HumanWare Announces Prodigi

DRUMMONDVILLE, Canada, July 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

A Breakthrough for People Living with Vision Loss

HumanWare announces Prodigi, the world's most advanced, all-digital personal vision assistant for people with low vision conditions such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and other eye diseases.  HumanWare has designed Prodigi to be a more affordable and intuitive visual aid than the traditional CCTV-based electronic magnifier.

"HumanWare is proud to introduce the revolutionary Prodigi family that finally brings low vision technology into the 21^st century. Prodigi will make a big difference in the lives of an even greater number of people living with vision loss.," stated Gilles Pepin, CEO.  "As we celebrate HumanWare's 25^th year of assisting the blind and visually impaired, Prodigi will spread our leadership in Blindness products to the Low Vision market with the same innovation and quality we are known for worldwide."

Prodigi allows low vision users to benefit from a big-screen desktop device and a go-anywhere tablet magnifier at a lower cost than any similar system available.  The portable Tablet fits into a patented docking station in the base and becomes both the camera and processor of the desktop system. Unlike other magnifiers, Prodigi captures the image of an entire letter- or A4-sized page and allows the user to magnify and read documents with a comfortable touc pad instead of moving an XY table. Pages are displayed in HumanWare's innovative Diamond-Edge Text^[TM] format, which can be magnified up to 80 times with perfect text quality.  Text can be presented to the user in smooth-scrolling column or line modes, and can even read aloud, reducing fatigue caused by moving documents under a CCTV camera.  Prodigi stores documents so the user can take them to read or reference later while away from his or her desk. 

Training time is greatly reduced as well, because Prodigi has a built-in tutorial and set-up wizard, developed in collaboration with Essilor^[TM], the world's leading ophthalmic optics company.  The wizard guides the user through the basic functions and sets up the contrast, color scheme, reading speed and magnification levels according to his or her specific vision needs.

Prodigi is available in three models: the Duo, a desktop unit with the detachable Tablet; the portable Tablet magnifier by itself, and a Desktop-only model.

 "HumanWare is proud to introduce the revolutionary Prodigi family to help people with low vision in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Middle East," said Pedro Polson, CEO of HumanWare Europe. "These are people who have acute vision needs, but are largely underserved. Prodigi will be fully localised in most European languages, making it accessible to the widest number of users in our region."

Prodigi is expected to be available from HumanWare and its network of Assistive Technology distribution partners starting in August, 2013. 

About HumanWare

HumanWare® (http://www.humanware.com) is the global leader in assistive technologies for people who are blind or have low vision. HumanWare offers a wide range of innovative products, including the BrailleNote® Apex, the leading productivity device for the blind in education, business and for personal use; Victor Reader®, the world's leading family of digital audiobook players; the unique Prodigi™ family of desktop and portable vision and reading systems, and Trekker® Breeze, the all-in-one handheld talking GPS.

For more information:

http://www.humanware.com/prodigi

info@humanware.com

Photos available at:

http://www.humanware.ca/web/prodigi/prodigi_cover_flyer_rgb.jpg

http://www.humanware.ca/web/prodigi/prodigi_duo_magazine_rgb.jpg

http://www.humanware.ca/web/prodigi/prodigi_woman_book_rgb.jpg

http://www.humanware.ca/web/prodigi/tablet_woman_couch_rgb.jpg

Media contact:
Maria Hardcastle:
+44(0)1933-415800
maria.hardcastle@humanware.com