VisionAssist - App of the Month July 2012

VisionAssist is a CCTV application for your iPhone or iPad. What makes it so interesting is that it is described in the app store as: "A very impressive app that could, over time, make portable electronic magnifiers obsolete".

Where to get it

• Download VisionAssist from the iTunes App Store
• Developed by: Slinkyware (IP Holdings Ltd)
• Platform: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + 4G. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
• Price: $5.99 (£3.99)

What's so great about VisionAssist?

This application incorporates many features similar to Enhanced Vision's Pebble and Amigo type CCTV's. Some of these include:

• Up to 5x zoom.
• Changing contrast / brightness.
• Connecting wirelessly to an Apple TV, allowing you to enlarge things on a bigger screen.
• Colour, black and white, highlights and smart text video viewing options. There are also options to change the highlight mode colours to black on white, white on black, black on yellow, or blue on yellow.
• Torch on and off options to increase usage in low light.
• Option to pause / un-pause the camera taking a photo / still image of something you are viewing on the screen.
• Fully compatible with the VoiceOver screen reader.

User Comments

Paresh Jotangia spoke to us about VisionAssist:

The VisionAssist is an App that offers partially sighted people the opportunity to change their iPhone into a portable video magnifier.

The App is simple to use, but you would need some useful vision to look at the controls in order to use it. They are a little fiddly to use, i.e. dragging the magnification up and down and changing the contrast. Someone with low vision may find the controls difficult to locate and it appears they are always on the screen which may inhibit reading for some.

However, they work quite well with the VoiceOver screen reader, as long as you know how to use VoiceOver.

Positives

I found it worked better at low end magnification, however the light (torch) on it performed better at high end. It seemed to work OK when looking at a digital display for example on a photocopier LCD screen which are always difficult to read.

Negatives

It is very difficult to keep in focus and keep what you are looking at in focus or without losing your place. On two occasions the camera was very unresponsive when in enhanced contrast mode. It seemed to freeze up and was only resolved when I exited back out from enhanced contrast. When in enhanced contrast you have to keep the camera very still for focus and any movement will cause the text to become blurred. There is also a ghosting effect.

Conclusion

The app is good if you have a small amount to read, it would be a chore to read more than a small amount. This app is great value for £3.99, it has a little way to go before it can really be a replacement for a portable CCTV but for someone who requires little magnification and enhanced contrast it could make a big difference.

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