Optaro XL: The iPad Transformer
Steve Kelley
Have you ever dreamed of turning your iPad into a super portable, lightweight video magnifier with all the best features - fully customizable? Well, Eschenbach did. It's called Optaro XL and works with your existing iPad running iOS 18 or higher. The Optaro XL works with 11-inch to 13-inch iPads.
How Does It Work?
The Optaro XL is a lightweight stand that holds an iPad securely, with built-in cameras and LED lights that connect to the iPad with a USB-C cable (included). The camera and lights are rechargeable and last about 6.5 hours. When the iPad is connected to the Optaro XL using its second, longer USB-C cable while charging, it also charges the iPad at the same time.
The camera and light unit built into the Optaro XL case has two cameras - one for viewing what's beneath the camera, and the other, which provides a wider view, for optical character recognition (OCR). The unit also has two LED lights for maximum light distribution. Both lights can be adjusted in Settings to increase or decrease brightness.
The Optaro XL case is lightweight, weighing just a couple of pounds, very sturdy, and folds compactly into itself for storage or travel. The Optaro XL expands into several positions depending on the task and for reading comfort. When fully expanded, the case opens into its highest position, which moves the iPad and camera high enough to write beneath it while looking at the screen to fill out a check or complete a form.
Open the Optaro XL App
The Optaro XL app, available free in the App Store, puts everything together by connecting the cameras and lights to the iPad and adding a wide array of magnification features commonly found on dedicated video magnifiers. The first time the Optaro XL is connected to the iPad after the app is installed, it requires a simple setup process to sync the Optaro XL and iPad. Connect the USB-C cable from the Optaro XL to the iPad, turn on the Optaro XL, open the Optaro app, and follow the instructions on the screen. This only needs to be done during the initial setup.
Once installed, the Optaro app opens with a ribbon of icons across the bottom of the screen. The icons can be hidden with a tap on the screen so they are not in the way while reading. To get started, open the Optaro app, slide a printed document beneath the Optaro XL, and it appears on the screen.
The three icons on the right side of the ribbon include a "+" and "-" button to increase and decrease magnification. Between them is an Overview button. When tapped, it zooms out and returns the view to a default wide-angle appearance. A second tap returns to the original magnified view. Users may find it simpler to use the iPad pinch gestures to increase and decrease magnification.
Once magnification is adjusted, simply slide the document beneath the Optaro XL to read it on the screen. By default, magnification can be adjusted up to 15x. Need more magnification? Open Settings, the fourth icon in the ribbon represented by a gear, select Maximum Zoom, and use the slider to increase it to 22x. Even at the highest magnification, the image remains sharp and clear.
To enhance contrast with color filters, tap the False Colors button, identified by an icon with a shaded circle. Each tap changes the filter. By default, there are three modes: original color, white on black, and black on white. For more options, open Settings and select False Colors. An additional 14 color filters are available here. Simply select the color combinations you want to include.
One feature that can be especially helpful for visual reading is the Reading Support line, a horizontal line that runs across the screen to help align text while reading. The Reading Support button, identified by an icon with a red line, adds a line to the screen. In Settings, opening the Reading Support menu provides several options to customize the reading line, including its position on the screen, thickness, and color (black or red). In addition, users can choose whether to show or hide the Reading Support icon if it is not a feature they use regularly.
Tell Me More
There are several ways to have text read aloud with the Optaro XL. The quickest way to start text-to-speech is to press the first button, identified by an icon resembling a dialog bubble. The Tell Me button snaps a picture of the image currently on the screen and begins reading it back almost instantly.
Tell Me mode reads only what is visible on the screen, making it useful when words are difficult to see or when you simply want a quick sense of what a document contains. To have more text read at once, reduce the magnification so that more text appears on the screen.
OCR on the Optaro XL
For more comprehensive text-to-speech reading, the Optaro XL also includes extensive optical character recognition (OCR) features. OCR on the Optaro XL is fast and accurate.
To begin, tap the OCR button to the right of Settings. This opens its own ribbon. From left to right, the icons include Back, Settings, OCR, and Scan. The screen view also changes when OCR mode is activated - magnification is reduced, and the camera view switches to a wider angle to capture more of the document.
If the document is fully visible at this point, tapping the OCR icon again scans the document. If the document is too long to be captured in a single image, choose the Scan icon instead. Scan mode provides an ingenious way to scan an entire document. After tapping Scan, two buttons appear: Back and a Right Arrow. Tap the Right Arrow and slide the document forward beneath the Optaro XL until you reach the end. The Optaro XL provides 30 seconds to feed the document through. Tap the Check button when finished.
With either OCR or Scan, once the image is processed, the text appears on the screen. By default, text is grouped into chunks on the original image, with numbers assigned to each section. Select a chunk of text by tapping it, then tap it a second time to bring up a ribbon containing a Play button. Tap Play, and the text in that chunk is read aloud, with each word highlighted by a red box as it is spoken.
OCR results on the Optaro XL are highly customizable through the Read Aloud Settings menu. Here, users can adjust reading speed as well as the appearance of the text. For example, instead of displaying text on the original image, users can have the text presented in a separate block or even as a scrolling line across the screen.
Four sans serif fonts are available for OCR-converted text. Once the Play button is tapped, the text is converted according to the selected preferences and read aloud. Magnification and color filters can be applied to the converted text to further fine-tune the reading experience. When reading is complete, tap the Back button to return to the original menu.
The default ribbon also contains one additional feature: the Camera button. Tap the Camera button to open a menu for saving, sharing, and retrieving images. Images can be shared using the iPad's built-in sharing features, and images already saved in Gallery can be opened in the Optaro XL app.
Customizing the Optaro XL
In addition to the many options for magnification, OCR, color filters, and other features, Settings includes an option to select the Operating Mode.
By default, when the Optaro XL app opens, the ribbon contains nine icons along the bottom of the screen. For advanced users, the availability of all these options makes the app very powerful. For a new user, or someone with only a few specific needs, this may be more functionality than is required for routine use.
The Operating Mode menu offers four ways to configure the Optaro XL app: Simple, Enhanced, Advanced (the default operating mode), and Advanced (lateral arrangement).
The Advanced mode with the lateral arrangement splits the ribbon in half and places the icons vertically on either side of the screen. Simple mode, for example, reduces the ribbon to four items: False Colors, Settings, Plus, and Minus. Enhanced mode adds Tell Me and OCR back to the ribbon.
Final Thoughts
The Optaro XL quickly transforms an iPad into a very powerful video magnifier with its sturdy stand, LED lights, and dual-camera system. The free app available in the Apple App Store is wonderfully customizable, offering a wide variety of features that may not be found on other video magnifiers, such as Reading Support and the ability to format OCR output as a scrolling horizontal line of text.
The stand is designed for both comfortable reading and simple writing tasks beneath it when fully extended. It is ideal for reading and working with single-page documents, receipts, envelopes, and other thin printed materials.
For magazines, books, or larger-format print, such as newspapers, the Optaro XL will need to be lifted onto the material. For books and magazines, placing a sheet of thin plexiglass on top of the print to create a more even surface makes this process much easier. Because of its lightweight design and stand construction, the Optaro XL slides easily across these surfaces.
The Optaro XL is available online for $1195-$1295 and through low-vision professionals. For more information, visit the Eschenbach website at https://eschenbach.com/optaro-xl/.