Blind Bargains

#CSUN14 Audio: The Compact Touch HD, a Touchscreen Portable Magnifier


Optelec was showing its recently-released Compact Touch HD, a portable video magnifier which is operated using touchscreen gestures. To learn more, we spoke with Charlie Collins, Director of Sales for the Eastern United States with Optelec, who explained its usage and design. Blind Bargains audio coverage of CSUN 2014 is generously sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind.

Transcript

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Direct from San Diego, it’s BlindBargains.com coverage of CSUN 2014. The biggest names, provocative interviews, and wall-to-wall exhibit hall coverage, brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.

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Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.

J.J.: We’re here at CSUN 2014 in the Optelec booth with Charlie Collins, who is the Director of Sales for the Eastern United States for Optelec, and we are looking at a product that came out just a couple months ago called the Compact Touch HD. Charlie, welcome to Blind Bargains.

CC: Thank you.

J.J.: Why don’t you tell me exactly what we have here?

CC: We have, in my hand here, is a Compact. I mean, the line of Compacts are anywhere from mini to 4, 5, 7s. This happens to be a new one; it’s called the Compact Touch because no more buttons on it. It’s just a touch screen, like an iPad or an iPhone of sorts. Feel that; that’s the handle, but what’s beautiful about the handle is it’s also the battery.

J.J.: Oh wow.

CC: And there’s two buttons on there. I could detach that and carry a fully charged one with me. So it’s kind of like the power transmitter.

J.J.: What is the battery life?

CC: Three hundred full charge cycles.

J.J.: But I mean for how many hours will it work?

CC: Three hours.

J.J.: Okay. But as you said, you could take an extra battery with you.

CC: I could take it. Throw it in my bag and I have it.

J.J.: This is pretty light. I’m holding it with the handle, which swivels out and around, and then underneath, I guess, right?

CC: And once it’s closed like that noise that just happened, it’s in reading position. Now I can sit it. See how it sits like that now?

J.J.: So it’s resting on the battery and at kind of an angle facing towards me now. How big is the screen?

CC: Five inch.

J.J.: It’s a 5 inch screen, and it’s also a touch screen. What kind of features can you do with the touch screen?

CC: Let me turn it on real quick.

J.J.: All right.

CC: Another great thing about this product is I’m an end user of it, and I use it when I travel, and I love it. I love it. Because of the handle, it does some distance. I can do distance in the airport; I can look up at the gate, and I can tap the screen and it’ll zoom, focus, and then I can take a picture, bring it down to my eyes, zoom in more if I’d like to, and I can see which way to go to get my gate.

J.J.: Okay.

CC: So now I’ve turned it on, and if I take my finger from the top of the screen and bring it down, I’m swiping through the reading modes, the high contrast reading modes. You know what I mean? Like white text on black, black on white, green on black.

J.J.: So that’s a swipe down.

CC: It’s just a finger from the top down, and if I want to go back the other way, I go from the bottom up. That’s what I’m doing there. Next, I can take all three fingers and swipe up from the bottom and change my brightness, put a line in here, a vertical or horizontal line. And then my other thing is, I can get rid of a beep. It has a beep noise, so if I’m in a library or school setting or somewhere, in church, and I don’t want to have it go “beep beep,” I can shut that noise off.

J.J.: Okay.

CC: Also – I’m sorry?

J.J.: Go ahead.

CC: I was going to say, I also have connectivity. It comes with an HDMI cable to hook to any size monitor, and it comes with another cable that hooks to an RCA, the yellow plug. It comes with all that, so you can connect it to your computer monitor or your TV at home to do more reading.

J.J.: As far as the magnification, how big can you magnify text?

CC: Twenty times. Basically so big that you can’t really get a word in the screen.

J.J.: For sure, yeah, and for these portable magnifiers, once you get to a certain point, I think most of it at this point they can magnify so large that it becomes…

CC: It’s too big.

J.J.: Right.

CC: Yeah. I mean, if I’m using it at that magnification, I need to move on to a different product.

J.J.: Right, you need a bigger screen or something at that point.

CC: Yeah, or a desktop. I want to show you something in my hand here. This is a magnetic sheet. It has two sides, a white and a black side. The white side is less magnet strength, and the black side is more. Why? Because I’m going to put it underneath my page here; built into my handle, I have – feel the bumps? Go ahead, put your hand right on that. Feel it, bumpy?

J.J.: Oh yeah. As I’m moving it up and down, it’s kind of…

CC: And why is that? Because in between the bumps, it completely tracks the reading. Keeps you perfectly straight.

J.J.: Oh wow, so you can go across.

CC: Yeah, and then when I come, I go down one bump, and then next, bump, back, bump. So it’s just a way for reading newspapers…

J.J.: What’s making the bump?

CC: In my handle, I have two strips in here that are actually attached to the magnet sheet and help me track back and forth.

J.J.: Okay, got you. Wow. That is really cool.

CC: That I really like, because when I’m sitting at home and I’m reading a lot, I can just go left to right, and I go back, and I don’t miss my space.

J.J.: Is that an accessory – does it come with the unit?

CC: Comes with it.

J.J.: Okay.

CC: Comes with an awesome carry case, too, that I can put my belt through and carry on the go.

J.J.: Okay, and this product is available now, right?

CC: Yes it is.

J.J.: And how much is it?

CC: $995.

J.J.: All right. If people want to get more information about this, how can they do that?

CC: They can call us at 1 (800) 826-4200, or www.optelec.com.

J.J.: Thanks, Charlie.

CC: Hey, you’re welcome. Thank you.

For more exclusive CSUN coverage, visit www.blindbargains.com, or download the Blind Bargains app for your iOS or Android device. Blind Bargains CSUN coverage is presented by the A T Guys, www.atguys.com.

This has been another Blind Bargains audio podcast. Visit BlindBargains.com for the latest deals, news, and exclusive content. This podcast may not be retransmitted, sold, or reproduced without the express written permission of A T Guys. © 2014.


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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.


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