Though this year's Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference in Orlando did not mark the debut of revolutionary products for people with visual impairments, the annual event did feature an exhibit hall chock full of familiar vendors, offering new and interesting takes on accessible devices. In this article, we'll share our picks for the 10 most interesting technology products we saw: five blindness-related offerings and five that will interest people with low vision.

Blindness Products

Braille Labeler

At $749, the Braille Label Maker by LoganTech will most likely not grace the desks of most blind people. There are certainly less expensive solutions available, but there is something about being able to type on a Perkins-style braille keyboard and have a nice, crisp braille label emerge from the side of this unit that is just cool! If a person who does not read braille needs to make a label, he or she can simply attach a regular QWERTY keyboard to the labeler and produce uncontracted braille labels.

A school or business needing to produce braille signage might find this little gadget to be just the ticket. Unfortunately, the braille labels are not transparent, because Dymo no longer makes clear 3/8 inch wide labeling tape. This braille label maker is easy to use, and is sure to be a valuable tool for anyone who can justify the cost.

U.S. Maps Come to Life

Anyone who has ever visited a convention booth sponsored by The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) comes away in awe of the sheer number of products APH has to offer at any given time. At this year's ATIA conference, our attention was drawn to APH's Interactive U.S. Map with Talking Tactile Pen.

Any young person—or adult, for that matter—desiring to gain an excellent understanding of the geography of the United States along with some key facts about each state will find this interactive map a pleasure to use.

In addition to being able to trace the tactile U.S. map, the user can touch the accompanying Livescribe pen to each state in order to hear relevant information about that state. Each press of the pen reveals a new layer of information including:

  • L1: state name
  • L2: state abbreviation
  • L3: state capital
  • L4: 10 largest cities
  • L5: surroundings (land and water)
  • L6: land area, water area, state water percentage
  • L7: highest point (elevation)
  • L8: major rivers
  • L9: population estimate
  • L10: statehood
  • L11: state nickname
  • L12: state symbols (bird, flower, tree, and song title)
  • L13: state motto
  • L14: famous people from the state
  • L15: points of interest
  • L16: interesting facts about the state
  • L17: spelling of state name

At $250, this isn't the least expensive map a person could have in their collection, but it could provide many hours of entertainment and learning for anyone who loves geography and history. For a student, this interactive map of the United States might just be an invaluable tool, indeed.

Glasses That Make a Difference: Reading with OrCam

Imagine sitting at an outdoor café on a warm, summer evening. You are wearing a really cool pair of sunglasses, reading from a menu in preparation for a nice meal. A group of people walk toward your table, and you quickly spot your dining partner for the evening. Now imagine that your white cane is resting on the ground beside you. Did you just experience a bit of a disconnect as you read the previous sentences? If so, OrCam hopes to change all that.

Now imagine sitting at an outdoor café on a warm, summer evening. You are wearing a pair of sunglasses with an attached camera and earpiece. You bring the evening's dinner menu up to the camera's field of view, and allow the text to be scanned and read to you. Now, imagine that a group of people begins walking toward your table. Since OrCam is able to recognize faces, and since you have previously entered your dining partner's name into OrCam's database of known faces, you hear your dining partner's name spoken in your earpiece as he or she approaches your table.

At a cost of $3,500 and requiring three hours of training, not everyone reading this article will be in a position to take advantage of the capabilities of OrCam. How well does it work? How perfect does the lighting need to be? What types of printed material does the camera scan and recognize well? These are not trivial questions, and the price of the camera with its accompanying controller box is not insignificant. But the possibilities are exciting. As technology improves and becomes less expensive, the idea that wearable technology might really help the blind is more than just a daydream.

Bar Codes Rule! I.D. Mate is the Perfect Companion

Have you ever opened your freezer to discover that you weren't really quite sure which frozen food item was in what box? There's nothing else to do but pull one of those boxes out of the freezer, grab your iPhone, launch a bar code reading app, and … try to find that pesky bar code. By the time you locate it, your frozen food isn't so frozen anymore.

Suppose that, rather than using your iPhone, you move to your computer, near which sits a bar code reader. Problem is, the reader has gotten shoved to the back of your desk along with a dozen other items. Placing that frozen dinner on your desk with all those cords and papers while you locate and connect that bar code reader presents its own set of challenges.

What if you could hang a portable bar code reader around your neck, take it to the freezer with you, quickly find the bar code on that frozen meal, and have it cooking in the microwave in no time?

If you are able to spend $1,299 on the I.D. Mate from Envision America, you can do just that. The unit's wi-fi capabilities allow you to keep its multimillion-item database updated on a regular basis. If you need to attach custom bar code labels to items, you can easily record information associated with that label for later identification. Since you've got this nifty device hanging around your neck anyway, why not listen to your favorite tunes using the onboard MP3 player?

While there are certainly less expensive ways to identify a bar code, there are plenty of reasons to want the I.D. Mate after you have had a chance to play with it. The $1,299 sticker shock is eased a bit by a no-interest payment plan of $2,00 down, and $100 a month for 11 months.

The I.D. Mate has been around for a long time, and Envision America is about to release the sixth generation of this product.

A Notetaker That Screams "Take Me Home!" The Braille Sense U2 MINI from HIMS Inc.

If you are a person who wouldn't consider a braille display with fewer than 40 cells, then you might be forgiven for walking right past the Braille Sense U2 MINI from HIMS Inc. After all, the Braille Sense notetaker and Braille Edge displays are well-respected products from a company that continues to be innovative at a time when specialized notetaking products are in fierce competition with much less expensive mainstream solutions. Let someone put the U2 MINI in your hands, though, and you might find yourself singing a different tune.

HIMS has made the rather sensible decision to reduce the size of the U2 overall, considering that this little beauty only has 18 braille cells. If you are someone who still finds reasons to use a specialized notetaker along with your mainstream mobile devices, you might find yourself instinctively wanting to place the U2 in your briefcase, where it would fit quite comfortably.

The U2 has all the features of its big brother, including support for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Dropbox. At $3,995, you may need to save your pennies before succumbing to the urge to stash the U2 in your carry-on bag for the flight home from a conference, but the idea of being able to leave your Braille Edge plugged in at your computer while hitting the road with the U2 is enough to make the technology-lover's mouth water.

HIMS continues to be relevant at a time when other assistive technology companies appear to be struggling. While they couldn't give details, they promised that many more good things were on the horizon.

If you're wondering why the VarioUltra smart braille display and braille notetaker from BAUM didn't get a mention here, be on the lookout for a full review of this product by Deborah Kendrick in an upcoming issue of AccessWorld.

Low-Vision Products

HIMS Gets Video Magnification Going with the 24-inch GoVision

HIMS is no stranger to the full-size, desktop magnifier marketplace. But the company is hoping to make a splash with its newest product, the 24-inch GoVision, a large, bright, somewhat portable video magnifier. Like a number of smaller units in this category, the GoVision is foldable. At 16 pounds, the optional roller bag seems like a good choice. GoVision's camera, which peeks out over the top of the unit, telescopes. It supports close view for reading, as well as self-view and distance options. Close-view magnification goes up to 31x.

Users can adjust the level of lighting provided by the LCD lighting system, and choose from 40 color and contrast options. There's support for OCR, and saving documents as text or PNG images. Using the USB port, you can save files to an external storage device. You can also mirror an iPhone or tablet screen on the GoVision display, allowing you to use magnification and color/contrast options to view the phone, just as you would a document under the camera.

The Mid-Size Optelec Traveler HD Video Magnifier

In the crowded video magnifier space, there are currently a number of contenders offering devices to the middle of the market: these units are neither full-size desktop units with external cameras, nor can you stash them in a pocket or purse. It's also true that products in the 12- to 15-inch screen range offer the greatest variety of form factors and unique features, with some units behaving like scaled-down desktops, while others go for greater portability. The 4.3-pound Optelec Traveler HD ($2,495) is among the latter. With a 13.3-inch thin film transistor (TFT) screen, mounted at an angle, it looks more like a giant version of a handheld magnifier than a desktop device.

Where desktop units typically feature a top-mounted camera, looking down on an X-Y table, the Traveler HD screen sits in front of and above what you're reading. Slides behind the screen allow you to move a document left and right while reading, and what Optelec calls a "roll" allows you to move the camera to move up and down the page. Zoom up to 30x, use multiple high contrast color modes, and save up to a thousand images of documents you have viewed.

Better Small Things: The iView 5 HD Video Magnifier

Large- and mid-sized video magnifiers tend to get the lion's share of attention from product reviewers, and customers, too. And these segments of the market are where the newest technologies tend to be implemented first. Most companies with products in these categories also offer handheld magnifiers, ranging from 3 to 7 inches in size. Though their features are more basic than their larger brethren, it's worth noting that advanced tech, and modern features, too, are making their way to the handheld category, at a respectable pace. Anyview Company Limited, a Hong Kong-based seller of magnification products, plans to release a five-inch, touchscreen, HD magnifier with near-, and distance-viewing options. The unit, called the iView 5 HD, will be released in time for the CSUN conference, in March.

An Update Brings the Smart Board Closer

Here's an innovation that comes not in the form of a completely new product, but an update to a tool many people with low vision know well: Version 15 of the SuperNova screen magnifier/screen reader from Dolphin Computer Access (due in March) allows users to get a close-up view of a presenter's smart board or computer screen. The clever new feature uses standard virtual network computing (VNC) to connect a SuperNova user to the computer that is controlling a classroom smart board. You'll see your own computer screen as usual, along with a window containing the smart board's contents. The new feature will be part of all three SuperNova versions, and is a free update for current users.

A Well-Connected Combo: the Prodigi Connect plus Android Tablet

Whether cost or space on your desk is a limiting factor, chances are you've been challenged by decisions about what combination of video magnification and computing technology is right for you. Though Humanware is not alone in its attempts to solve this problem, and has even offered other products to do it, the Prodigi Connect 12 magnifier and Android tablet combo makes a very compelling case for anyone craving portability, flexibility, and access to productivity and the Internet, with modern tools.

The Prodigi Connect 12 ($2,695) combines a 12.2-inch touchscreen magnifier, with an Android tablet. You can even use the Connect's camera to enhance your view of the Android interface and apps, and you can copy text from an Android app to the Prodigi for viewing with the Prodigi camera. The nine-pound unit is foldable, and operates via AC power or a long-lasting battery. The wireless HD camera provides near- and distance-viewing options, with magnification up to 40x. Humanware packs the Connect with a wide range of popular Android apps, including some of special interest to low-vision users.

The ATIA Takeaway

Experienced accessible technology users will tell you that ATIA typically begins the product year for this industry. Vendors often preview hardware and software they will ship later in the year, while others tailor messages about existing products for the education-heavy ATIA attendee base. Our time in this year's ATIA exhibit hall suggests that 2016 will be a year of tech evolution, rather than revolution in the blindness and low-vision marketplace.

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Author
Jamie Pauls
Shelly Brisbin
Article Topic
Technology Conference Coverage