Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The leaves turn, Hockey season begins, and new technology begins arriving at MDTAP.\u00a0 One product we are all excited about is the Prodigi from Humanware.<\/p>\n Prodigi is a fully digital video magnifier.\u00a0 This sounds much more complicated than the reality.\u00a0 Simply put, Prodigi takes a picture of an entire page (no fumbling with XY tables) and magnifies the text as desired.\u00a0 Most functions are controlled via a track pad.\u00a0 Pinching to zoom and\u00a0tapping and dragging your finger around a page will suffice for most situations.<\/p>\n The digital aspect of Prodigi provides other useful features.\u00a0 The text of a page can be read aloud, either in its entirety or just the section you want.\u00a0 If a particular contrast works best for reading text, just the text contrast can be changed while leaving pictures or graphs unchanged.<\/p>\n Additionally, Prodigi includes a hand-held portion.\u00a0 Pages can be stored on the small tablet half of Prodigi and read later.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n Video magnification has changed dramatically in the last thirty years.\u00a0 CCTVs used to be heavy, bulky and loud.\u00a0 Magnification and focus were controlled manually.\u00a0 In the mid-80s, hand-held\u00a0video magnifiers didn’t exist.\u00a0Today, we get access to the advances technology has brought us, and the Prodigi is a great example of such.<\/p>\n To learn more about Prodigi, go to:\u00a0 www.humanware.com\/Prodigi<\/a><\/p>\n