Your New Reading Friend? The Amigo Portable Magnifier!

Vision Forward's Tech Connect

Welcome back Tech Connectors one and all! We are happy to present our review of the Amigo, an 8" portable magnifier produced by Enhanced Vision!  We will of course be covering its basic features like magnification, image capture and panning, but also more advanced settings like Color Blindness adjustments, Edge Enhancement and much more! Your favorite Assistive Technology Specialists, Cory and Luke, are excited to demonstrate these and other features so they can share their overall opinions on this device.  So if you've been searching for a new portable video magnifier ideal for Low Vision users, then tune in today and discover whether this Amigo might just be your new best friend!  0:00 Start 0:45 Physical Description and USB Charging Port, Headphone Jack,  2:00 Basic features: Magnification, Color Modes, Zoom, Camera,  2:45 Edge Enhancement 3:25 Taking a photo in the Distance Mode, zooming, panning and colors for clarity, 4:35 Live Magnification Mode also allows careful panning if you are zoomed in 5:55 Use cases and how the device is best used = Quick Reading and Writing. 8:25 Amigo Menus: Brightness and Light Controls, Edge Enhancement, Lines and Masks, Blue light filter, Color blindness fine tuning, Image Gallery, Device Settings 10:10 Assessing the Amigo, Pros and Cons, Carrying Case, Controls and Button Quality, Lag, Ghosting, No Touchscreen?  Just can't get enough Tech Connect? You should try us Live! Join us when we go live on our YouTube channel every other Thursday @11am Central Standard Time. Our next Livestream is on October 8th, sign up to receive email reminders about upcoming topics.   Looking for the full playlist? Catch Up with our previous Livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_k3I-_LcTPozan9upCqY8Yc  Transcribe Voice Recordings + Meetings using AI with Plaud! | Tech Connect Live! https://www.youtube.com/live/GaGDOgo1Ux4?si=DCYZlemGBgkVM_IA  Tony Gebhard's NVDA Coach trains Screen Reader Use! | Tech Connect Live! https://www.youtube.com/live/o4ScfcrtFY8?si=pY1CQsWWkRdMYCla  Tovala Smart Oven with CEO David Rabie! | Tech Connect Live! https://www.youtube.com/live/XYks8uoz4WU  "There's No Vision Like Low Vision" discussion with author Tom Perski! https://youtube.com/live/BWTS8MkOtvg  If you just can't get enough Tech Connect Goodness then check out our playlists of produced videos with all that movie magic!  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZ61dAGaL_m3JZU3LzoixdkV3oGzP9sk   And if you'd prefer to listen to our live show without any visuals, best place to do that is Pinecast https://techconnectlive.pinecast.co/   #maculardegeneration  #lowvision #visuallyimpaired #glaucoma #legallyblind #blind #assistivetechnologyforvisuallyimpaired #assistivetechnology #assistivetech #magnifier #cctv #PortableMagnifier #EnhancedVision #lowvision   Call us: 414-615-0103 Email us: techconnect@vision-forward.org Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store

Transcript

00:00hey buddy bonjour mon ami, guten tag mon fron, jombo ravi, hola amigo

00:18all right welcome back to another tech connect today we are taking a look at a new portable

00:24video magnifier well maybe not new more like a refresh is probably the right term for it

00:30it's the enhanced vision amigo let's get right into it and let's take a look at the physical

00:36description okay so the amigo is a new 8 inch electronic magnifier from enhanced vision and

00:46i've got it here in front of me and we can see the nice large 8 inch screen we do

00:51have

00:51usb charging port and that's on the left side and there is also a headphone port on the left

00:57side as well now what that's actually used for is difficult to say because the amigo really

01:01doesn't do much in terms of audio so a little bit of a strange inclusion on the back of course

01:06we have the camera and there's actually two sets of cameras we have central camera and

01:11that's going to manage the close-up magnification but we do also have a dedicated distance camera

01:17which is kind of nice if you want to use this to zoom into the distance of course we have

01:22the stand

01:22on the back that folds in and out there are some there is a speaker on the back as well

01:26and then we

01:27do in the box get a case which is quite a nice little carrier bag with a shoulder strap and

01:33we also of

01:34course get the charger not only with the u.s charging head but also a bag of other heads for

01:40other countries as well so you can take your amigo on the go and is that a proprietary charger

01:45or just a standard usb-c charger well you ask that cory usb-c all the way so if you

01:50already

01:50have a usb-c charger and who doesn't these days you could use your own with that being said let's

01:55jump in and take a look at the amigo in action all right so we've got our physical layout now

02:04i

02:04want to know what are some of the basic features that the amigo offers well cory as you might imagine

02:10we have magnification and colors those are going to be your basic features to magnify we have two

02:14buttons on the side and we can zoom up to 30 times magnification so nice and large over on the

02:20left

02:20side we do have two buttons as well one of those is going to be for switching between your different

02:25color modes and the other one is going to be to take a picture which we will take a look

02:30at later

02:31now one of the interesting things is in the different high contrast color modes we also have

02:36an option called um edge enhancement and that is a pretty unique feature to this device so let's take

02:43a look at edge enhancement at the moment i do not have it on and we are in the white

02:47and black mode

02:48but let's take a look at when it is turned on and so now i've gone ahead and turned on

02:52the edge

02:53effect one of the edge effects here for the white on black mode and it's basically giving us a white

02:57outline around the words here so uh these edge effects are pretty unique we've seen them before

03:02cory with wearables but i've never seen them in a handheld electronic magnifier and there's a few

03:07to choose from so as you might imagine some just basic features here like you would expect from a

03:13electronic magnifier and are pretty simple to use with that being said though cory let's take a deeper

03:18look at how we can use the picture button to take and save pictures

03:26there are times where you may want to take a picture especially of something in the distance and so

03:31i'm hoping luke that you could show me how to do that good news cory that's exactly what i'm about

03:35to do

03:35and as i already said we do have a picture button on the left side of the amigo uh if

03:40i want to put the

03:41amigo into distance mode and do remember it has that separate distance camera then i can fold the stand

03:46back and that's going to put us into distance mode and i just happen to have some text in front

03:50of me

03:51here and so we're going to take a picture of this text and i'm going to hold the camera button

03:55for just a

03:55second in order to do that once it's taken the picture then i don't need to keep the device

04:01pointed at the text because i've got a picture of it now and i can of course zoom in on

04:05that using

04:05the magnification buttons we can of course change the colors by using the color button

04:10hopefully anyway there we go so we've got white on black and black on white and so on and so

04:14forth

04:14but another cool thing that we can do cory is pan around the image and so obviously when we zoom

04:19in

04:20on an image then we don't see the entire thing on the screen anymore but by pressing down the plus

04:24and

04:24minus buttons together that will bring up some controls for panning around the image and we can pan up and

04:29down

04:29and left and right so even when we zoomed in we will be able to see the entire thing which

04:34is kind

04:34of cool not only cory though is that panning available when we are taking a picture but it's

04:41also available when we are in the live magnification mode as well believe it or not so i would not

04:47believe it well i'm going to prove it to you right now so uh here we are we're in the

04:51live magnification

04:51mode and uh you know um you can see as i move the magnifier around the image is moving as

04:57you would expect

04:57but i don't necessarily have to move the magnifier around because if i press down the plus and minus

05:03buttons exactly as i did before that's going to bring up the controls for panning and i can go

05:08ahead and then pan up and down and left and right around the image now this only works if you're

05:14zoomed

05:15in so if you were zoomed out all the way then you wouldn't be able to pan but as you

05:19zoom in now you

05:20have the ability to pan around so you can see more of the image even when you're zoomed in pretty

05:25nice

05:25stuff cory seeing is believing it certainly is that is for sure uh one other thing we can do

05:31one other thing that we can do with our images is transfer them to pc and of course that would

05:37just

05:37be over usb and your computer will see at the amigo just as an external storage device and you'll be

05:42able

05:42to transfer any pictures that you've taken over to the computer so cory that was pictures wonderful

05:49let's move on to our next section how do you use the dang thing

05:56all right so now that we know how it works what the physical layout is i want to know why

06:01would i get

06:02this what what how can i use it that's a great question so the amigo is designed for reading and

06:07can be used for writing but uh mostly for reading and the way that we do that well if we've

06:13got some

06:13reading materials we can place our amigo onto the reading materials and then we can set our magnification

06:19level using the plus and minus buttons we can change to the color mode that we like best using

06:24our color button and once we've found all of the settings that we like then we're going to start

06:29moving the amigo over the text in order to read it and we do have to kind of move it

06:35left and right a

06:36little bit that's the way that it goes with these handheld electronic magnifiers but you soon get to

06:40grips with that and it's going to help you read all sorts of things with the 8 inch screen it's

06:45a pretty

06:45decent size screen so we can fit a decent amount of text on there obviously depending on your

06:49magnification level and we have the high contrast modes but of course we also have the regular color

06:54mode so if you're trying to look at pictures then you can look at those in all their colorful glory

06:59maybe you want to see pictures of the grandkids maybe you want to see pictures of the pets or in

07:02this case a picture of a man with a hat looking very dangerous by a grill wow he has a

07:08very colorful

07:08shirt on as well so whatever you want to look at the amigo can help you look at that like

07:14i said we can

07:15also write underneath here so if i just get a blank piece of paper and let me just change it

07:20into the

07:20regular color mode again here so um in order to write it is a little bit awkward with these handhelds

07:26but it is possible and the idea would be we would rotate the device so that we can get our

07:32hand behind

07:32it and obviously we're going to set our magnification level again and then we're just going to start to

07:37write uh so i'll see if i can write a word here by the sound of the pen cory any

07:44idea what i wrote

07:44yes you wrote um cory is amazing and i enjoy working with him on a daily basis you nailed it

07:53thanks amazing this guy is so talented it's one of my uh secret

07:59so anyway as you see we can write underneath it takes a bit of practice you know you're probably not

08:03going to write a book but if you want to fill out a form maybe or just a small amount

08:07of writing

08:07then the amigo can help so those are your main use cases reading writing and the portability it means

08:13you can take it out with you so wherever you are you will have the ability to read and write

08:17with that

08:18being said let's jump in and take a look at what the menus offer menus all right so we have

08:26learned

08:26all the different things of the devices but i'll be honest with you please only one thing i care

08:31about with devices sure and that is the menu yeah does it have a good menu what are the options

08:37in

08:37the menu does it even have a menu okay um very pleased to report there is indeed a menu uh

08:43to get

08:44into it we press the two buttons on the left which are your picture button and the color button at

08:48the

08:48same time for a second then let go and that's going to put you into the menu now the menu

08:53has various

08:53things we can turn on and off the lights so if you're looking at something like a cell phone that

08:57has

08:57its own lighting you can turn off the device's lights we can do various things like changing

09:02the appearance which we already looked at that was where we found our edge enhancement but we also do

09:08have lines and masks in here we do have a light sensitivity filter so that i'm assuming is a blue

09:14light filter so i've never seen that on a device like this before pretty cool we have a color blindness

09:18filter where we can adjust the levels of certain colors to accommodate certain types of color blindness

09:23we can also enable and disable certain color combinations change the screen brightness and

09:29again like i said we do have those edge effects that we already looked at as well we have the

09:33image

09:33gallery in the menu so we can save pictures which i forgot to mention when we were taking the pictures

09:38but you can save pictures and then you can open those in the image gallery and then we do have

09:43some

09:43basic settings in terms of we can find out kind of the device firmware settings the device hardware

09:48settings and uh you know various things like that as well so uh we do have a settings menu there

09:54is

09:54a couple of unique things in there and uh you can enable those and play around with them to your

09:58heart's content corey i'll be doing that right after this video it sounds like fun with that being

10:03said let's wrap this thing up and weigh out the pros and cons

10:10all right so we were going to cover the pros and cons every device has pros and cons and i'm

10:15a positive

10:16kind of dude you are uh you might say a positive amigo so i would like you to start with

10:21the pros

10:21please okay so pros uh eight inch screen pretty good um it does give you a decent amount of screen

10:27space for those longer reading tasks um also the basic controls are easy to do right we've got a plus

10:34button to zoom in minus button to zoom out a button for colors and a button to take a picture

10:38so pretty

10:38straightforward with that um the image quality is is good at near and because we have a dedicated

10:44uh camera for the distance is also good at distance as well so no issues there uh the case that

10:49comes with it which i will just lean off camera to go grab again here and the case is pretty

10:54good

10:54it's got a shoulder strap which i like and the uh insides are nice and soft and it's got a

10:59pouch

10:59on the front to put your charger in so i do rate to the case and speaking of the charger

11:03i think

11:04it's a pro that it's just kind of a standard usb-c cable versus a proprietary so that's good yeah

11:09so

11:09we don't need any unique charger and uh we do have some unique features though for the device

11:14including the color blindness mode that we just talked about including the blue light filter mode

11:19that we just talked about and including the edge enhancement mode so uh there are some pros corey

11:24but of course with every pro must come a corner it's just karma it's the balance of the universe it

11:30is

11:30it's yin and yang it is yin and yang and uh we do have some cons for this device so

11:35number one um some of

11:37the button controls are not great and that also ties into the buttons themselves not feeling very

11:43good to press seems like a weird thing to say but they're a little bit loose they're a little bit

11:47clicky in a weird way and if we want to do some features like getting into the menu or um

11:52like um

11:53turning on the panning mode we have to hold down two buttons at once and it's weird like the timing

11:58has to be just right and it just doesn't feel great honestly to operate so uh that's one thing i

12:03would

12:04have liked a little better tactile um like the plus and minus it i mean it is easing the fact

12:10that you hit the top or the bottom but there's not a real clear like delineation between the two

12:15buttons so sometimes it just feels like one big one um now i'm just doing it from no vision at

12:21all

12:21so maybe with low vision it's there's visually there's a little bit more denotion yeah i mean you

12:25get the plus and the minus but they could have maybe put some tactile uh other tactile markings on

12:29there um so yeah that's one thing now uh there is also a strange lag when we move the device

12:36and a

12:37couple of things here so if the device is on a page and we just left it for a second

12:42and then we move

12:42it there's a delay like after you've moved the device before the image moves on the screen so it's

12:48just a second but it's it's a strange thing to have and so also there is some ghosting as we

12:52move the

12:53device quickly from side to side now realistically that might not be a problem it kind of depends on how

12:57fast you're moving the device sure what i'm saying so your speed reader might be a little difficult

13:01exactly yeah so uh yeah speed readers probably this is not the device for you and one thing that i

13:06thought was strange as well cory there's no touch screen now some people might say i don't like a

13:10touch screen and you know that's perfectly fine and understandable but just having the option

13:13for a touch screen is so you can zoom in more easily so you can do that panning more easily

13:18just using the touch screen it seems like a strange omission now there may be a reason for this

13:22going yeah the reason might be because touch screens can be quite reflective that's true and

13:27this is something that we see with the explore 8 from humanware for example it's a great 8 inch

13:32device but uh it does have a touch screen which is nice but that can be quite reflective so maybe

13:37that's why they did that um but it does seem a little bit strange in this day and age um

13:41to to not

13:42have a touch screen so i would say those are pretty much the cons okay and do you know what

13:47cory if

13:48people want to try this out in person well of course they can visit vision forward why not we are

13:5210 150 west national avenue that is in uh new build no west alice i need to get my places

13:58in

13:58milwaukee right west alice in milwaukee and we have the device here and you can come in and try it

14:02out

14:02in our store so why not drop by and give it a try for yourself all right well that was

14:11the amigo it's

14:12nice to have another electronic magnifier in the lineup and you know what else is nice cory yes yes

14:19we're nice and the stuff we do that's why you should watch more of it you can see us live

14:24on

14:25tech connect live that's every other thursday at 11 a.m central time why not join us and you can

14:30have your comments read out live on the show and if you're watching this video on release the next

14:35tech connect live will be in one week's time and you can see it all on youtube and you know

14:39what is

14:39twice as nice um uh lms yes yes exactly and head over to our learning management platform over at

14:47tech connect dot vision dash forward dot org and get some more content from us webinars free acv rep

14:55credit and a really awesome screen reader course so go over there and check it out that's right

15:01cory and don't forget that you can see the amigo that we looked at today on our store that would

15:06be

15:06vision dash forward dot org forward slash store and you can also see all of the other things that we

15:11talk about in these videos catch you next time see you later bye

15:22you

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