Coming this Fall to MDTAP
Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP
The leaves turn, Hockey season begins, and new technology begins arriving at MDTAP. One product we are all excited about is the Prodigi from Humanware.
Prodigi is a fully digital video magnifier. This sounds much more complicated than the reality. Simply put, Prodigi takes a picture of an entire page (no fumbling with XY tables) and magnifies the text as desired. Most functions are controlled via a track pad. Pinching to zoom and tapping and dragging your finger around a page will suffice for most situations.
The digital aspect of Prodigi provides other useful features. The text of a page can be read aloud, either in its entirety or just the section you want. If a particular contrast works best for reading text, just the text contrast can be changed while leaving pictures or graphs unchanged.
Additionally, Prodigi includes a hand-held portion. Pages can be stored on the small tablet half of Prodigi and read later. The hand-held unit can then be connected to the desktop portion of Prodigi for viewing on the much larger (21 to 24 inch screen).
Video magnification has changed dramatically in the last thirty years. CCTVs used to be heavy, bulky and loud. Magnification and focus were controlled manually. In the mid-80s, hand-held video magnifiers didn’t exist. Today, we get access to the advances technology has brought us, and the Prodigi is a great example of such.
To learn more about Prodigi, go to: www.humanware.com/Prodigi
