Welcome to another fantastic Tech Connect presented by the Vision Forward Association!
This Tech Connect is our Fast Facts on Optaro by Eschenbach, that means we skip past the basics and assume you already have experience with assistive technology terms, techniques and tools! On Fast Facts we trim out the fluff and musings so you can focus on all the exciting things that this magnifier can do!
However, if you want more context, including controls, an in-depth explanation of each mode, development history, and overall industry impact, then maybe you should check out our Deep Dive on the Optaro! You can find that link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv-Byo_FGXM
On today's Tech Connect, we demonstrate the various modes of the Optaro, a low vision magnifier designed for iPhone! Our Assistive Technology Experts will explain this device's controls and then test just how well it preforms in a variety of situations! This includes: close-up text and glossy print, color and contrast adjustments, gestures, and its ability to preform OCR style functions. Our Assistive Technology Experts are excited to share their findings with everyone.
0:00 Start
1:00 Introducing the Optaro, compatible with iPhone 12 and newer!
3:40 Demo and explanation of button controls, Settings, color contrast options, Camera,
5:39 Using the "Tell Me Button," ( somewhat limited by similar capability to OCR)
6:45 Zooming in and out, pinch and reverse pinch, Flip between magnification levels
7:45 Reading Line controls, Expanded upon later in the video around 20:55
8:20 First Thoughts? How good does it look even at MAX magnification?
9:04 Settings Menu, Simple Operating Mode, False Colors Library, Reset to Factory Settings,
11:45 Insert of Reading Line settings and options, Windowing and Alt Colors for Focus
14:00 Wrap-Up Review, comparisons with Ruby Magnifier, hopeful improvements?
17:45 Upcoming Assistive Technology videos, livestreams, LMS for free ACVREP Credits!
If you have any additional questions about the Optaro, or any other magnifiers like the Ruby XL, please add those down in the comment section and we will endeavor to help! Join us next time on Tech Connect, and be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below and ask plenty of questions!
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Join us, find the schedule by visiting out website: https://vision-forward.org/techconnect Contact Vision Forward Association: Call us: (414-615-0103) Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store
This Tech Connect is our Fast Facts on Optaro by Eschenbach, that means we skip past the basics and assume you already have experience with assistive technology terms, techniques and tools! On Fast Facts we trim out the fluff and musings so you can focus on all the exciting things that this magnifier can do!
However, if you want more context, including controls, an in-depth explanation of each mode, development history, and overall industry impact, then maybe you should check out our Deep Dive on the Optaro! You can find that link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv-Byo_FGXM
On today's Tech Connect, we demonstrate the various modes of the Optaro, a low vision magnifier designed for iPhone! Our Assistive Technology Experts will explain this device's controls and then test just how well it preforms in a variety of situations! This includes: close-up text and glossy print, color and contrast adjustments, gestures, and its ability to preform OCR style functions. Our Assistive Technology Experts are excited to share their findings with everyone.
0:00 Start
1:00 Introducing the Optaro, compatible with iPhone 12 and newer!
3:40 Demo and explanation of button controls, Settings, color contrast options, Camera,
5:39 Using the "Tell Me Button," ( somewhat limited by similar capability to OCR)
6:45 Zooming in and out, pinch and reverse pinch, Flip between magnification levels
7:45 Reading Line controls, Expanded upon later in the video around 20:55
8:20 First Thoughts? How good does it look even at MAX magnification?
9:04 Settings Menu, Simple Operating Mode, False Colors Library, Reset to Factory Settings,
11:45 Insert of Reading Line settings and options, Windowing and Alt Colors for Focus
14:00 Wrap-Up Review, comparisons with Ruby Magnifier, hopeful improvements?
17:45 Upcoming Assistive Technology videos, livestreams, LMS for free ACVREP Credits!
If you have any additional questions about the Optaro, or any other magnifiers like the Ruby XL, please add those down in the comment section and we will endeavor to help! Join us next time on Tech Connect, and be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below and ask plenty of questions!
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Join us, find the schedule by visiting out website: https://vision-forward.org/techconnect Contact Vision Forward Association: Call us: (414-615-0103) Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store
Category
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TechTranscript
00:00TechConnect is known for one thing, Luke, and that's breaking news, and we have a brand
00:05new product that we're covering today.
00:15So Corey, what is the new product?
00:18It's called the Optaro.
00:20This thing is less than two weeks old at the time of recording, and it is a brand new product
00:26from Eschenbach.
00:27It is an electronic magnifier, but not what you would expect.
00:32This again is using an iPhone.
00:34If you saw our last video on the Maggi IVR, that was also using an iPhone, but that was
00:40a wearable.
00:41Yes.
00:42This is more of a traditional portable video magnifier.
00:45Stick with us.
00:46We're going to take a look at this brand new device.
00:49Make sure that you like and subscribe, comment, all those great things.
00:53Let's get into it.
00:54All right.
00:56All right, so Optaro has a bunch of pieces that we need to use in order to have it all
01:01come together.
01:02Number one, we need an iPhone.
01:06It works with any iPhone.
01:07No.
01:08No.
01:09No.
01:10What iPhone does it work with?
01:11iPhone 12 and above.
01:12And who told...
01:13Are you just making this up?
01:14No.
01:15Who told us?
01:16Big Matt from Eschenbach.
01:17Yeah.
01:18Big Matt.
01:19Yes.
01:20Thank you, Big Matt.
01:21Why are we calling him Big Matt?
01:22Because he has a big personality.
01:23Oh, okay.
01:24He's a nice guy.
01:25So we're going to start with the iPhone 12 and up, not the SE model.
01:29So first of all, you're going to have your iPhones.
01:32Number two, you need the actual Optaro device itself.
01:36This is going to connect to the back of your iPhone.
01:39It has a built-in camera and battery, and it is going to provide the image that you
01:44need to then show up on your iPhone screen.
01:47Number two...
01:48No.
01:49Number three...
01:50I forgot to count that.
01:51You need some kind of case.
01:52So there are two options that you can do with the Optaro.
01:55Number one, you can get a specific case for your iPhone.
01:59So if you've got a 12 Pro, you can get a case that's going to fit the 12 Pro.
02:03If you don't know what phone you have or maybe you're thinking you're going to get yourself
02:07a new phone in the near future, then you can get the universal case.
02:12This will allow you to use any iPhone model 12 or up with the same case, and you can just
02:18adjust as needed.
02:20The big difference though is that the universal case is not as secure as the case specific
02:26for your iPhone model.
02:29Now Matt was telling us that the universal case was good and worked fine, but you just
02:35couldn't read upside down.
02:37Yeah, you couldn't turn it upside down because then the phone would fall out.
02:39Which my question is, how often is Matt reading or doing things upside down?
02:45Well, since he knew that that would happen, I'm guessing quite a lot.
02:48I will say the universal case utilizes the magnet on the back of the iPhone in order
02:51to secure the iPhone in there.
02:54Apparently it's not strong enough to take the weight when held upside down.
02:57It's actually quite a clever design.
02:58It's very clever.
02:59It is, but learn from Matt's mistakes.
03:01Don't tip your phone upside down if you're using the universal case.
03:06The last piece that we need is some kind of way to charge it.
03:10Eschenbach does sell separately a charging block that has two USB ports.
03:17The reason you want two ports is that then you're able to charge your Optaro via USB-C
03:24and your iPhone at the same time, just using that single block.
03:28If you don't want to purchase a double block from Eschenbach and you prefer to use your
03:33own, you can do so.
03:35Not like you have to use Eschenbach specifically.
03:38Okay, so now that we have put the Optaro together, it's time to put it through its paces and
03:43in order to do so, we have brought in a special magazine from Corey's collection here.
03:47This is from Corey's People collection.
03:49That's his favorite magazine.
03:50And this is from the October 17th, 2022 issue.
03:53Corey, why is it that this is one of your personal favorite issues?
03:55Well, this actually ranks number six of my favorites.
03:58I mean, I wasn't going to bring you in the top five.
04:00No, obviously.
04:01That would be crazy.
04:02But this really highlights the relationship between Brad Pitt and Emily Ratajkowski.
04:06Yes.
04:07So here's Emily in black and white.
04:10Let's go ahead and hit the color mode button.
04:12I'm going to hit it a few times.
04:14So here she is in her regular color and we'll go look at Brad as well because, you know,
04:17it's only fair.
04:18So there's Brad.
04:19Now we're going to go ahead and change some of these colors.
04:21So I'll hit the color button and we have high contrast black on white, Corey.
04:25And yes, it is nice and high contrast, nice dark blacks and white whites.
04:29I'll hit it again.
04:30And now we have the reverse whites on blacks.
04:32Colors that are very common.
04:33These are probably the default colors, I'm guessing, Corey, because they are the most
04:36common ones.
04:37Quality is probably pretty good.
04:38It is a 1080p camera.
04:40It is, yeah.
04:42And you're using the high resolution phone screen as well.
04:44Yeah, I was just going to say on the iPhone, especially the Pro, that combination has got
04:50to give you pretty good results.
04:51Yeah, it is a very nice image.
04:52I will say, though, maybe the screen of the iPhone is a little glary.
04:55And so that would be one thing to bear in mind.
04:57You know, these touch screens, they tend to be a little bit glary.
05:00And here, underneath the studio lights, we're definitely getting some glare on the screen.
05:04Whereas with a lot of other electronic magnifiers, that wouldn't be so much of an issue.
05:08So something to bear in mind.
05:09The next button down on the left side is our camera button, and we could go ahead and
05:13take a picture now.
05:14So the Optaro app has to have access to the Photos app if we want to save photos.
05:17So I'm going to go ahead and allow access here, and that will allow me to save my pictures.
05:22And so I've just got a frozen image on the screen.
05:24Now we can zoom in on that image and do whatever we want with it.
05:27We could snap a pic with our Optaro app and then go ahead and share those.
05:32And you can share in the usual ways via things like AirDrop or text messages or email, all
05:37of those different ways that we normally would.
05:39Next down on the left side, we have a green button with a speech bubble in it.
05:43Colby, any ideas what that might be for?
05:44I believe he called that the Tell Me button.
05:46Oh, yeah.
05:47I don't want to use the word OCR, although that is basically what it's doing.
05:50But it's only going to speak out loud or perform OCR on whatever text is currently within the
05:57kind of the box.
05:58It's not even that.
05:59It's actually just within the center.
06:00Just whatever's on there.
06:01Yeah.
06:02Not even on...
06:03Is it on the screen itself or just the center of the screen?
06:05Yeah, just the center, it seems to be.
06:06Well, let's give it a try.
06:07So, at the moment, in the center, I have In Hollywood Star.
06:09Now, actually, Colby, I should mention, if we tap the screen in the middle, the controls
06:13will disappear and then we'll get the full screen.
06:15Okay.
06:16So, that's what I've done at the moment here, and it says In Hollywood Star 58, okay, in
06:20the middle.
06:21Let's see if that's what's red when I hit the green button.
06:23Hollywood Star 58.
06:25Yeah.
06:26It didn't say the In, but it said Hollywood Star 58.
06:28So, it's literally just the words in the center of the screen.
06:31Very limited area.
06:32This is probably really the first stage of what OCR could look like.
06:36Yes.
06:37But that's kind of cool to be able to just to kind of tap and get a quick verbalization.
06:42It's very fast as well.
06:43Yeah.
06:44And we found it to be very accurate, too.
06:45Yes.
06:46Okay.
06:47So, let's see what else we've got.
06:48On the right side, we have magnification control.
06:50We have a plus.
06:51We also have a minus button as well, and the minus button will allow us to zoom out again.
06:56Now, Colby, we can, if we tap the screen, the controls will disappear and we can use
07:00pinch and reverse pinch instead if we want, and so that's pretty convenient if you're
07:03in the full screen view, so the controls aren't up and you want to zoom in and out.
07:07It's nice to be able to use pinch and reverse pinch.
07:09Which makes sense because most of the time, once you sort of have your color contrast
07:12and things set, you probably aren't going to need those buttons.
07:15Exactly.
07:16So, being able to still pinch makes.
07:17And I think at this point, I believe that's the only gesture available.
07:21Yes.
07:22That's the only one that we were told about, and whether there are others in the pipeline,
07:25we're not entirely sure.
07:26Let's bring the controls up again.
07:29There is a control here, Colby, and you're going to have to help me out because I know
07:31that I asked Matt about this, and it was some kind of picture-in-picture thing.
07:34Let's say that you're zoomed in to 5x and the minimum is 2x, then if you hit the button,
07:38it will zoom you back to the 2x, hit it again, it will zoom you back up to the 5x.
07:42Yeah, pretty nice feature to have that.
07:45And then finally, at the bottom, we have a red line in a brownish box.
07:48Colby, what would that one do, do you think?
07:51That might be the reading lines and shades, maybe, or blinders, whatever you want to call
07:55them.
07:56Yeah, so if we hit that at the moment, we have our horizontal red line, and you can
07:59actually change the thickness of that line, the position of that line, and whether it's
08:03horizontal or vertical, and also between lines and windowing in the settings, which we'll
08:07get into the next section.
08:08And change the color, red, black, are great, too, and so we will show that.
08:12It's got everything you would expect from a handheld electronic magnifier, just kind
08:16of utilizing the iPhone to do those things instead.
08:20Its max magnification is 15x.
08:23The image looks good, but there is a little bit of artifacts going on.
08:28I will mention that, so yeah, it's nothing that would prevent you from being able to
08:33read like this, not at all, but you can see a little bit of artifacting kind of going
08:37on.
08:38Again, maybe a little bit of artifacting and ghosting.
08:40We were told this was 60 frames per second refresh rate, and it does seem pretty smooth
08:43as we're moving along.
08:44I would say this is, yeah, it's got decent optics, and it's pretty easy to use, provided,
08:49Colby, you are able to see those buttons on the screen, although they are accessible with
08:53voiceover.
08:54However, if you are using voiceover, you're probably not going to be using this particular
08:59Even if you can use magnification, I think the screen on this might be a little bit too
09:02small.
09:03Yeah.
09:04So, the last thing we need to do is take a look at the settings and what additional options
09:08they offer us, Corey.
09:09Now, when we hit the settings button, the phone at the moment is in landscape, as you
09:14would imagine, because that's the best way to use it as an electronic magnifier, but
09:17once we hit the settings button, it is going to go into portrait.
09:19Now, we can, the Optaro has its own stand to tilt the phone toward you.
09:24At this point, I'm going to go ahead and push that stand down and rotate the phone, so I
09:29can see the screen a little bit better.
09:30So, let's take a look at, I don't want to look at all of these, Corey, but we'll take
09:33a look at some of the main features in the settings, and the first one we have is operating
09:37mode.
09:38I did mention before, we had been in the advanced operating mode.
09:42If we switch that into the simple, then that will actually reduce the buttons to only four
09:47in total, so two on either side, and those buttons are the settings menu button, the
09:52color button, plus, and the minus buttons.
09:54Okay.
09:55So, if you have somebody who is less confident with their technology, then that might be
09:58the mode that they should be using.
10:00We also can set the maximum zoom level, so if you don't want to be able to zoom up to
10:0415 times, maybe you don't want somebody, again, accidentally zooming up too far and getting
10:09confused, then you can actually limit the maximum zoom level, so a pretty nice feature
10:13there.
10:14We also have some options for the lighting, so this device does have its own lighting
10:18on the back, as you would expect, and you can adjust how bright that is.
10:22There are three intensity levels.
10:23We have lighting off, then we have a medium lighting, and then we have a bright lighting.
10:29We were actually on medium, Corey, because that's the default, and we hadn't changed
10:33it, but actually that worked very well for the magazine here, and so if you are looking
10:37at something glossy, then maybe something in the medium range might be a little better
10:41for that.
10:42The false colors option, and that will allow us to choose which false colors are available
10:46when we press the false color button.
10:48Again, Corey, how many in total are there?
10:50Fourteen.
10:51Very nice.
10:52We also have black, white, and white, black at the moment.
10:54Those are the default ones, but some other ones we could choose from.
10:56Black, yellow, yellow, black, blue, yellow, yellow, blue, black, purple, purple, black,
11:00red, white, white, red, black, green, green, black, black, orange, orange, black.
11:03That was pretty good, actually.
11:04Thank you, yeah.
11:05Did you want to repeat, sir?
11:06Go.
11:07So there's plenty to choose from, and of course, if you enable any of those, they're going
11:12to be available when you switch through the colors using the color button.
11:16We also have an update firmware, so this is pretty cool.
11:19This being an iPhone, it obviously can connect to the internet, and so we can download firmware
11:25updates, and we can also reset to factory settings, so if you have messed around with
11:28things and now it's just not what it used to be, and you're not sure why, you can reset
11:32to factory settings and get yourself out of trouble.
11:34Yeah, it's got everything that you need in there to customize it for you, but I think
11:38the default settings are pretty well chosen, Corey.
11:41So you can pretty much just take it out of the box, and you don't have to worry about
11:43any of this stuff, necessarily.
11:47Just a quick insert because I forgot to mention one of the settings which could be important,
11:51and that is the option to change the reading line and the windowing settings.
11:56Maybe they couldn't fit reading line slash windowing, and so they just went reading support.
12:00Anyway, doesn't matter, does it?
12:02Let's go into the settings and find out what they do.
12:04So I'm in the reading support settings, and now actually I have to turn the phone into
12:10the landscape view again, and in the reading support settings, we have five different buttons.
12:15No, six different buttons.
12:16The first ones are arrows which allow us to adjust the positioning of the line.
12:21So if it's in the horizontal position, then we can move it up and down the screen.
12:26If it's vertical, we can move it left and right, and the same with the window as well.
12:29The next button, the third one, will go ahead and put us into the windowing mode, and so
12:35I can, again, use those arrows to adjust the thickness of those windows.
12:41And in the windowing mode, we actually have different buttons now.
12:44So as well as the arrows, we have a button that will switch us back to the line mode,
12:49and there's also a button that will rotate the windows so they are vertical.
12:53Corey, for those who don't know about lines and windowing, what's the point?
12:56If you only want to focus in specifically on the line you're reading or a column you're
13:01reading, the windowing and line will allow you to block out some of that other information
13:07on the screen.
13:08Yeah, exactly.
13:09So it just helps keep you focused, which people can kind of lose track of the sentence as
13:12they're reading when things are magnified, and so this is a way to keep on track.
13:16You've either got the windowing, which cuts off part of the screen, and then you've got
13:19the line, which is literally just a line across the screen.
13:22If you're reading standard text, you might want that to be horizontal, but if you're
13:25reading columns, you might want it to be vertical, and so that's the idea here.
13:29Oops, let me go back into the support settings here.
13:32We also have the option to change the thickness of the reading line, and so there are three
13:38thicknesses going from thin to medium to thick.
13:41And then finally, we have the color palette.
13:43Corey had mentioned this before.
13:44We can change the color of our reading line in between red, black, and gray.
13:49So there you go.
13:50If you are a reading line fan, then there's plenty of reading line options here, more
13:54than most devices, I would say.
13:56Now it is actually time to wrap up.
13:58Let's do it.
13:59All right, we have covered the device pretty in depth.
14:04We know how to use it.
14:05We know how it works.
14:07What do we think about it?
14:09I think it's a cool idea that it's utilizing a device you might already have in your pocket,
14:14your iPhone.
14:15The iPhone obviously has a good screen, which is cool, but I do think there are some limitations
14:22to it.
14:23One of the limitations that we haven't yet talked about, though, is price.
14:25Okay, so if you get it with the iPhone case for your specific phone, then you're looking
14:30at $714.95.
14:32If you get it with the universal stand, which is what we have been using here, $732.50,
14:39and then you can buy additional cases.
14:40So if you change phones, you can get a different case for $20.
14:44You can get just the universal stand on its own for $37.50, and the charging head is $19.95.
14:52So basically, for most people, probably $715, but then you've got to buy the charging head
14:57or A, if you don't have a charging head already.
15:00So you obviously have to have the phone already, so you may or may not want to include that
15:04price altogether.
15:06But I do think, if we compare that, let's talk about a Ruby.
15:11That's probably size-wise, screen size-wise similar.
15:15Well, here's one of the weird things, Corey.
15:17The iPhone screen is very long and fairly thin.
15:22That is true.
15:23So it's a very different shape to the Ruby, even if the screen size is ultimately the
15:27same.
15:28That doesn't really tell you.
15:29The iPhone is like, what, six inches by widescreen, where the Ruby might be six, but it's more
15:37square.
15:38It's taller, yeah.
15:39But I would say, from a portable standpoint, it's one of your closer comparisons.
15:42Oh, yeah.
15:43Price-wise, definitely.
15:44And it's what?
15:45$835, $8 something?
15:46Well, I think the Ruby XL HD might be $895.
15:50I think the point is, you're in the same ballpark as actually buying a regular electronic magnifier.
15:56It should have been way cheaper, and that could have been really appealing, because
15:59you're using your own phone in order to make it operate.
16:02But actually, it hasn't come in that much cheaper than a regular handheld electronic
16:06magnifier.
16:07So are there any other benefits?
16:08So I think that, in the long run, the Aptaro probably has more opportunity to add new features
16:14and improve it more than you would see on a traditional portable.
16:19The other thing they talked about, too, is that they are potentially working on an Aptaro
16:25that will be specific to iPads, really kind of going after the school population, although,
16:32to be honest, I think that's a key market.
16:35But I think working age and seniors would benefit, too, because now you're talking about
16:41an iPad mini that's like a 7.9-inch screen, or even all the way up to an iPad Pro that
16:48you talked about.
16:49You're almost 13 inches at that point.
16:51I worry that the regular iPhone screen is a little small for this type of application,
16:55but the iPad could definitely be really cool.
16:58I think the Aptaro does have some benefits, like it does simple OCR, shall we say.
17:04It's not reading a whole document, but it does kind of allow you to read out a word
17:08or a few words very quickly.
17:10So again, you can get confirmation of things that you're reading.
17:12It also has the ability to do things like take pictures and just share them.
17:16But ultimately, I would like to see this device come in cheaper, because I think it would
17:19make a lot more sense than at the price point it is.
17:22It's kind of battling against the thought of just getting a regular handheld electronic
17:27magnifier instead.
17:28I guess ultimately, Corey, it's up to the individual.
17:30It is, and I applaud Eschenbach for trying something new.
17:33And maybe Gen 1 isn't the home run they want it to be, and maybe it will be.
17:37Who knows until it really hits the market.
17:39But I love that they tried something new.
17:41Throw it down in the comments.
17:43Let us know what you think of this device.
17:45How do you think it might compare to your traditional portable video magnifier?
17:49Make sure you subscribe to the channel.
17:51We're always releasing breaking assistive technology products.
17:56We literally did, though.
17:57The Maggi.
17:58Yes.
17:59And now the Opta.
18:00Back to back.
18:01I know.
18:02Wow.
18:03So if you want to find out more about things that we do, well, we have a few things going
18:05on.
18:06We have a learning management system.
18:07You can go there to check out webinars, and those are kind of produced webinars where
18:11you can earn on-demand ACVREP credits, and they cover various topics.
18:15We're about to do one on artificial intelligence, so that should be fun.
18:18And in order to get to that, Corey, you can go to head over to techconnect.vision-forward.org.
18:25Techconnect.vision-forward.org.
18:27Set up a free account.
18:29We have a live show as well.
18:30That will be every other Thursday, 11 a.m. Central.
18:33You can find that on the homepage of our YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash vision forward
18:37tech connect.
18:38Corey, my stomach is rumbling.
18:40I think it's time to get out of here and eat some lunch.
18:42What do you say?
18:43I could not disagree with you.
18:46Okay.
18:47That sounds like a double negative.
18:48So, okay.
18:49He agrees with me.
18:50Time to get out of here.
18:51See you later.