Examining the Explore 12 Low Vision Magnifier By HumanWare!

Vision Forward's Tech Connect

Welcome to another fantastic episode of Tech Connect! Today Luke will be showcasing the Explore 12, another great electronic magnifier by HumanWare! This low vision device has a massive 12 inch display and uses two 21 mega pixel cameras to provide up to 15 times magnification while in reading mode and up to 30 times magnification when used at distance. Its features include various color contrast modes, the ability to save images, toggle autofocus for handwriting, and its all held aloft by a sturdy stand which folds down to the size of a laptop for portability.   The inclusion of a stand really enhances this device's usefulness for tasks like handwriting and reading. The Explore 12 is especially useful when working with larger documents or reading for extended periods of time. Join Luke as he demonstrates all the ins and outs of this exiting low vision device from HumanWare!   0:00 Start 0:47 Explore 12 overview, main features like magnification, color, saving an image 4:00 Contrasting Explore 12 with the 8 and 5 models, how useful is the stand? 5:30 Live Panning of a magnified image 6:20 Handwriting, remember to enable Focus Lock via double tap  8:25 Navigating Menu options, including saved images in the Gallery, 10:55 Adjusting Screen Brightness 12:30 Setting up extra color modes   14:00 Disable built-in lights to view your smartphone or other screens 15:50 Connecting to a different display via HDMI like a television or computer screen 16:50 Without the Stand, the device has a fold out support still useable on tabletop 17:55 Comparison with the Explore 8, demo why the larger stand helps with reading books 19:20 Wrap- Up Review of HumanWare's Explore 12 20:30 Upcoming Videos, Online Resources and free on-demand ACVREP Credits 21:35 Goof   We at Vision Forward would be happy to answer any questions that you still have about the Explore 12 or other low vision magnifiers down in the comments. And be sure to check out the videos we previously made on Explore 8 and other devices so that you can find whichever device best suits your needs!   Explore 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88XiVn2M_PQ  HumanWare Reveal 16i https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKN129hgyHw Zoomax Snow 12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoj-3iMLs9I  Clover 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8d12_UfeyY  Optaro iPhone Magnfier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv-Byo_FGXM&t=1s  Contact Vision Forward Association:  Call us: (414-615-0103)  Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org  Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org   Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome back to another exciting edition of TechConnect.

00:04Today we are going to be taking a look at the Explore 12 electronic magnifier from HumanWare.

00:09Let's get exploring.

00:19So the Explore 12 is a 12-inch version of HumanWare's Explore line of electronic magnifiers.

00:25And the thing that makes this one a little bit interesting,

00:27other than the fact it has a 12-inch screen which is larger than any of the other devices,

00:32is that it is also in its own stand and this raises it above the table

00:37and allows us to use it for some things that some of the smaller devices can't really be used for.

00:42So with that being said, why don't we dive in and take a look at some of the features.

00:47So the first thing that you might be drawn to when you're looking at the Explore 12

00:51is the 12-inch screen which is a very nice size for reading some longer documents with

00:56that you might not want to read with some of the smaller handhelds.

00:59I've been reliably informed that this is one foot.

01:02So if you put your foot onto the Explore 12, it should just be around the same size.

01:07We can do a few different things here which you would expect with an electronic magnifier.

01:12We can magnify and we can change colors.

01:14These are going to be our basic functions.

01:16And in order to magnify, we have a couple of different ways we can do it.

01:19We can use physical buttons on the front of the device.

01:22We have a plus to zoom in that will take us up to 15 times magnification.

01:26And we have a minus to zoom out and that will take us all the way out to 1 times magnification.

01:31So a good range of magnification.

01:33Now that's while we are in the stand here.

01:36And we can actually take this out of the stand but we'll be taking a look at that a little bit later.

01:40In addition to the buttons, we can also use pinch and reverse pinch on the screen to zoom in and out

01:45just like you might be doing with your smartphone already.

01:48And this makes it very easy for us to zoom in and out if we're used to those gestures already.

01:52Now we can also change colors.

01:54At the moment I'm in the regular color mode and we'll see that if we have a look at an image here

01:59then the image is going to be in its regular colors which is probably what we want.

02:04However, if we're reading text we might want to take a look at some of the high contrast color modes.

02:09And there are a few to choose from.

02:10Now I only have a few enabled at the moment and I'll be showing you how to enable other ones.

02:15But for the moment we'll see what we have here.

02:16We're in regular color.

02:18Here we have a high contrast black on white.

02:21High contrast white on black.

02:24Here we have a black on a yellow background.

02:27And back to regular color.

02:28So those are some of the high contrast color modes.

02:30This is all stuff that you would expect with a device like this.

02:33So nothing too crazy.

02:35And all of those features are very accessible and very easy to use.

02:39Now one of the other things that we can do is take pictures and we're able to save those pictures onto the device.

02:44Again, there's a couple of ways that we can do this.

02:47We can go ahead and hold a finger on the screen and we'll see an hourglass and it should say saving.

02:54And that's going to go ahead and save the picture into our gallery so we can go and look at it later.

02:59And we can also use a button on the top right.

03:02And if we press that, that's also going to go ahead and take a picture for us.

03:06And we can either just freeze it on the screen or if we hold the button down, then we are able to save that.

03:12Now if we are looking at a picture, we're able to magnify the picture again using those same buttons or gestures.

03:19And we can pan around the picture using the touch screen here, which is kind of nice.

03:23And we can also press the button in the middle and that will change the color of the picture.

03:28So we still have access to all of those controls when we're looking at pictures.

03:32When we've finished, we can hit the back button at the top left and that's going to take us back out to the live image from the camera again.

03:38Now all of this stuff is exactly the same as the Explore 8, which is a smaller version of this.

03:45And also the Explore 5 has the same functionality.

03:48That's an even smaller version of this.

03:50So all of these features are the same.

03:52But the question is, what makes this device different from those?

03:56Well, let's find out in the next segment.

03:58Okay, so what makes this device different?

04:03Well, there's a few different things.

04:04Now, first of all, we do have the 12-inch screen and obviously that does differentiate this just because we have a larger screen.

04:10So that means that this device might be suitable for those longer reading tasks.

04:14But of course, we also have the stand.

04:16I'm sure that's something which many people have noticed.

04:18And the Explore 8 and the Explore 5 do not have this stand.

04:23Now, this stand does fold away and you can easily transport it.

04:27It's not too heavy.

04:27We don't have to use the stand.

04:29The device can operate on its own without the stand.

04:31However, the stand does give us the ability to do some things that we can't really do with the other devices.

04:38And number one is look at things like books.

04:41So with the other devices, which do not have the stand, you would have to rest them on top of the book.

04:48And that can be kind of difficult because we do have the binding in the middle of the book.

04:52And so that makes it difficult to move the device over the top.

04:55But with the Explore 12, because it's raised, we can easily slide our book underneath.

05:01And now we are able to see the book here, move the book around and not to really have any problems.

05:07Now, one thing we do have to bear in mind, this book is a little oversized and the back of the stand does kind of get in the way a little bit.

05:14So depending on the size of the book that you're trying to look at, that might be an issue.

05:18And indeed, with other devices that are designed like this, it usually is a bit of a concern.

05:23However, we are easily able to get the book underneath the device here and then see it on the screen.

05:29That's number one.

05:30Number two thing that sets this apart is live panning, which we cannot do on the other devices.

05:36So check this out.

05:36I'm going to go ahead and zoom in.

05:39And when we are zoomed in, we obviously, you know, have a restricted field of view.

05:43We can't see the whole thing.

05:45But now just using a finger on the screen, I'm able to pan from side to side.

05:50And this is a live image.

05:51So this isn't a picture that I've taken.

05:52This is a live image.

05:54I can pan from side to side and that will allow me then to pan across the page and to read the words without actually having to move the book at all.

06:03This is a really cool feature.

06:04This will only work when the device is in the stand as we have it right now.

06:08And it could make reading, you know, easier.

06:11If you tend to kind of lose your place when you're moving a document around, this could make it a lot easier for you.

06:17So that's the second thing that sets it apart.

06:19And the third thing is with the stand, it makes it suitable for writing.

06:25And again, with handheld devices, this isn't usually possible.

06:29But with this device, because it's in the stand here again,

06:32we can go ahead and put a document underneath and I'm going to tap the screen here to focus it.

06:38And we can take our pen and we're going to go ahead and put the pen under here.

06:43We will see the pen in the image and then we can go ahead and write.

06:47So I'm going to write the word hello, H-E-L-L-O, and underline.

06:53And there we go.

06:54I've written hello.

06:55Now, this does take a bit of practice.

06:56I'm sure I was making it look very easy there, but it does take a bit of practice.

07:00I always say it's kind of like tapping your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time,

07:04which I can do.

07:05Let's see if I can do it the other way around as well.

07:07Let's find out.

07:07Oh, that's actually quite a lot harder.

07:08There we go.

07:09I got it going.

07:09So it's a weird kind of independence thing.

07:14You have to get used to looking at the screen while you're writing rather than trying to look

07:18at your hand, which is probably what you've been doing for most of your life.

07:22So it takes a little bit of practice, but with a bit of practice,

07:24and we're not talking too much either, you'll start to get into the swing of it.

07:28Now, in order to facilitate writing under here, there is a focus lock option.

07:33And what that will do is stop the camera trying to focus on our hand.

07:37When we put our hand underneath there, it will keep it focused on the page,

07:40which is where we want it focused when we're writing.

07:43So there is a gesture we can do to turn on the focus lock.

07:46It's going to be a double tap on the screen.

07:48We get a lock icon in the top right here, and now the focus lock is engaged.

07:53And again, I can put my hand underneath there.

07:55I'll go ahead and write my name, and it's going to stay focused on the page

08:00and not try and focus on my hand.

08:02So there we go.

08:03There's some features which make this stand out from some of Humanware's

08:09other handheld electronic magnifiers, and also from just in general

08:13other handheld electronic magnifiers on the market.

08:15But that's not all.

08:16There's still a lot more that we can do.

08:19And so let's dive in and take a look at some of the menus.

08:21Okay, so now we're going to take a look at the menus and see what else this puppy can do.

08:29Woof, woof.

08:30And there are a few different things that are useful in there.

08:34Now, if you have an Explore 8 or if you've used one before and you've accessed the menus

08:38with that, it's exactly the same here.

08:40We're going to hold down the color button, and that's going to put us into the menus.

08:44And the first thing we have is the gallery.

08:46Now, in order to save a picture, we can hold down this picture button at the top right

08:50until it says saving, and that will save the picture into the gallery.

08:54And in the menu here, this is all touchscreen.

08:56We're going to tap gallery, and it's going to show us the picture in our gallery,

09:00which is we only have one at the moment.

09:02So it told us one of one.

09:03We have these two arrows.

09:05If there were more pictures, we could obviously use the arrows to go from picture to picture.

09:10I'm going to go ahead and zoom in on this picture.

09:13And just using the pinch and reverse pinch, I could have used the buttons as well.

09:17And so here we are.

09:18This is the picture that we took.

09:19We can change the color of it.

09:20We can pan around all of those things we were talking about before, but it's saved in the memory.

09:24So let's say maybe you have a recipe or something like that, or a bunch of recipes that you want

09:28to have available at any time without having to pull out the recipe book.

09:32You can save them all into here and have access to them at any time.

09:35Next in the menu, we will have toggle camera.

09:40So we have two cameras on here.

09:42Now, the other Explorer devices are the same.

09:44You can use them not only for up close, but also for distance viewing.

09:48So I'm going to hit toggle camera.

09:50Now we're looking through the distance camera, and you can actually see behind the scenes here

09:55at TechConnect, we have producer Jonathan in the background.

09:58And we also have apparently a table with a bunch of boxes on it.

10:03So behind the scenes, normally you wouldn't be seeing this type of thing.

10:07Now, this is actually pretty nice.

10:08In the stand here, it's really a good angle for looking into the distance.

10:13And of course, we can zoom in.

10:15The only thing is if we want to move from left to right, we're going to have to rotate the

10:18whole device.

10:20And so that does make it a little clunky if we're trying to move the device from left

10:24to right to see things.

10:25And of course, we can't really, in the stand, we can't really adjust it up and down.

10:29So this is the angle that we get.

10:31Once we're finished, we're going to hold down the color button again to get into the menu.

10:36We'll go back to toggle camera.

10:37And now we're back to the reading camera.

10:39This is pretty much instantaneous switch.

10:41So it's pretty nice.

10:43Well designed, I would say.

10:44Next, we have the autofocus.

10:46We already looked at how we can do a double tap with one finger to engage or disengage the

10:51autofocus and what that is used for.

10:53We also have a screen brightness option.

10:55This will allow us to adjust the brightness of the screen.

10:57At the moment, we have it on the maximum setting 9.

11:00If that's too bright, you can go down from there.

11:03Next, we have touch screen.

11:05And this will show us various different things that we can do with the touch screen here.

11:10So there are various gestures that we can use.

11:13And we can also enable and disable vibrations.

11:17Now I'm thinking about the touch screen here.

11:19I want to show you one cool little feature which I had neglected to show in one of the previous

11:23sections.

11:23I'm going to go out of here to the live reading mode.

11:26And let's go ahead and zoom in.

11:28And we're at 4.4 times magnification.

11:31There's a really cool gesture that we can use to get an overview of the page.

11:34It will allow us to zoom out to one times magnification and then zoom back in again.

11:39This is like a find feature that you will see on other CCTVs as well.

11:43This is going to be a two-finger swipe down from the top.

11:47And as long as our fingers are held on the screen, it will be zoomed out to one times.

11:51As soon as we let go, it's going to zoom in.

11:54So on desktop CCTVs, this type of feature has been available for some time.

11:58But I don't remember seeing it on a handheld before.

12:01And so, yeah, really cool feature.

12:03And that's one of the gestures that we are able to toggle on or off in the touchscreen section of the menu.

12:09We also have an auto off.

12:11So this will say when the device is going to go to sleep.

12:13How long does it have to not be used for before it goes to sleep to save battery?

12:17We have preferred zooms.

12:19We can set the magnification levels for the distance and for the up-close camera.

12:24And when we go into those modes, it will automatically be at those magnification levels.

12:29We also have contrast.

12:31Now, this is where we go to set what colors are available with the color button.

12:36So I had mentioned in one of the previous sections that at the moment,

12:39we only have a few different colors set for the color button.

12:43But there's actually a bunch of colors that we can choose from.

12:45And to do that, we would go to enabled contrast.

12:48And there is a whole long list here of different colors that we are able to choose from.

12:53If we want one to be available when we press the button,

12:56we just tap on it and it will get a check mark that lets us know that now it's been enabled.

13:00So if I check a bunch of these, and we'll come out of the menu here.

13:04Now, when we use the color button to cycle through the different colors,

13:08there are going to be a lot more different colors available

13:11because I have just enabled them.

13:13And there really is a huge selection of colors.

13:15So pretty much anything that you could desire, you are able to set that.

13:20But it might not be set when you take it out of the box.

13:22So you might need to come into the menu in order to set the one that you want.

13:26We also have lines and blinds.

13:28I'll just quickly take a look at these.

13:29We can, for example, turn on the blinds.

13:31And this will block off a section of the screen here.

13:35So it helps us keep focused on the lines of text that we're actually reading.

13:39If you do lose track of text as you're reading, then this can help with that.

13:43And the lines feature is similar, but it's just a line that goes across the screen.

13:47And we can kind of put our text above that line

13:50in order to help keep us focused on the text that we're reading.

13:53So it's nice to have that in a handheld.

13:55Again, that's oftentimes something that you would get in a desktop CCTV.

14:00We also have lights.

14:01We can disable the lights.

14:03So for example, if we have a self-lighted device

14:06that we're trying to look at, like a smartphone,

14:08we might not want the lights on the back of the device to be on

14:12because they will reflect off of the smartphone screen.

14:14In fact, let's give this a try right now.

14:17Producer Jonathan, could you please pass me my telephone?

14:19And we're going to go ahead and see what this looks like

14:22with the lights on at the moment.

14:24And so I'll unlock my phone here.

14:27And we'll go out to the live image.

14:29I'm going to place my phone underneath here.

14:31And what we get on either side of the image here

14:35is these little circular LEDs reflecting off of my phone screen.

14:39Now, because the phone is self-lit, i.e. the screen itself has a light,

14:43we don't actually need the Explore 12's lights to be enabled

14:47in order to see the phone screen.

14:49So we'll go ahead and go into the menu.

14:51And we're going to go to the lights option here.

14:53And we'll open that.

14:55And we're going to go ahead and turn these off.

14:58Now, there's a base here, base lights as well.

15:00And there's also folding stand and handheld.

15:04We'll just go ahead and turn all of these off for the moment.

15:06Let's take a look and see what that looks like.

15:09And there we go.

15:10No longer do we have the LEDs reflecting off of my phone screen,

15:15but we can still see the phone screen perfectly well

15:17because the phone screen has got its own light.

15:20And I don't even know.

15:21Let's see.

15:22Yeah, so my brightness on my phone screen

15:24isn't even cracked up that high.

15:25So this will be with my phone screen light at maximum

15:27and it looks nice and sharp.

15:29So it's really nice to have that feature.

15:30If you are trying to look at something self-lit like a smartphone,

15:34it will just make that a little bit nicer.

15:37I'll go ahead and turn them back on for the moment.

15:42And let's see what else we have in the menu here.

15:44I think we've covered the main things here.

15:45We can adjust the size of the menu text itself

15:48so we can make it larger or smaller.

15:50We can change the language of the menu text.

15:52The display here, we can connect this to an external display.

15:56And there is an HDMI port on the left side.

15:59It does come with the cable.

16:00So you could connect this device to a television, for example,

16:03and it would show whatever was going to be on the screen of the Explore 12 on the television.

16:09This display here will tell the device basically where you are in the world.

16:13If you're in America, you want it set to 60 hertz.

16:15If you're in Europe, you would want it set to 50 hertz, which is the other option here.

16:21Here, we can delete the gallery.

16:23That's the next thing in the menu.

16:25So all of the pictures.

16:26Factory defaults will be a factory reset.

16:29And then about will tell us what the software and the hardware version are.

16:33So there's a bunch of stuff in the menus.

16:34Now, you don't have to worry about any of these things.

16:37You can take this out of the box and just use it straight away,

16:40and it's probably going to do what you want.

16:41But if you're a little more adventurous and you want to play around with some of the other features,

16:45then there's plenty there to discover.

16:49Okay, so we're almost done with the Explore 12.

16:51But just before we close out, let's take a look at using it outside of the stand.

16:57So the Explore 12 does have its own stand built in,

17:00and so we don't need the other stand if we don't want.

17:02And we can just, as with a regular handheld electronic magnifier,

17:06rest it on the page that we want to read

17:08and move the device itself left and right and up and down as we are reading.

17:14So that all works very well.

17:17And the features are going to be basically the same.

17:20Now, obviously, when it's not in the other stand,

17:23we're not going to be able to write underneath here, really.

17:25And we're not going to be able to get books underneath here, you know, so easily.

17:29So there are disadvantages.

17:31But the advantage is if we use it out of the stand,

17:33we can just go ahead and fold this up and carry it around with us.

17:37And, you know, it might be a little bit easier to transport,

17:40although she is a big girl still.

17:42So you might need a bag or something like that to put them in.

17:45But, yeah, basically the same.

17:48Now, next to the Explore 12, I actually have the Explore 8 here.

17:51And this was a slightly older device, but it's still available.

17:55And this one only has an 8-inch screen.

17:57And I wanted to put them side by side.

17:59Number one, so that we could compare screen sizes and just see what that looks like.

18:04But also, number two, just to show you that, you know, this prior to the Explore 12,

18:11the Explore 8 is basically what we had.

18:13And there is no separate stand for the Explore 8.

18:16And so we always have to use it, you know, using its own stand.

18:19And I do have it on a book here.

18:20And just to kind of demonstrate the issue that we have

18:22when we're trying to read books underneath these devices,

18:26because of the binding, it means there's not really an even surface

18:29to place the device on.

18:31And so it kind of rocks from side to side as we're trying to move it over.

18:34And when we get to the edge of the book, you know,

18:37it might kind of like be falling off onto the table and things like this.

18:41So it's not...

18:42These types of devices, when they're on their own stand,

18:45are not really ideal for reading books with,

18:48which is why the stand of the Explore 12 is such a nice thing to have.

18:53That's pretty much it.

18:54But just one more thing.

18:55If we zoom in without the separate stand,

18:58we cannot pan around using the touchscreen.

19:01So just be aware of that.

19:02I did mention that before, but if we want to do live panning,

19:05then we do need the Explore 12 to be in the separate stand

19:09in order to facilitate that.

19:11So that was pretty much the Explore 12.

19:13But what do I think about it?

19:14Well, let's find out in the final section.

19:18So the Explore 12, well, it's a pretty good device.

19:21Nice quality HD image.

19:23The stand makes it suitable for tasks,

19:25which you normally can't do with handheld electronic magnifiers.

19:29And the price isn't too exorbitant.

19:32Is that a word?

19:33I have no idea.

19:34Let's just pretend it is.

19:36It is pretty similar to some other devices that we've looked at before.

19:39The Snow 12 from Zoomax, for example.

19:42And even gets into the territory of another human wear product,

19:46the Kinect 12 and things like the Cloverbook.

19:49In terms of the idea of having this device in a stand, at least.

19:54But in terms of the feature set, it doesn't have, you know,

19:57things like optical character recognition, for example.

19:59So it's a little bit more stripped back in terms of features.

20:03However, that means that the price is a little bit cheaper.

20:06And I think if you need an electronic magnifier that might be suitable for longer reading tasks

20:11and allow you to read, but isn't too bulky, then this really could be the thing for you.

20:17So why not try it out?

20:19That's my suggestion.

20:20You can try it here at Vision Forward.

20:22But of course, you could also check whoever your local human wear dealer is

20:26and see if they can give you a demo.

20:29Now, I hope that you enjoyed this video.

20:30And if you did, by the way, give us a like and give us a subscribe.

20:34But if you want even more content, well, you can find it at our LMS.

20:38Yes, that's right.

20:39We have an LMS where you can earn on-demand ACV REP credits.

20:44And you can find that by going to our website at vision-forward.org.

20:49We also have a podcast version of our live show.

20:52So we do a live stream every other Thursday at 11 a.m. Central.

20:58And that goes out to our YouTube channel, which you should be watching this video on.

21:01So you should already know how to get there.

21:03And the live stream is myself and Corey just talking about various different assistive technology products

21:09and topics in general.

21:11It's really good fun.

21:12You can get live comments in there and have them read out loud.

21:15So make sure to join us 11 a.m. every other Thursday for that.

21:18And the podcast version is available via your favorite pod-catching service.

21:23So look for Vision Forward TechConnect and you should find it.

21:27But with that being said, go away now!

21:30Don't they have gelato in Italy?

21:54Oh yeah.

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