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Inexpensive Reading Assistance Device?
N8F8 asks: "I would like to come up with an inexpensive reading assist device for the visually impaired. Something that would give them a close-up view of things without having to stoop over. For under $500.
What I would like is a method to connect a USB/Firewire webcam to a CDMA phone or PDA and display the picture in real-time. Or replace the PDA with an inexpensive eyeglass mounted display. Are there better options?"
The second option brought several possibilities to mind. Tiny cameras are cheap and plentiful- from USB/Firewire webcams to tiny spy cams. The ideal device would have built-in auto focus. The Apple iSight is the only webcam I've found with built in auto focus, are there others?
Tiny monitors are another matter. Many articles covering 'near eye displays', 'heads up displays' and 'head mounted displays' have been published. There are even a few interesting products on the market. Unfortunately they are all extremely expensive.
Nearly every new PDA, CDMA phone, digital camera and digital video camera contains a nice little LCD screen. Perhaps using one of these devices could help keep the cost down?"
"Over 1.2 million Americans are in the advanced stages of Macular Degeneration. People with very poor vision have a hard time reading everyday items like food labels, grocery store signs and newspapers. Many have resorted to carrying around large magnifying glasses and other tools so they can stoop over or pull things close enough to read. As you might imagine, this can make everyday chores rather cumbersome.
Initially, two ideas came to mind:
- A coherent fiber optic cable with a taper end to magnify the image
- A portable video camera connected to a tiny LCD monitor
The second option brought several possibilities to mind. Tiny cameras are cheap and plentiful- from USB/Firewire webcams to tiny spy cams. The ideal device would have built-in auto focus. The Apple iSight is the only webcam I've found with built in auto focus, are there others?
Tiny monitors are another matter. Many articles covering 'near eye displays', 'heads up displays' and 'head mounted displays' have been published. There are even a few interesting products on the market. Unfortunately they are all extremely expensive.
Nearly every new PDA, CDMA phone, digital camera and digital video camera contains a nice little LCD screen. Perhaps using one of these devices could help keep the cost down?"
Using the "built-in" zoom and big magnifying glasses is the *current* solution. The poster is looking for something better.
And honestly, just getting closer can be embarrassing and doesn't always work. You can't climb up on the counter at McDonalds to peer at the menu overhead. And say the store shelf labels are 6" off the ground but you have to be less than 1 foot away to see (with your magnifying glass), plus you're 75 years, arthritic, and there are people waiting behind you.
I don't have macular degenaration, but I do have some vision problems (floaters, cataracts in both eyes.. and I'm still legal to drive, so watch out!) so I have some sense of this. My wife helps me pick out my meal at candlelit restaurants, because I can't read the menu in low light. Sometimes I use binoculars at airports and places like that where far-away signs are important. No big deal, but I can imagine how tough it would be for people worse off than I am.
It would be beautiful to have something like this -- a PDA attachment with a directional, zoomable camera lens. My example above could stay standing by the grocery cart, tilting the PDA with camera at 4x zoom down at the bottom row of labels. Even if people around notice the function of the PDA, it's a cool modern device -- not some ridiculous old person crouching like some kind of comic private detective among the condensed soup cans. Same situation at airports or restaurants -- I could be just checking my email to the casual observer. Binoculars make airport personnel nervous (only a terrorist would need to scope out an airport like that), and setting a napkin on fire for a little more light on the menu might be effective, but it sure would be nicer to just check the well-lit LCD screen.
On to the question at hand -- the tech is obviously possible -- a good digital camera with good zoom would actually do much of this, and some PDAs now have camera functionality in them (though it's mostly not very good, and won't be able to do the zooming well enough). Oh, and some airports don't let you take photos inside (Paris CDG doesn't, for one -- I found this out just a few weeks ago).
So we need mid-range camera tech mated to a bigger LCD screen then a camera normally has (someone with macular degeneration would probably need at least the size of a large PDA screen, probably a little bigger). If there were a large demand, this thing would probably cost $200. As is, if they exist I'd expect a pricetag more like $2000, simply because that's how these things seem to work.
The best bet I think is to get a camera with a good analog zoom and large LCD, and make it a "holster" with one of those magnifying sheets over the LCD and a hole for the power and zoom buttons (simplify the interface... you aren't using it as a camera anyway).
This should all get easier as time passes -- cameras are getting better and cheaper, and the LCD screens on them are getting larger and higher quality every day.
There are only 10 types of people: those who understand decimal, those who don't, and, uh, 8 other types I forget.
I know someone who could benefit enormously from a solution. She does use a magnifying glass. It's a 10x glass, which is barely enough. Even 10x is hard to find. Also, it's under an inch in diameter, and so the field of view is only several characters.
All the video magnifiers on the market that I've looked at are very expensive (>> $1K).
I've considered connecting a camcorder to a big screen TV. The 20x camcorders produce a barely acceptable image.
A solution here would transform the lives of many people.