Hand-held reading device for the visually impaired

A hand held unit for an electronic magnifying device for magnifying and displaying text on a monitor;

• the hand held unit including:
• a housing including a top, a bottom, and side walls;
• said bottom defining an opening;
• legs depending from the bottom;
• rollers rotatably connected to the legs at a bottom end of the legs to facilitate movement of the hand held unit over the object:
• a solid state camera housed in said hand held unit above said opening which converts an optical signal to an electrical signal, said camera including a lens, said lens being focusable, said camera being mounted to a mounting board, said mounting board defining an opening through which said camera lens extends, said mounting board being disposed in said unit housing for vertical movement relative to said housing;
• a corrective lens disposed below said camera lens to prevent distortion of the object magnified by the device
• a focusing control for focusing said camera lens, said focusing control including a focusing knob operably connected to said camera lens to rotate said camera lens to focus said camera;
• said focusing control including a focusing rod which rotatably extends through said mounting board and said housing, said focusing knob being fixed to said rod externally of said hand held unit housing, a pulley fixed to a bottom of said focusing rod beneath said mounting board, and a band operatively engaging said pulley and said camera lens, such that when said focusing knob is rotated, said camera lens is rotated;
• and
• a zoom control for altering the size of the image displayed on the monitor, said zoom control being interconnected with said focusing control such that when said zoom control is operated, said image does not have to be refocused, said zoom control being operatively connected to said mounting board to vertically move said mounting board to change the distance between said camera lens and said object being magnified;
• said zoom control including an elongate zoom rod rotatably journaled about said focusing rod, a helical groove being formed in said zoom rod, a vertically fixed pin which engages said zoom rod groove, such that when said zoom rod is rotated, it moves vertically relative to said housing;
• said zoom rod being mounted intermediate the focusing knob and the mounting board, such that the zoom rod is vertically fixed relative to the focusing rod;
• whereby, when the zoom rod is moved vertically, the focusing control, and hence the mounting board and camera, are moved vertically.