Story
Comparisons of Digital Telescope/Monocular apps for iPhone for Functional Orientation and Mobility Assistance
Comparison of magnification devices: native and purchased smart phone apps and monocular.
If you don’t carry your monocular everywhere…
The new iOS 10 for iPhone has a new native magnifier app as a part of its accessibility features suite under Vision.
- How good is it for a person with low vision?
- And is it a good replacement for a monocular/telescope.
- How do non-native apps compare?
I engaged a student, A, who has 20/300 high myopia with best correction, and who is able to use a monocular as a successfully functional low vision mobility aid to view distant targets, to compare the new IOS feature and 2 other non-native apps.
Rules
- The apps needed to be FREE.
- The apps needed maximum magnification, which appeared to be 30X.
Two other apps looked plausible. I downloaded them and practiced with them first and formed my own opinion as a COMS.
Details
iOS 10 Native Magnifier within Camera App
- Enable Magnifier App
- Open the Settings app
- Tap ‘General’, then the ‘Accessibility’ tab
- Tap ‘Magnifier’ and tap the toggle to enable it
- Optionally tap the toggle for Auto-Brightness to enable automatic brightness and contrast adjustments based on ambient light while using Magnifier
- Triple-click Home button to activate Magnifier
Once enabled, you can now open the Magnifier from anywhere with a quick triple-click of the home button, including from the lock screen.
Snap a Freeze Frame, Zoom-in, Lock Focus and Turn on the Flash.
The Magnifier UI is a customized camera UI that lets you snap a freeze frame with the circular button in the middle.
You can zoom-in easily using the onscreen slider or by swiping up the screen before after snapping a shot. You can optionally turn on the flash if you need extra light by tapping the small lightning bolt icon in the bottom left corner.
Tapping on the display or the padlock icon in the bottom left corner will lock the focus.
You can also adjust colors…
How to Invert and Adjust Colors
After you snap a freeze frame and zoom-in, you can adjust colors by tapping the small icon in the bottom right-hand corner.
That will present you with a different UI that gives you controls for brightness and contrast with onscreen sliders, the ability to invert colors, and a few presets like Yellow/Blue, Grayscale, White/Blue, etc .
The feature was designed for those with vision impairments, allowing for easier reading of labels and other small text that might otherwise be difficult to read, and officially arrived in iOS 10 alongside a handful of other new Accessibility features.
Supervision + Magnifier
Description
SuperVision+ is the only magnifying glass app on the market that offers a supreme live image stabilization capability. Highly magnified images are usually shaking. It is a problem especially for old people. No more image shaking with SuperVision+ magnifier (magnifying glass).
Editor’s Note: SuperVision+ is no longer available.
Binoculars B4
Description
Binoculars B4 (30x zoom, photo & video recording).
The best super digital binocular app, with photo and video recording.
30x zoom binocular camera app with handy zoom scroller
simple and easy to use!
We tested all three apps:
- Indoors with fluorescent lighting
- And outdoors in bright lighting
- To view signage that could not be read at a distance without an aid or close viewing.
Pictures of student attempting to use the Android version and the iPhone version.
Pictures of student comparing phone apps with a hand held telescope.
Basic Review
- The native iPhone app enlarges greater than the camera app alone, but not as large as Supervision+. The color and contrast options are nice. It works better than just snapping a picture and enlarging.
- Supervision+ has image stabilization, 30x magnification, image lock, and can invert to a negative black and white image.
- Binoculars B4 while producing larger images than the native iPhone magnifier, did not work as well as either of the other two, and left the running early.
The upshot
- Of the digital apps, Supervision+ won. The ease of use, magnification, and image stabilization made it the best. The iPhone magnifier is more complicated to access, the shortcut turn-on is shared with voiceover, and it seems really meant for print at closer range.
- But…the handheld APH 10 X 30 monocular offers a more magnified and clearer image than the tested apps.
Both the Student A and I independently came down on the side of the hand held telescope as being significantly better. The apps are not a replacement—yet. But the phone apps are ok in a pinch for distance, because telescopes often get left home, but the phone does not.
By ruth.weinrib
