Everyone's Favorite Gadgets

First off, I want to dedicate this poste to Anneliese. She's the one who enspired me to write it, so she deserves all the credit. Anhyway, last week, I started working downtown at the store operated by the Center for the Visually Impaired. I've been working with the different technical devices they sell. Let me tell you, with their selection, you will never suffer from boardum. When it comes to devices for totals, they mainly work with companies like Humanware and Levelstar. When it comes to some of their devices for people with low vision, they work with a few other businesses. However, since I don't work with those items, I have no clue who they are.
Let me start off with the stuff I was working with. I got to play around with the Victor Reader Stream, the Trekker Breeze, the Idee Mate, and the Icon. The Stream is a tiny machine about the size as a deck of cards. Basically, it's a book-mp3 player for the blind. The coolest part is it holds all its data on an SD card, like the one you would use for a camera. The 2 great things about this are, you have an unlimited amount of memory, and the cards are easy to find. The trekker breeze is a type of GPS. However, it doesn't lay out the whole route for you. Basically, it just tells you when you've reached a landmark that you've previously rechorded in to it. I don't know why people find it useful, but I guess some do. The Idee Mate is a device used for scanning bar codes on different foods, books, and games. It reads all of the information to you, and allows you to rechord additional information about the item. Also, it comes with lables with bar codes that you can attach to your clothes and file folders. This way, you can tell what color shirt you're wearing, or what file you just put a paper in. The Icon is basically a PDA. You can either write in it by texting, or you can get a docking station for it. It has a calendar, a journal, and a voice rechorder. Also, you can use it to play digital books.
Along with the items above, the Center sells a variety of CC TV's and magnifiers. As you may havde allready figured out, we're coming out with more and more technical devices for the blind every day. Who knows what people will think of next.