Shelly and Joe have been using Eschenbach products for a very long time. As noted in this interview, the durable products hold up well and they can be great allies in the needs for daily reading tasks. Joseph Buttazzoni, West Region Sales manager for Eschenbach, provides a look at the company s latest entry into electronic magnification with the Visolux Digital XL portable video magnifier and its accessories. The interview also contains some information about the newest process for how the company creates traditional low vision aids. To learn more, and to see a full range of products, visit the Eschenbach 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. We’re here on the floor at CSUN 2019, and I’ve stopped by one of my favorite places, the Eschenbach booth. And we don’t get to talk to them a lot because Eschenbach just makes a lot of products that last and hold the test of time, but I found that there’s some new things to see this time around. And I’m talking with Joe Buttazzoni, who’s the Western Regional Sales Manager for Eschenbach.
Hi, Joe.
Joseph Buttazzoni: Hi, Shelly.
SB: Welcome to Blind Bargains. And –
JB: Thank you.
SB: -- tell me – tell me what’s new here at Eschenbach.
JB: What’s new is – well, the world around us, and our industry, is moving in a video direction. While we’ve had a number of video products available for a few years, we’ve just – here at this show – promoting a new 12-inch portable video magnifier. What’s rather unique about it is we finally managed to add a product feature that we’ve been asked for for a number of years, which is touchscreen. And that’s a big – a user interface benefit.
SB: Yeah. I was looking at the 7-inch one, and I tried to touch it and it didn’t behave the same way. But pinch to zoom and – does the touch also allow you to change the filters and functionality, or what all can you do with the touchscreen on the 12?
JB: It allows you to navigate the screen, and it allows you to adjust the level of magnification without having to go into any of the menu settings. But what’s unique about that 12-inch version is we have a product feature called Dynamic Line Scrolling. Now, we’ve also had it on products in the past, but it only scrolled the text in a horizontal direction. Now, with the new 12-inch version, we have both text in a horizontal direction, which is the reading setting, but also in a vertical direction. So it helps prevent the user from having to move the unit down because they can get 16 lines of text in a vertical sense before they need to move the magnifier. So that’s kind of a great – a user comfort.
SB: So how does that work? How do you activate it as a user?
JB: Well, you can activate it partially through the touchscreen, but to really scroll through the texts, we have buttons on the side that scroll both in a vertical direction and the other buttons scrolling in a horizontal direction.
SB: Cool. And let’s describe the unit. So it’s at an angle, and it’s on, I guess, on a stand?
JB: It’s angled on two, kind of like, legs that keep it positioned against -- you know, towards the reading material at about a 30-degree angle. And the reason it’s angled, because we have a camera lens in the back that allows the user to write underneath it, so that’s just enough room to get your hand in behind and still be able to use it comfortably.
SB: Can you change the angle, or is 30 degrees about –
JB: You can change the angle slightly. Fora child who’s writing, the camera will go down closer. But other than that, that’s about the two settings, for adults and for kids.
SB: Let’s talk about the basic specs. How many times navigation, how many color filters, all that.
JB: Times magnification, just like the 7-inch version, ranges from 2 times to 22 times. And just about the same kind of false colors, or semi-colors, we talked about. You have 16 different options, so background colors and text colors in combination.
SB: And this is not a speech or an OCR device; correct? This is a magnification –
JB: It is not in the classic sense of OCR, optical character recognition. What’s unique about it, it does have a voice-prompted tutorial, but it’s not a text-to-speech. So, you know, there is a – the menu and the tutorial does speak to you.
SB: Tell me the name of the product again and is it available now and what it costs.
JB: The name of the product is called the Visolux Digital XL, extra-large, because the 12-inch screen. And the retail price is around fifteen hundred dollars and ninety-five.
SB: Is that available now?
JB: Yes. Available now from your eye doctor.
SB: Oh. This is prescription-only product?
JB: Not – well, we don’t sell it online, so --
SB: Oh. Right.
JB: Yeah. I guess you – that’s a better way of saying it.
SB: Anything else we should know about happening at Eschenbach?
JB: Yes. In – maybe a little less in terms of technology, hand magnifiers. Still the most commonly dispensed item in North America. We’ve added a new hand magnifier, lighted, that has a 100 millimeter by 50 millimeter lens. It’s the biggest lens in the industry, if you will, at a 8 diopter magnification strength. Patients are always looking for big, big, big lenses to give a wider field of view, and hopefully, they can accomplish that with this new magnifier.
SB: And this comes – it’s a little foldable unit. It comes in a shell, and then there’s a little button to activate the light. I use these all the time. They’re great. Not this particular unit, but it’s a style of magnifier I use and like a lot.
JB: I’m glad to hear it.
SB: So is that – that’s available now, and what are the costs for those? You have several versions of that model; right?
JB: Well, we will have – it will be available in a 4 times, the 7 times, and the 10 times. We only have the 4 times available now, and the cost is $44.
SB: Such a deal. So Joe, if folks want to know more about Eschenbach products, where should they go?
JB: Well, they can always check our website, www.eschenbach.com. And we’re also sponsoring a guide dog. And you can follow our guide dog -- his name is Magno -- on our social media page as well.
SB: Joe, great to talk to you. Thanks so much for being on Blind Bargains.
JB: All right. Thank you for having me, Shelly.
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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.
