago after the 2015 Lake County key go-to tester that acquired Vinquiry’s
analytics group in July, has posted on its
blazes gave the vintner the option to reject
affected fruit. Mike Rowan, whose four-de- website that grape samples received in
cade industry career includes stints with late August wouldn’t have results until
Napa and Sonoma wineries, understands early November, and microferments of
why the winery took the option. suspect wine would have results until
“Up until five or six years ago, some- late October. The lab has been running
thing that was not considered was crop testing equipment around the clock
insurance, because come hell or high wa- to keep up with the demand and is in-
ter you’d work to get the crop picked,” he stalling more equipment, according to
said. “What’s unique about smoke taint is co-owner and technical director Gordon
it’s so hard to predict the outcome. That’sBurns.
maddening because it puts wineries in “The current fires cover a very wide
the position of accepting grapes and then area, but only a tiny fraction of that area
have it show up in fermentation or show is planted to wine grapes,” he wrote in an
up in the bottle.” email to the Journal. “Every location is
After pushback from trade buyers on different, and degraded air quality may
the 2017 vintage because of the wildfires be transitory and as little as none at all.”
that year in Sonoma and Napa counties, One of the testing labs ETS is refer-
a number of wineries aren’t taking a ring business to is K Prime, operating
chance of that happening with the 2020 near Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County
vintage with three major conflagrations Airport for 24 years. The lab has food and
this year in rural areas on the west, east beverage business as well as testing of
and north sides of the North Coast’s air quality for environmental remedi-
prime wine regions. The North Coast ation and real estate transactions. But
grape crop last year was valued at $1.7 the work it does with makers of oak
billion. barrel alternatives is transferrable to
“I’m getting rejection letters that are the smoke-taint question, because key
being sent out on a weekly basis,” said chemical markers looked for in the
Brian Clements, partner in Turrentine proper toasting of oak powders, chips
Brokerage, a Novato firm that helps and barrels are the ones being examined
growers and vintners strike grape and for taint, according to Richard Kagel,
bulk-wine deals. “Wineries are trying to laboratory director.
do the best thing for quality.” The lab is receiving 300–700 samples of
Such a move prompted Somerton Wine grapes and microferments daily and is
Co. in eastern Napa County last week to turning them around in 20 business days.
announce it wouldn’t make 2020 wine “We’re seeing everything from samples
because of smoke in its estate vineyards that are heavily impacted to those that do
from the Hennessey Fire. not show any impact,” he said.
Clay Shannon, who farms several
thousand acres of grapes in Mendocino Jeff Quackenbush covers
and Lake counties, has been through wine, construction and real
several recent vintages with smoke estate. Before the Business
concerns, particularly in 2018. But this Journal, he wrote for Bay
year, he plans to pick all the fruit, and City News Service in San
has started taking cab off the vine last Francisco. He has a degree from Walla
week. Walla University. Reach him at jquack-
“We think we’re in much better shape enbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.