TELESCOPIC LOW-VISION AIDS WITH MOTORIZED AND AUTO FOCUSES

Prototypes of motorized-focus telescopes (MFTs) and of a 4X auto-focus telescope (APT) were constructed, and 22 users of hand-focus telescop es (HFTs) were trained to use them for near-distance and intermediate- distance tasks. Despite the lack of differences in performance with th e MFT, APT, and HFT, the subjects' ratings on 9 of 10 aspects of teles cope performance were significantly higher for the APT and MFT than fo r the HFT.