20 years ago, if one were to describe a Video Magnifier as being portable , you would have needed to drag a device over 30 pounds behind you in a little red wagon to move it from place to place. Now a portable Video Magnifier can fold down in seconds and weigh as much as a fully loaded laptop. Charlie Collins, Sales Director for LVI America, shows Shelly the new Surface Pro based ML Tab that will be launching soon. To learn more about this tablet based solution, or to find out more about the other Video Magnifiers offered, visit the [LVI America website](https://lviamerica.com/ website)
CSUN 2019 coverage is Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit www.afb.org/aw.
Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed By Grecia Ramirez
Direct from Anaheim, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2019, brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology book reviews and mobile apps and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind’s free monthly online technology magazine, www.afb.org/aw.
Now, here’s Shelly Brisbin.
SHELLY BRISBIN: Welcome back to Blind Bargains. I’m here on the floor of CSUN 2019 at the LVI booth and talking to Charlie Collins about their new tablet product.
Hi, Charlie.
CHARLIE COLLINS: Hi. How are you? Nice to see you again.
SB: Nice to see you again too. Seen you at a few places, but you’ve settled at LVI and have some great stuff to tell us about. I understand you have a Surface Pro-based tablet magnifier; right?
CC: Yes. It’s the sixth generation Windows Microsoft Surface Pro-based tablet system, which has three cameras on it. It has the forward-facing cameras for face view, self-view. Then, it has the camera under the unit that does right below it. And then, I have a distance camera stuck into the back. There’s a mount, and this distance camera takes the power from the tablet, doesn’t have a separate battery or anything. It also rotates for self-view, for distance view, and it’ll look down at the desk. And it’s all adjustable. It’s on an arm that isn’t fixed, so I can bend and move it around and really get it into tighter situations.
SB: But for reading, you’re not using the distance camera, you’re using the Surface’s camera, or –
CC: No. I bet you I would use the distance camera because it’s up higher, has a bigger format, and the resolution is amazing.
SB: That’s really interesting, because a lot of other tablet solutions, Android-based, typically would use the camera that’s in the tablet. But I don’t know if the -- does the Surface have a camera underneath like –
CC: Yes.
SB: -- those tablets do?
CC: It sure does.
SB: But what would you use that for?
CC: You could use that for OCR and reading.
SB: Got you.
CC: So the difference is that’s more a digital camera, that’s an optical camera.
SB: I see. I see. Okay. So tell me about – well, okay. Well, let me describe the product a little bit. So we’re on a really sturdy stand, you’ve got a metal –
CC: I’ve got a base on the bottom that –
SB: Base.
CC: -- I can slide my paper around a plate that holds – supports the whole unit.
SB: Right.
CC: And then it – the tablet’s sitting in a cradle. So I can push down on the tablet, and then I can pull the arm down and take it to my next location.
SB: Right.
CC: It folds up really quick, comes in a bag. And then, when I’m done – I mean, when I’m ready to set it up, I put the base, I pull it up, I’ve got my tablet on. At the bottom of my tablet window, I have high-contrast, large buttons.
So I can tap each one and magnify, change my contrast, zoom in and out, I can then perform OCR, I can do all from these buttons, but also – shall I -- I can run this off of gestures. I don’t need to use the buttons. So I can just swipe with three fingers, two fingers, tap with one, and it will activate all the things on it. And I also have a Bluetooth keyboard, which I don’t have out now, but any Bluetooth keyboard will also run the whole unit too. So, you see, if I do five fingers on the screen and I let go, it – what it’s doing is it’s opening – now, on here is Windows.
SB: Uh-huh.
CC: So you’re seeing icons on the desktop. I could then activate and take notes in the classroom, I can jump on a web browser, and then to get back in, I take five fingers on the little box, and it reactivates my software so now, it’s running the whole machine.
SB: Okay. And talk about the distance camera. So it’s mounted – there’s a vertical – looks like – well, it’s not flexible. I was going to say that. Well, yeah. It is flexible.
CC: Yes. It is flexible.
SB: Okay. So there’s a flexible vertical arm, but then it loops over top and the camera comes down from it, and it looks like it’s –
CC: And it rotates.
SB: Yeah. Rotates. And it’s integrated into this arm?
CC: Yes.
SB: It’s not like an extra piece?
CC: No. It’s one piece integrated into it. So -- and then, like you saw – okay. It’s flexible. I can bend it, move it, and shape it to my needs. And then I can go ahead and start rotating and moving my camera all around to capture everything inside the classroom or the workplace, things like that.
SB: And you mentioned that’s an optical camera, which is –
CC: Yes.
SB: -- kind of unusual.
CC: Yes. And that’s what’s going to give you a very good image --
SB: Yeah.
CC: -- especially in distance. See –
SB: Right.
CC: -- what we want to do is make sure we’re capturing good detail for distance – reading off white boards and smaller print in the distance.
SB: And then, can you capture an image? You can -- can you take a picture with that camera?
CC: So I can go ahead and take pictures or video in the classroom. So if there’s a presentation I want to capture on my machine, I just tap a button on it, and now it’s capturing video and audio and storing it on my hard drive.
SB: And when I want to start using the camera after I’ve been using the tablet, is that gesture-based too?
CC: Yes.
SB: Okay.
CC: Yes.
SB: So I – do I tell it I want to use distance, or does it just -- based on which direction I move the camera, does it figure out –
CC: No. It’s – so I take my four fingers and I pull to the right. And right now, I’m on the screen. It’s doing the forward-facing --
SB: Right.
CC: -- camera. I take my fingers, I drag again, now I’m using – my hand is on the screen, which is under the tablet. And then I grab one more time and I pull, and now I’m using this camera over here. Now I’m using the side camera. So I have three cameras that I can actually use.
SB: Got it. So what’s the side camera for, usually? You say you’ve got – so there’s three. There’s this distance camera, there’s the camera that’s integrated in the tablet, and then what’s the other camera?
CC: So the tablet comes with a forward-selfie –
SB: Oh. I see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
CC: Yeah. And then it comes with the camera on the bottom of it to –
SB: Got it.
CC: -- to do. So I can move the tablet up a little, and now I can use the camera underneath the machine. So here, I have some – I have a flier. And then I press my finger on the screen, Shelly, and then I release one finger, and right now, it’s OCRing it.
SB: Nice.
CC: That simple. Here it goes.
SB: That’s – that’s –
CC: Now it’s reading it.
SB: -- fancy.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- mobile tablet solution with high performance and user friendly –
CC: It’s reading it exactly off that flier.
SB: Yup.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- makes it ideal for using different locations. Perfect for people on the go. Highly shocking and water skiing. 14 recent –
SB: So the speaker’s going to be integrated into the tablet. It doesn’t sound particularly loud, but we are in a loud environment, so –
CC: Yeah. And I could turn it up a little. Also –
SB: Right.
CC: -- I can order Bluetooth headphones.
SB: Right. I was going – yeah. I assume –
CC: I could – you know, it has an audio jack on here too, so I can put one in my ear piece.
SB: Tell me about the features of your software for reading, the standard magnifier features. I assume you have high – well, you have a high contrast setting, you have different zoom levels, all the basic stuff we’re used to in magnification. Tell me about that.
CC: Yes. Well I – right now, after OCR, I can read sentence at a time, word at a time; I can read the actual image I took. So I could retain the pictures and then listen to the text being read. I can zoom in, I can make it large – magnify the print that I scanned. I can change the contrast. I can do anything --
SB: Right.
CC: - customize it, I can do it in live mode. So when the camera’s live, I can do all those customizations, pinch to zoom, I can zoom with the keyboard by hitting the up and down arrows, or I could tap on the icons at the bottom of the screen.
SB: Right. I guess I was just wondering about the specs of it. Like, how – what zoom magnification does it support and how many color schemes do you have and that sort of thing?
CC: 12, 13, 14 – I –
SB: He’s rolling through them. He’s counting them.
CC: Yeah. I’m quickly rolling through –
SB: There’s a lot of them.
CC: Yeah. There’s many combinations.
SB: Okay.
CC: But you can go dark background, like the dark contrast, and then you can hit another button and swap it so it’s all light.
SB: Right.
CC: So you can double that to 28.
SB: Right.
CC: And find the one you like best. And then just two fingers, I tap, and I can go right to –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- camera view.
CC: Now I’m – it just said, you’re in camera view.
SB: Right.
CC: And then I take two fingers, I tap, I go right to color. So if I’m in a contrast mode but I want to quickly jump to distance and just see in that way, I just tap the screen, and it’s in full color mode again.
SB: So remind us the name of this product, and is it available?
CC: It’s – yes. It’s – well, in the middle of March -- I mean, excuse me -- April, it starts to ship.
SB: Okay.
CC: It’s called the ML Tab, the MagniLink Tab.
SB: Okay. And what’s the pricing going to be?
CC: Forty-three ninety-five.
SB: And that’s – there’s no – you showed me a bag earlier, but I guess this is – as it comes, there’s not like a bunch of accessory choices other than, say, buying a bag because the cameras are integrated and all that?
CC: Yes. There’s no – it comes as you see it here with everything.
SB: Okay.
CC: There’s no more accessories you can add onto it.
SB: Okay. Tell folks where they can get – learn more about LVI and this product.
CC: Sure. LVI is www.lviamerica.com, and you could always call our 800 number, which is (888) 781-7811.
SB: Sounds good. Charlie, thanks so much for being on Blind Bargains.
CC: Oh. Thank you for having me.
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
