Last year David Bradburn, President of Zoomax USA, shared with us the launch specifics for Acesight. in our latest interview Joe gets an update on the progress of not only the Acesight, but a sneak peek at a new product in the wearable line. The duo also discuss the Snow 12 portable Video Magnifier and a quick log entry from the BBQ's unofficial Travel Correspondent. To learn more about the products mentioned in this interview, visit the Zoomax website.
ATIA 2020 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
From beautiful and s... from beautiful and and sunny, cloudy Orlando, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ATIA 2020, 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 Joe Steincamp.
JOE STEINCAMP: Here on the floor of Orlando, 2020 ATIA, and I’m with my good friend, David Bradburn. David, how has it been? You have been a world traveler, you have been moving around, and now, at Zoomax, you tell me it’s not just about the food. There’s new products in store.
DAVID BRADBURN: Very true, Joe. I have to say, 2019 was one of my busier travel years.
JS: That’s true.
DB: And it was a busy travel year for two reasons: One was because I have been in my new position at Zoomax. Actually, I just had my second-year anniversary with them. But the other thing is that last year was my 30th wedding anniversary. So my wife and I had a couple of things that we wanted to do last year, one of which was to go to Barcelona together for the first time and had a wonderful time there. I don’t know if I – I don’t remember telling you that one of my specialties when it comes to cooking is making a paella.
JS: Oh. All right.
DB: I’ve been making paellas for over 25 years.
JS: Okay.
DB: -- and while I was in Barcelona, I was fortunate enough to go to a paella cooking class with some master chef there.
JS: Wow.
DB: And I learned a couple of new tips and techniques that I’ve been employing the next time I’m getting the pans out.
JS: Did you find that you were going to go for authentic pans and stuff while you were there too?
DB: Actually, I already have those.
JS: Oh, okay. So –
DB: So there is a website in the U.S. that I use, and I’m able to get from there the authentic pans, I have a paella grill, I get my rice from there -- my Bomba rice, that is. I get my saffron and my Spanish paprika. It’s as authentic as I can possibly make it.
JS: You’re the closest friend to Walton Brown I’ve ever met. You’re so close.
DB: Well, there you go. But anyway, yes. New products.
JS: But. Yeah. So new products. Yes.
DB: Well, so in terms of – because this will be a short part of the conversation. In terms of the existing products: So we are back again – I say back again because we were with them at CSUN last year, where I believe you and I last spoke.
JS: Yup.
DB: One is a 12-inch magnifier called the Snow 12.
JS: Uh-huh.
DB: The Snow 12 is special for a couple of reasons. The number, by the way, indicates the dimensions of the screen.
JS: Uh-huh.
DB: It’s a 12-inch full HD hand-held magnifier. It comes with OCR and speech in 20 languages, and it is available now. The price was just reduced recently for $995 --
JS: Wow. Okay.
DB: -- which is almost unheard of for magnifiers of even 7 inches, much less 12 so –
JS: Correct.
DB: -- we’re very excited about that. So –
JS: Yeah. What we would technically call a midterm – our mid-level –
DB: There you go.
JS: Yeah.
DB: Exactly. It’s not a desktop; it’s not really a hand-held. Again, it’s –
JS: Transportable.
DB: It is transportable.
JS: Yeah.
DB: The other product that we have here – and that has continued to be a really big thing for us all throughout 2019 – is our wearable device, the Acesight. For anybody not familiar with what a wearable is – well, perhaps as the name suggests, it is something you wear. You put it on your head. Think of this: If you’ve ever seen VR goggles or virtual reality of any description, it’s similar --
JS: Uh-huh.
DB: -- but not the same. It’s similar in that you put it on your head. It’s similar in that there is a screen inside the device that your eyes are looking at. There’s a camera on Acesight, and everything that camera captures is displayed for the wearer to see. Our device, though, is unique among all wearables because you can walk while you are wearing it. The only requirement is that you have some level of peripheral vision.
Now, bear in mind, there are people who are legally blind that can benefit from this technology. If your visual acuity is anywhere between 20/100 and 20/600 -- remembering as we all, I’m sure, know, 20/200 is the legal definition of blindness in the U.S. --
JS: Correct.
DB: -- you may be a candidate for this sort of thing helping you to be more visually independent. It is a very open design. It does not cover the eyes, it doesn’t touch your face. The only thing that touches your face – it’s actually your forehead – and that is a kind of foam -- it’s there for comfort –
JS: Ah.
DB: -- kind of a foam piece on the head frame that makes it comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
In terms of things you can do with a wearable device: Watch TV. And I don’t mean just watch TV. I mean watch TV sitting on the sofa next to your family members, and you’re watching it from a regular distance. Because, usually, when I ask the average person coming along to see me about this, well, how close do you sit to the TV? And the response is anything from, like, well, I don’t know, a foot, two feet.
JS: Yeah.
DB: That’s pretty close. And certainly, I will tell you that I, as someone who can see, I don’t sit two feet from the screen. I’m usually 10 feet back.
Well, someone wearing an Acesight could potentially be seated beside me and enjoying the cinematic experience of watching television.
Using a computer: It’s excellent for that. Reading sheet music: I know a lot of people that play piano. Well, sometimes you want to look straight ahead and see the sheet music magnified so you can see what you’re reading, but you want to at least – and this is where your peripheral vision comes in – take a glance down and see if your hands are actually on the ivories or not. So it’s good for those sorts of things. Spot reading, reading things like recipes, your mail, anything like that, it’s really, really good.
In terms of new products: So I’m actually – and I’m letting you into this secret because your listeners are all special friends.
JS: There you go.
DB: But we have been selectively showing people here a brand, brand new product that we will, I suppose, officially publicly unveil at CSUN, and that is a virtual reality version of the Acesight.
JS: Oh my.
DB: So the existing one is using augmented reality.
JS: Right.
DB: And as long as you got peripheral vision, as I mentioned earlier, you can walk while you’re wearing it. Virtual reality, you cannot. However, this new VR unit that we’re coming out with has a 48 megapixel camera. To put this in perspective for your listeners, the current Acesight has an 8 megapixel camera. Can you imagine?
JS: Yeah.
DB: So the image is really good at 8 megapixels.
JS: Yeah.
DB: Going up to 48, it’s really quite something.
JS: And is color intensity magnified as well? I mean –
DB: Yeah. Absolutely.
JS: Okay.
DB: Actually, it has a very simple-to-use wireless Bluetooth controller.
JS: Oh.
DB: It has a little joystick. You push forward on the joystick to increase the magnification; you pull back on the joystick to minimize or decrease the magnification; and there are only two other buttons. One is to go into high-contrast mode. So if you are reading, a lot of people -- especially people with macular degeneration-related disease -- will tell me they prefer looking at something in a high-contrast mode. It makes reading easier. It does that. You do it in one of four different colors. And then there’s another button that brings you back to normal color.
Other than that, my friend, that is how easy it is. I mean, I can train someone –
JS: Wow.
DB: -- in less than five minutes. And price is new for all of the Acesights. So the Acesight that we were showing last year at CSUN was retailing for approximately $5000. That same device, since the beginning of this year, has dropped to $2995.
JS: Oh wow. Okay.
DB: This is very significant. The new VR unit will retail, when it goes on sale in March, for $2495.
JS: Oh.
DB: We are – it is available through our network of about 40 distributors around the country. We are increasingly working with more and more optometrists who specialize in low vision. So for any of your listeners who think that a wearable device might be something of interest to them or something that could benefit them, all they need to do is to get in touch with Zoomax, and we can connect them with someone in their area so that they get a chance to see it. And, as always – I don’t believe there’s any exceptions to this statement – there is no charge for seeing a demonstration of any of our products. That’s always free.
And in terms of how people get to contact us, the simplest thing is to go to our website, which is, as always, www.zoomaxusa.com. That’s Z-o-o-m-a-x-u-s-a-dot-c-o-m. If people prefer a phone call instead, our toll free number – let’s see. I have my business cards sitting under a box because I like to hide everything when I’m doing interviews. And let me get my reading glasses because, as always, I’m ill-prepared to give out the important information. Toll free number is 866-296-8388. And just tell them David sent you, and either myself or one of my staff will be more than happy to assist you.
JS: David, thank you for your time once again, and thank you for the sneak peek. We’ll have to send Shelly by in March to – if we have a product on the table to talk about.
DB: Please do. We’ll be there.
JS: Thank you so much, my friend.
DB: Sure.
JS: From the floor of the ATIA 2020, this is Joe Steincamp. Stay tuned. We have so much more to come.
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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.
