HISTORY OF VIDEOSPEC
Videospec was founded by Pat Crane in 1985, with the object of building small television cameras to carry out inspections in areas that other cameras could not reach. We made very tiny, fully waterproof cameras that inspected small holes in a vast number or important places looking for corrosion, damage or leaks. Our cameras were used in nuclear power stations, rescue work for global earthquakes, boiler tubes in ships, by HM Customs looking for illegal immigrants in lorries, by the Police checking under cars and inside lofts, plus many other interesting applications.
A major change happened whilst Pat Crane and his wife June were dancing with a partially sighted friend who told them that she could only letters the size of a car number plate. Pat felt that it would be possible to use a modified Videospec camera to increase the size of print onto a television. With very little modification Pat demonstrated a camera in a pencil, which worked well, but was difficult to control for unskilled users. A remark was made that it should be similar to a stapler, and so Pat produced the first ever EEZEE READER.
At that time, Videospec produced 12 EEZEE READERS thinking that we would be lucky to sell them, since we were very busy with inspection work. However, in 1992, one partially-sighted enthusiast told the IN TOUCH radio program on BBC Radio 4 about the EEZEE READER, and Pat Crane was awarded the David Scott-Blackhall Annual Award by the HRH the Princess Anne, Princess Royal for the most useful development for the blind in that year. Although the shock of the telephone call from the BBC didn't register until two days later (Pat had to call the BBC back just to confirm that it was not a joke!!), that day was to change the way in which Videospec was to go.
With the marketing skills of John Percival, who ran Force Ten at that time, Videospec started to move away from inspection cameras into low vision aids for the partially-sighted. For the next 10 years Pat designed many different models, such as the EEZEE WRITER and EEZEE ZOOM, as well as improvements to the original EEZEE READER. Many of the developments came from suggestions by partially-sighted people at various exhibitions that Pat & June attended across the country.
The next big change happened in 2002, when the Chairman of the Macular Disease Society told Pat that what their sufferers needed most was a low vision aid that they could take out shopping or to the restaurant, without being too conspicuous. The following weekend, whilst relaxing at their caravan by the south coast, Pat built a possible solution out of a cereal packet. He then made a balsa wood model before building the world's first ever POCKET READER. Six weeks after the first meeting, Pat demonstrated the prototype to the Chairman of the Macular Disease Society, and so the POCKET READER was born. With the marketing expertise of Pulse Data (now Humanware), over the next 12 months the POCKET READER was sold all over the world.