iPad stand and light for use with iOS apps?

By alx, 11 February, 2014

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories
Hello, I am new to this forum and trying to find products to help my wife and daughter with low vision. There are many iPad "magnifier" apps out there. VisionAssist and Mag. Light Pro seem most helpful so far. To be really useful, it would be great to have some sort of stand or mount for the iPad with a built in light to illuminate the document. Ideally, the iPad would sit in this stand on a desk/table so hands can be free to magnify the image and move the document under neath. Surely this exists, but I can't seem to find it. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thank you!

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Comments

By Jesse Tregarthen on Saturday, March 1, 2014 - 16:01

Hello, I heard on the Serotalk podcast a while back about a product called the stand scan. It is a cardboard stand that you expand into a stand 24 inches high. It is supposed to be for OCR but I would think it would work for magnifying. You put your phone on top and the paper inside and the camera sees the paper and scans or magnifies it. There are other products out there and maybe this won't help but your question made me remember it. The pro version comes with LED lights on the top that run either off a wall plug or a battery pack. Hope this helps, Jesse

Thank you for the suggestion. I had a look at it. I don't think it will work for us, but I can imagine this would be helpful for others. First of all, we have an iPad and the ScanStand is designed for an iPhone/iTouch. The ScanStand is meant for scanning documents. This would be great I think for someone who wants to scan a page and run OCR on it. We are hoping to have something that will work more for magnifying and reading directly on the iPad, so the scanning and then OCR is not for us. On the other hand, the product makes me think that maybe we can build something that will work. The ScanStand is made of cardboard. I could probably rig a cardboard stand. Then we just have to figure out lighting… Thanks again and maybe other folks will have ideas too.

By Isaac Hebert (not verified) on Saturday, March 1, 2014 - 16:01

You can also turn on zoom it is a program that enlarges you're screen. Just go to settings general accessibility zoom then turn on the zoom feature.

By alx on Saturday, March 1, 2014 - 16:01

Yes, plenty of good ways to zoom or magnify. The problem is that you have to hold the iPad. It's impossible to hold it perfectly still so there is jiggling that is pronounced when zoomed. And since it really requires two hands to hold the iPad you can't do anything else with your hands. I'm hoping to find something that holds the iPad steady and provides direct lighting. This will provide a clear and stable image and free up the hands. Thanks for your suggestion.

By Pat on Monday, December 1, 2014 - 16:01

A new stand is now available that holds the iPad, iPad Mini or iPhone. Called ScanJig Pro it provides easy tactile positioning of both smart devices and documents for correct focus, alignment and field of view. The product design also helps avoid shadows and optimizes ambient light to get great images. This can help you work with the magnifier app. See www.scanjig.com for more information.