We speculated in BBQ 172 about the features of Humanware s newest Video Magnifier with the idea that we would learn more when J.J. traveled to ATIA. Enter Eric Beauchamp , Product Manager For Low Vision Devices, who stepped into the Humanware suite with all the info about the new Reveal 16 and then some. Hear how the unit folds down, the battery life and the operating system in this interview. Then go back to our previous episode and see if we guessed right. To order the Reveal 16, or to learn more about Humanware's Low Vision line of products, head over to the company's website
ATIA 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
We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.
Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
From beautiful Orlando, Florida, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ATIA 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 J.J. Meddaugh
J.J. MEDDAUGH: ATIA 2019 in the Humanware suite. I’m here with Eric Beauchamp. Did I say that right?
ERIC BEAUCHAMP: Yes, you did.
JM: Close enough? Okay. Product Manager for Low-vision. We’re doing a couple Humanware podcasts here, so check out our BrailleNote Touch Plus podcast with Andrew, coming out as well.
In this one, we’re talking -- we’re going to reveal something new here; right, Eric?
EB: Yes, we are. Very proud. New family in the Humanware low-vision products.
JM: So this is, in front of me, the Reveal 16. What is the Reveal 16?
EB: The Reveal 16 is a video magnifier. Very simple video magnifier that can be operated very simply with four buttons. You have the ability to zoom in and zoom out into an image up to -- from 1X to 45X. And you have, also, the possibility of adding contrast colors, changing the image of the -- contrast colors of the image up to 16 contrast colors, actually.
JM: So we have the screen facing us, and like you said, four buttons, left to right. There’s a round button, far left.
EB: Yeah. Which is the power button which is illuminated. So when the device is off, it’s going to be illuminated in red; and when the device is on, it will be illuminated in green.
JM: Then, we have an area with three more buttons. Well, the first one’s an oval button.
EB: Yes. It’s an oval press button to lock the autofocus so it can do manual tasks under the camera without it having to refocus all the time.
JM: And then two dials, which are kind of textured?
EB: Yes. So one big dial, which is a big, orange dial, you use to zoom in, zoom out on the image. So, like I said, from 1X to 45X. So 1X to 10X, which is on optical zoom; and 10X upwards is digital zoom.
JM: Okay.
EB: And then, the dial right beside it will be the dial for the contrast colors, which can be programmed to up to 16 colors – different colors.
JM: I notice you can press these two buttons as well.
EB: Yes, you can. If you press the big, orange button, which is the Zoom button, it will zoom out to 1X. So you get a nice –
JM: That’s convenient.
EB: Yeah. So you get a nice overview of your document so you can place your document. And once you release that button, it goes back to the zoom level that you were at previously.
JM: Oh. I get you. Okay. So it’s kind of like a temporary 1X.
EB: Exactly. Just to see where you are on the page and to see where you want to go back in the page.
JM: Okay.
EB: And the other button, if you press the other dial button, it will bring you to a – well, you have to press it for approximately five seconds. That will bring you into a Settings menu. In that settings menu, there is a couple settings for you to – so let’s say you want to adjust your lines and blinds, you want to add more contrast colors to your buttons, the auto shutoff time period, things like that. So it really – just a couple of settings, not too complicated. Usually, people are going to go in, do it once –
JM: Once.
EB: -- and then come out, never go back.
JM: Exactly. So underneath, we have the base, which I’m assuming is 16 inches, based on the –
EB: Yeah. It’s actually the same size as the screen, so a bit larger than 16, because you have to take into account the –
JM: Yeah.
EB: -- the plastic rim beside the screen. But yes. It’s approximately 16 inches wide. Also in the Reveal 16, you can do distance viewing.
JM: There’s a camera on the top that you were showing me, it flips up.
EB: Yeah. Exactly. So you just flip it up.
JM: I can never get this to flip – there it goes. It just pops up in the back. It’s behind the screen.
EB: Yes.
JM: And then behind –
EB: It’s on the bridge of the system behind the screen.
JM: That’s a good way to describe it; yes.
EB: Yeah. And you flip it up. You have great image quality for distance viewing. Kind of, if you want to take a look outside; art, maybe; or maybe even television. You know, you’re watching CNN, you want to see those fine prints on CNN, you can use that for that. And what’s hard about distance viewing is that you never control the lighting. But the engineering team really came up with a good solution. We have a bright contrasted image. I’m really proud of the distance viewing on this product.
And the Reveal 16 is also foldable.
JM: Yes. I was just going to say –
EB: Yeah.
JM: -- it’s kind of – it doesn’t run on batteries; correct?
EB: Yes, it does.
JM: Oh. It does? I was going – okay.
EB: It has a battery.
JM: So it is more portable than – okay.
EB: You can have the battery as a bundle. So when you buy the product, and you can buy the battery at the same time. The operating time for the battery with all the LEDs on, full power, would be between five to six hours, which is pretty good compared to the competition.
JM: So it’s an optional battery that clicks in somehow?
EB: That is installed inside the product.
JM: Oh. It’s installed inside.
EB: Exactly.
JM: Okay.
EB: So you have to – if you want it afterwards, the battery, after you bought the device, you would have to bring it back to the dealer or Humanware to have it installed.
JM: What’s the weight with the battery inside?
EB: With the battery inside, it’s a 14-pound device.
JM: So kind of in that semi -- you know. You’re not toting it around everywhere. Well, I guess it depends how much you want to carry it.
EB: Well –
JM: But it is still possible.
EB: It is – what I say – it’s not portable, it’s transportable.
JM: Yes.
EB: Why am I saying transportable is that you can move it from room to room, but it’s not portable to -- say, for long distance. Like the Connect 12, for example, where I can fold it up, put it in a backpack, and I’m off. This, you can’t do it, really. There’s a carrying bag that is sold as an accessory that you can place the unit inside and that easily carried around. But also, when you fold the device, the bridge is kind of round, so it acts like two handles to lift the device up, and it distributes the weight very nicely. So it doesn’t feel like 14-pound device.
JM: One of the things that I think Humanware has recognized well over the past few years, that there’s a couple different groups of low-vision users. There’s seniors and others that really want something simple. And then, there’s others who are used to technology that want their magnifier to do a lot more. You had the Prodigi that, you know, runs Android, and now, you have another Reveal that’s kind of a more advanced version of this one.
EB: Yes. Exactly. So now, the Reveal 16 -- just to finish up, the Reveal 16 really was designed for seniors.
JM: Right.
EB: And the seniors – I’m talking about somebody that is 80 and up, which is not tech savvy. And talking about –
JM: I was going to say, because there are some seniors that are tech savvy.
EB: Oh. I know. That’s why we offer them the other Reveal, 16I. The Reveal 16I has –
JM: The I stands for –
EB: It can stand for whatever you want. Intelligent, whatever. It’s just to differentiate the two, actually.
JM: Sure.
EB: So the Reveal 16I, big difference is that there is an Android system on the device. So you have exactly the same functions that the Reveal 16 offers, but with that additional operating system, which is Android. The Android version is Nougat, so 7.1. Again, I’m going to, like Andrew was saying in the other podcast, again, we’re trying to follow the mainstream of Android. With all the accessibility, it’s hard to really follow and get the latest versions. So at Nougat, it’s a pretty good version for accessibility, and there’s a lot of nice tweaking that has been done in that version.
JM: So how do you control Android? You’ve added one more button, and it’s touch screen.
EB: Yes. Exactly. So the big difference is that the Reveal 16I is touch screen. It has three cameras: One for live mode, one for OCR -- so it’s really made for OCR, optimized for OCR -- and then one front-facing camera.
JM: What do you mean by that? So you have – why did you do a separate camera for OCR versus live?
EB: Now, in low-vision, you want to have the best image quality, so either in live mode or in OCR. And those are two different tasks. In OCR, we’d like to have different – if I’m doing an OCR on a piece of paper which is black on white, you want it to have the best contrast between those two colors. So that camera was really optimized to do that kind of task.
In the live mode, you have nice, bright, punchy colors, so it was optimized to get those kinds of functions.
JM: Okay.
EB: And then the front-facing camera is really nice to do some mirroring tasks. So to take – grooming or take a look at your face or things like that. So yes.
JM: Do you not have the distance camera on that one, or is this –
EB: Yes, you do. Exactly the same thing as the Reveal 16. You just flip the camera module, and you’re ready to do the distance viewing.
JM: 4K --
EB: And that distance viewing camera can be rotated from left to right 120 degrees on each side.
JM: Okay. So running Android 7, what types of apps do you anticipate people using, or what do you include with it?
EB: Well, right now, on – when you click on that fifth button that’s been added to the button interface, you switch to the Prodigi software. Prodigi software has been on our products for a couple years now. It first started on the Prodigi Duo, Prodigi Desktop. It continued on to the connect 12, and now we have it on the Reveal 16I. So you have all the application suite that the other products offer.
So you have the books application, a calculator application, you have a capture application to do the OCR, you can do multipage capturing to do multipage OCR. You have, also, a gallery application, you can edit your documents, you can import PDFs into the Prodigi. But also, if you’d like to add some more applications – let’s say, for example, you’d like to use Word – then, you can do a five-finger press and hold on that Prodigi system, and it’s going to bring you out into the Android OS. And you can go and download those applications on the Play Store if you like. So you can have access to a thousand – more than a hundred thousand applications on the Play Store.
JM: Does it pretty much run any app that would run on an Android tablet? Is that what that’s analogous to?
EB: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.
JM: So whether – if you wanted to get, you know, book reading apps or things like that or –
EB: Absolutely. You can –
JM: -- the Blind Bargains app, maybe? You can download –
EB: Yeah. That would be a good idea.
JM: Awesome. What’s the pricing looking like for the new models? When are they coming out?
EB: So now. The Reveal 16 is shipping now, this week, at ATIA. We just launched that – the family, the whole family. But the Reveal 16 is ready to ship out. So the latest – the simplest version is ready to ship out today. The price point for the Reveal 16 is $2,995, U.S. dollars.
And then, to go with the Reveal 16I, you add a thousand more. So it would be 3,995 U.S. dollars. And the Reveal 16I will be ready to ship out in March, mid-March.
JM: So these – this is a brand new family. So do you consider this replacing any of your existing products, or are they going to continue as well, or –
EB: Absolutely not. This is not a replacement. It’s a new family. We’re going to keep supporting the Connect 12, the Explore line, the Prodigi duo, and now we have the Reveal family. So all these have different market targets, and we’ll be offering these – it’s a new product in the Humanware family.
JM: Okay. If people want to get more information about the Reveal 16 or the 16I, what’s the best way to do that?
EB: Best way is to go on our website, humanware.com, or you can always call the 1800 number, which is (1800) 722-3393.
JM: Thank you so much, Eric. Really appreciate it.
EB: Thank you very much for having me.
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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.
