An interesting movement in the AT field over recent years has been the homogenization of different types of technology into one device. This has been seen with CCTV's that contain OCR technology, Read-Aloud devices that combine email capabilities, Smart Phones that can be used for numerous different tasks related to the low vision and blindness etc. This homogenization is a great trend as it means a user can carry less devices and make their lives a little easier.

Following this trend is the Blaze EZ from HIMS, a fully featured DASIY reader featuring WiFi capabilities and OCR. The Blaze EZ is around the size of an iPhone 5 and weighs just 138 grams making it very portable. The front of the device is uncluttered; At the top are two speakers at the left and right with the power button between them. A record button is located under the left speaker. Under that are found 3 buttons in a row for access to music, radio and books. Under these can be found four directional arrows with a button in the center for navigation and selection. Finally, under the arrows are 3 buttons in a row, a cancel button, an explorer button for accessing menus and the OCR button for performing OCR.

The Blaze's main competition is likely to come from Humanware's Victor Reader Stream 2nd Generation, itself a very capable OCR device. The devices have in similar built in WiFi capabilities, allowing you to download DAISY books from Bookshare, BARD, stream online radio and download podcasts. The Victor Reader features a numeric keypad which makes navigation and accessing certain features somewhat easier. The Blaze EZ on the other hand features OCR which the Victor Reader does not. In my tests with the OCR it works very well - it performs the OCR quickly, the accuracy is impressive and the voice is clear. The Blaze does not give any indication as to the paper alignment like the KNFB Reader does, so it can be harder to align. Nonetheless I can see it being a very useful tool. One other nice feature that the Blaze has which the Victor Reader does not is built in storage - 16GB is built in with around 12GB available for use. This of course can be expanded with an SD card (support for up to 64GB SD cards).

Both of these devices are great examples of homogenization in the AT field, offering multiple features to access entertainment on the go. The Blaze is interesting in offering OCR in such a compact package, and it does it surprisingly well. This comes at a cost though, with the MSRP at $695, while the Victor Reader comes in at an MSRP of $369. Whichever way you choose to go you really can't go wrong! To find out more call us at 312-997-3649.

Technology is a great asset to those who are blind or visually impaired, helping to give back independence where it may have seemed that there was no hope. The down side to this is that technology costs, and is unfortunately not covered by services such as Medicare and Medicaid. 

To help with this The Chicago Lighthouse offers used or ex-demo equipment at highly discounted prices. All the equipment is tested by our Assistive Technology team to ensure it is working correctly, and is available to be tried out at our downtown (1850 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago IL) and Glenview (222 Waukegan Road, Glenview IL) locations. 

Our used and ex-demo equipment can be found here http://chicagolighthouse.3dcartstores.com/TECH-SALE_c_124.html and here http://chicagolighthouse.3dcartstores.com/Used-CCTVs-and-Other-Adaptive-Technology_c_107.html. And of course if you have questions about anything, technology related or otherwise, then please call! You can reach us at 1-800-919-3375, or feel free to email luke.scriven@chicagolighthouse.org. 

The American Foundation for the Blind is a fantastic organization striving to bring equality for those with a visual impairment and has been doing great work since 1921. That's why when we were recently alerted to their blog we had to check it out, and we were not disappointed. Featuring fantastic articles on topics ranging from getting to grips with the new iWatch from Apple, to anecdotes and stories about Helen Keller, the AFB Blog is a highly recommended resource and we would encourage you to check it out here http://www.afb.org/blog/afb-blog/1 

And for those of you who love to keep up to date on the latest technology (hopefully that covers most of the people who read our blog!) don't forget about the AFB's AccessWorld magazine, a free online magazine published monthly and covering news and reviews on the latest and greatest technology out there, as well as articles on low vision and blindness news from around the world. Check it out here http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp

We have finally had a chance to make a video demonstration of the Vario Ultra Braille display, and this little guy is definitely a good tool to have around for the modern girl or guy. Featuring a sleek aluminum body, ergonomic design, excellent feeling Braille cells (available as either a 20 or 40 cell setup) and the ability to connect to 5 devices simultaneously, this Braille display hits all the right buttons. 

Check out our video review to find out for yourself what this Display is all about!

The Orcam has been in pre-release in the USA for a few months and we have had the chance to try it out, and we are liking what we see. For those of you who haven't seen the promotional video (see it below) the Orcam is a wearable camera which attaches to the side of a pair of glasses and can perform OCR to read aloud whatever text the wearer is looking at. In addition the Orcam offers additional features such as facial recognition whereby, once you have stored a person in its memory, it will recognize that persons face when it sees them and tell you who you are looking at. It is also possible to store products into the Orcam's database so when you look at a products packaging it will tell you what the product is.

This technology can be extremely useful for the vision impaired or blind, and from our hands on we have seen that it works very well. The speed and accuracy of the OCR is exceptional, providing good quality speech output and being able to be triggered by the user simply pointing at what they want to be read. The speech is transmitted to the user via bone conduction so the audio is not spoken out loud to whoever is in the room with you!

Facial recognition is a feature that many will find useful to avoid embarrassing social faux pas, particularly useful for the blind or those with central vision loss, but does have limitations currently such as only being able to store 20 people in the memory, and having some problems if the person, for example, is wearing glasses but was not when they were initially stored in the memory. However there is a lot of potential for this idea and further updates will hopefully improve on some of these limitations.

The Orcam offers a new vision of how blindness and low vision technology can be integrated into your life through unobtrusive, wearable technology that assists with the things people most struggle with. Although not perfect, the Orcam offers a glimpse of the future of assistive technology and promises a new era where technology will seamlessly blend into a person's life and allow them full access to the world, whatever their disability.