When I was just a wee lad my engineer father bought me a box of Meccano, an intriguing collection of metal strips with holes in, pulleys, wheels, tiny motors and a heap of other bits and pieces, from which I was able to design and build simple devices, such as a cyclotron and a scanning electron microscope, which I presented to a proud, but mildly bewildered, parent. The Geddes Glide Reader reminds me, fondly, of my much loved Meccano kit. There are two reasons why I like this device: it works - and it's cheap. It brings CCTV (closed circuit television) technology well within the affordable range for a lot of folks for whom the more sophisticated, sleek, all bells and whistles CCTV systems are beyond the financial pale. At £65 (about $US100 at time of writing) it is a fraction of the cost of comparable systems which weigh in at anything from £1,000 upwards. The big saving is it doesn't come with a screen, instead you plug it into your own TV, tuned to its video channel. The GGR is sufficiently compact to be portable, as long as you have access to a TV set.
It is little more than a video camera mounted on a vertical arm which points down between two horizontal base arms. The tube-like camera gives a high quality, colour image whose magnification is adjusted by sliding the camera up and down the vertical arm. Focusing is by a knurled knob at the bottom of the camera. I use it by placing whatever I want to read on a flat board or tray on my lap, and "glide" the GGR back and forth across the text. As with all low vision aids it takes a bit of practice, but after a few minutes I had it sussed just fine. The GGR was designed by an engineer member of the Edinburgh Macular Disease Society (UK) local group. It comes as no great surprise that a Scot from a nation famed for its engineering ingenuity and eye to economy should come up with such an effective, affordable CCTV reader. Incidentally, I was sent the GGR to assess for this article. I didn't send it back. Dear reader - I bought it!
Dr. Bob Thompson
If you would like more information about the Geddes Reader and to possibly arrange a free trial of the GGR, contact George Kay at george_kay40@hotmail.com
