VisionAware

How to use a video magnifier (CCTV).

Transcript of Video

NARRATOR: Two men facing a screen displaying a newspaper.

CHIP: Okay, Damian, what we’re looking at here is a video magnifier, or a CCTV, a closed-circuit television. What we’re looking at is the next step up from, like, a hand-held magnifier, and, again, this is basically a video magnifier. What you’ve got here is you have really two pieces of equipment. You’ve got a monitor, and then a video camera that’s pointing straight down onto the sliding table. So, for instance, we want to read our newspaper this morning. You’re actually going to put your newspaper on this sliding table but the print is going to be projected up here onto the screen. The thing that takes the most getting used to is learning to work your table, and as you’re sliding and moving your table, you’re actually moving your print across the screen or up and down, and just like you’re doing, as you’re reading, you move the table. Now, probably the most important thing on this machine is going to be this big dial in the middle and that’s your magnification dial. So if you can go ahead and turn that for me. As you turn that dial clockwise, or to the right, it’s going to increase the size of the print, or make it larger. And if you turn it the other direction, or to your left, it’s going to make it smaller. And again, and that’s the most important thing on the machine, because you’re going to run into all different sizes of print, and you’re also going to have good days and bad days with your vision. The next button to the left of your magnification dial is the reading mode button, or I call it the color mode button. As you push that button, you can change the appearance on the screen. For instance, that’s a very bright black lettering against a bright white background. And this here is white print against a black background. And the critical thing on this is the contrast. A lot of times with low vision, contrast is very important. Now, some of those different backgrounds, you might not ever use them or you might find one that works particularly well for you. There’s really no right or wrong way to using this machine. It just really is whatever works the best for you. And then the square button to the right of your magnification dial, that’s your power button. So it’s very simple. You have three controls on the front of the screen: your power button, your magnification dial–again, the most important control on the machine–and then your color button. On the bottom of the monitor is a little slide that you have your fingers on and that controls the brightness on the screen. Very simple, very straightforward, very easy to use.