Comes with a detachable reading stand.įlexible, portable video magnifier for both near and distance viewing at school, work and home. Has three user-friendly tactile buttons: on/off and mode magnification and freeze frame. Pocket-sized, portable video magnifier with a 3.5" wide-screen LCD monitor with a magnification of up to 17x. May be used to read price tags, restaurant menus, ingredients on a package and directions. Handheld portable magnifier with a 7" high resolution LCD with large field of view adjustable magnification of 1.4x to 25x. The camera is also detachable, allowing one to use it at various workstations. Comes with 20", 22", 24", or 27" high-resolution LCD monitors that provide 1.6x to 99.5x adjustable magnification (varies with LCD size). Video magnifier that features a 3-in-1 camera for seeing one's self up close, reading, and distance viewing.
Lower cost video magnifiers that plug into a TV are in the $400 to $1,000 price range. Typically, video magnifiers that use a camera mounted on a fixed stand and x-y table are in the $1,800 to $4,000 price range. Being able to capture and save an image is also a new function that has recently become available. They offer portability and new ways of viewing the display. A radical departure in design from conventional video magnifiers is the use of head-mounted displays (HMD). Color video magnifiers are useful for reading materials in which color is crucial, such as maps and color photographs. Some systems work jointly with a computer, offering the option of sharing the computer monitor. Many video magnifiers also provide other special on-screen features and controls including underlining or overlining of text. Controls for contrast and brightness are also standard. Some manufacturers of video magnifiers that use handheld cameras offer a writing stand as an accessory.Īll video magnifiers offer the option of viewing black letters on a white background or white letters on a black background. Handheld cameras are often on rollers, which make them easier to move across a flat working surface. They can magnify almost anything within reach, including labels on packages of food and medicine.
In contrast to stand-mounted cameras, handheld cameras are designed for bringing the camera to the material to be viewed. Stand-mounted cameras are particularly effective for handwriting because a hand can fit under the camera. To make the process of viewing easier, a table that is movable from the top of the page to the bottom and side to side (referred to as an x-y table) is used with most stand-mounted cameras.
Most cameras also need their own light source.Ĭameras that are mounted on a fixed stand require the reading material to be placed under the camera and moved across and down the page. Lower cost video magnifiers often use cameras that have a fixed focus and cannot vary magnification or camera-to-target distance.
In most of these systems, magnification level and focus are set after choosing a comfortable and functional working distance between the camera and the material to be viewed.
Cameras with zoom lenses provide variable magnification. A video magnifier, or closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, uses a stand-mounted or handheld video camera to project a magnified image onto a video monitor, a television (TV) screen, or a computer monitor.