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ARMD and use of video magnifiers

Posted , 2 users are following.

paulhipwood
paulhipwood

Dear All

My 91 year old mother in law lives with us. She has ARMD (wet type).

Bobbie uses an Ipad, Android smart phone and a Kindle. She also does crosswords and colouring using optical mannifiers. She has just joined the Macular society and will be attending a meeting next week.

We are looking at Video magnifiers, we know there are many types and seen videos on Youtube. BUT are there any real people out there who use one and would recoment them.

best regards

paul

0 likes, 9 replies

9 Replies

  • liz24251
    liz24251 paulhipwood

    Posted

    Hi Paul- Your mother-in-law sounds amazing, and good for her that she is not letting any ege related problems stop her, it would appear. I was lent an 'Ash' viseo magnifyer by a family memer whose mother had AMD and died at a very old age.At first, I used it for crosswords but later, I started to use it to read newsprint and 'snail mail' letters etc. I can actually read newsprint again since my IOLAMD operations, but I still want to hang on to the viso-magnifyer as it is very useful for really samll print - and when I am too tired or the light is too poor to read without a struggle. I too, use Kindle and ipad with which I can enlarge the letering but the video manifyer is useful if only for all that small print stuff.

    Liz

  • paulhipwood
    paulhipwood

    Posted

    Dear Liz

    Thanks for your reply, I have looked on the Ash website. Could you let me know what model you are using.

    Do you have a problem keeping the device steady to get a clear picture.

    Nana is incredible, I enjoy the discussions we have when she is trying new things out. She perceveres and usually gets there in the end.

    regards

    paul

    • liz24251
      liz24251 paulhipwood

      Posted

      Hi Paul

       My model is old and it is called 'Presto'. I cnnot see this online and the nearest in appearance is the Ash Eclipse.  I have had no problems with keeping it steady or anything else for that matter.  As an aside, I did buy myself some portable devices from Enhanced -Vision and they were not cheap.. A 'pebble' and the even smaller 'pebble mini'. The salesman who came a long distance to bring them for me, had not had the foresight to ensure that they werre charged up and so I did not get any demo - which I would have liked as I was not sure which button to press always. It turned out that they wer not really suite to my hope that they would help me read my music in choir.  Why I say this, is to perhaps state the obvious, and say make sure that you get a good demo, and perhaps compare a few models - there is a lot available now, so don'r be rushed into anything! Liz

  • paulhipwood
    paulhipwood

    Posted

    Dear Liz

    We looked at the Pebble, why was this not suitable for you.

    Ther are a lot of models on the market and they are a big investment.

    But I think you are right you need to try them. A lot of the suppliers do not have a "shop" . Maybe we should get a home demo.

    Thanks for your help.

    best regards

    paul

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    • liz24251
      liz24251 paulhipwood

      Posted

      Hi Paul

       The 'pebbles' were OK but I wanted to use them to be able to see my music in Choir. Unfortunately I could not get everything organised before the rest of the choir had moved on in the music! Trouble with music is that it has to be done on the beat at a fixed time - not always possible with vision problems. They were good for shopping and reading the increasing,y small print on food products these days.

       As you say, it is all a huge investment and worth getting home demos without oblifation where you can. Liz

  • paulhipwood
    paulhipwood

    Posted

    Dear Liz 

    We went to Somerset sight and had a demo of about 6 magnifiers.

    We short listed the Pebble HD and the Ruby HD.

    We are going to arrange another demo in Wolverhampton.

    Will let you know how we got on

    best regards

    paul

    • liz24251
      liz24251 paulhipwood

      Posted

      Thaks for this information Paul. It would be interesting to hear what you finally come up with and why as I am sure that other readers of this site would find such information helpful.  I would have liked to hear about this before I completed my book (soon to be published) about my life and my experience with AMD and my successful operations. It is called  'I will Lift up My Eyes to the Hills' and should be avilable first on Kindle then on Amazon book sites. Writing it has certainly taed my operation improved vision to the full. I still hit too many wrong keys -usually next door to the ones I want when I am typing.  All the best in your quest for the best gadget. Liz
  • paulhipwood
    paulhipwood

    Posted

    Dear All

    We have finally bought a Pebble HD, apparently they have just started selling a stand for these. so we bought one as well.

    This needed a modification to get it to be more secure to use.

    The device is very good.

    But I now realise that you need to "tweak" things to get a more ergernomic wayn of doing things.

    I have been able to observe Nana and sugest small modifications.

    We have also bought a tilting table and equiped it with a few modifications to make life easier. This is an ongoing project and it is important that Nana give things a try and rejects things that do not work.

    I am having good fun using my engineering background to make simple improvements.

    I will upload a photo in a couple of days.

    • liz24251
      liz24251 paulhipwood

      Posted

      Glad you got your Nan fixed up Paul.  You never know you may find that there is a new calling for you in using your engineering knowledge to help in many ways with those with visual andbother handicaps! All the best Liz 
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