magni

Hi, happy to share this simple video magnifier built from a Raspberry Pi and camera: https://github.com/ctrlw/magni It captures anything under the camera and displays it on a connected HDMI screen. It can be controlled with push buttons, the buttons of a mouse or a (numeric) keyboard to iterate through a few predefined magnification levels, but can also switch colour mode (colour inversion and others) or read out text via TTS while staying completely on device. I originally started this for my grandmother who had Macular Degeneration, to give her a second device beside her commercial video magnifier (which costs a few 1000s), and have been updating it regularly over the years. The code is python and the hardware setup is mostly up to you, although I provide a few examples from simply sticking the device to a desk lamp or monitor, up to a

Hi, I've just updated the code and instructions for my homemade video magnifier and hope it's useful for someone out there. It uses a Raspberry Pi and Pi camera to magnify what's under the camera (in predefined scaling steps), supports colour inversion and can also read out text using Tesseract OCR and Pico TTS. The housing is up to you, with examples ranging from simply mounting the device on a lamp or a board up to 3d printed cases. I started this project years ago for my grandmother who needed a video magnifier due to her macular degeneration, and still come back to it from time to time. The new Raspberry Pi OS and v3 camera needed some extra work, so happy to share this update. Please let me know if you end up building / using it or have any suggestions.

A few people already mentioned video magnifiers, which are basically a screen with a camera to magnify stuff like books, letters, pillboxes, ... [1] My grandmother had a professional video magnifier and it helped her greatly to deal with her macular degeneration and allowed her to read and write letters or fill forms, so that should cover the quizzes. She used it about an hour per day and handled it surprisingly well given that she'd avoid most technology, e.g. handling a tablet would have been unthinkable for her. Prices for new video magnifiers are in the thousands, but used ones are often available cheaply on ebay, and some health providers may cover part or all of the cost as well. You can also try to build your own, like my simple Raspberry Pi based approach [2]. The documentation is a bit old, it lacks the new autofocus camera and a