The Kind Reminder is a recorder that can be worn around the neck as a necklace or just kept close by. When the patient has a moment of disorientation, they can press the button on the recorder and the voice of their caretaker will play. The website says the product is designed for people with early to mid-stage Alzheimer’s or memory loss related to age.
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The Kind Reminder can be purchased for $19.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. Five percent of all sales will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Combining pointing devices with keyboards is great for those with limited reach / movement and mouth stick users. ThinkPad keyboards are fantastic. To have em as a desktop kb would be great.
[New ThinkPad keyboard features crowdsourced design, lower price]
These straws look useful and like a lot of fun, the $13 set comes with 20 rubber connectors and 16 straw parts to make your own drinking straw contraption…
It seems RIM’s ‘optical pad’ technology could offer hope for the “touch barrier” that exists with the requirement for skin to touch the capacitive type pads that dominate todays gadgets.
Thinking about how your phone’s touchscreen operates, you might assume that the so-called optical pads that have been making appearances on recentBlackBerrys (among other devices) operate in a similar fashion — but you’d be wrong. RIM’s official BlackBerry blog is chiming in today to drop some knowledge on us dullards, and it turns out that “optical” isn’t just a cute nickname — the pads do actually operate in much the same way as modern desktop mice, using a low-res infrared camera to capture movement across the surface and translate it into movement. In practical terms, what this means is that you don’t need a conductive surface to operate the pad — you can use pretty much anything that the sensor can see, so a gloved hand (for instance) is theoretically good to go. …
Earlier in the year I was contacted by Darrell. Darrell may not realise it, but he is a Lifekludger.
Darrell has a son. His son lives with a disability. His son’s disability prevented him from using a mobile phone.
earpiece
Unable to press a button to activate ‘hands free’ voice control dialing – yes the irony is less than funny – Darrel came up with a fantastic way around this inability. A fantastic life-kludge.
How It’s Done
By modifying a Bluetooth earpiece so that it is activated by bringing a magnet near it – thereby emulating a button press – his son is able to activate the earpiece with a tilt of his head and then give a voice command. He explains it like this:
“I mounted a magnet next to the headrest on his wheelchair…this allows [him] to simply move his head a few inches to do a quick click which is what he has to do to make a call…or to (simulate) push and hold the button, which is what he does to turn the headset On or OFF. The headset is Based on the BlueAnt V1 because it has a rich set of Voice Commands…which makes it very easy for him to use.”
Now, that, people [and by people I'm pointing at designers of devices] is true hands free voice control of a phone.
Now Darrell didn’t just contact me to brag about this – which nonetheless is definitely worth bragging about – but to offer me a review unit.
The earpiece duly arrived and contained everything one might require to get it up and running, including Blue ant Bluetooth earpiece – with modification; magnet, velcro pocket for magnet attachment, rod for attaching to chair and even multiple plastic wire-ties for attaching said rod. Oh, and instructions. This was very well thought through and welcomed, to see all pieces that would be needed to get it functioning. Too often it’s these extra little things that enable someone with a disability to use a device at all, let alone effectively.
How I Use It
magnet in splint
I can lift my hand to my ear but not having sensation in my hand have problems locating small buttons on a earpiece let alone pressing one. This one aspect is the number one priority I have when buying a Bluetooth earpiece.
So my intention was to use the magnet as a replacement for finding and pressing a button. To this end I needed to get the magnet affixed to my wrist splint I wear on my left hand. You can see how this was achieved here.
I found this worked fine, when I could get the ear piece to stay in my ear-hole, a problem rectified with glue – no, on the ear piece, not my ear – and yet the proximity required of the magnet to get it to function was such that I often had the same location issues as when trying to hit a button, loosely summarised as “where the hell is my hand?!” But when I managed to get the hang of what angle my arm needed to be on, I could manage well. If I had one wish, for me, I guess a stronger magnet might be it. Except I wonder how may stray paper clips and lost pins might be attracted to my hand as I go about my day.
Here’s what it kinda looked like:
video snippet of action
I am impressed with the capabilities of the BlueAnt v1 to respond to voice commands to adjust its settings and see why Darrel chose to use it.
I personally didn’t have much joy with voice dialing but thats more a non-function of my old Windows Mobile 5 based PDA, which I use my earpiece with and operate using a pen held in my mouth, and is no reflection on the earpiece mod or it’s function.
About Time:
The overriding thing that I like about what Darrell’s done with creating the “no buttons headset” is that he’s thought outside the square, solved a problem and more so shared it. And done so paying attention to details such as only someone who has personal experience could do.
He’s shown what’s possible if you think beyond the tunnel vision that a lot of designers and makers of devices get stuck in.
By creating something that doesn’t require pushing a button before using a voice command, the no buttons headset has enabled a Bluetooth earpiece to do true ‘hands free’ voice dialing.
A lot of what it says I can attest to in my own experience, especially in relation to technology providing a platform and mechanism for "core discussion networks" to become more diverse.
This also sets off alarms in my head attesting to the underestimated importance of access to technology and access to social networks for people living with a disability.
It also reinforces how we are being forced to, and in my opinion need to, look differently at entrenched concepts of what constitutes being 'socially isolated'. The highlighting of the importance of core discussion networks acting as social ties I find fascinating as well as true in my experience.
This is another area of culture that is creating upheaval in thinking when we try and rely on an old mode of comparison and an area that the digital age is turning on its head in all manner of inversions.
Some key parts:
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Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. We find that the extent of social isolation has hardly changed since 1985, contrary to concerns that the prevalence of severe isolation has tripled since then. Only 6% of the adult population has no one with whom they can discuss important matters or who they consider to be “especially significant” in their life.
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We confirm that Americans’ discussion networks have shrunk by about a third since 1985 and have become less diverse because they contain fewer non?family members. However, contrary to the considerable concern that people’s use of the internet and cell phones could be tied to the trend towards smaller networks, we find that ownership of a mobile phone and participation in a variety of internet activities are associated with larger and more diverse core discussion networks. (Discussion networks are a key measure of people’s most important social ties.)
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Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.
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When we examine people’s full personal network – their strong ties and weak ties – internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with having a more diverse social network. Again, this flies against the notion that technology pulls people away from social engagement.
circle with symbolic people around inner circumference
That may seem obvious to some. But it’s true power hit me like a ton of bricks when it popped into my head. More-so as I’ve been hung-up and writing on this openness thing for ages, on many levels, not being able to articulate the importance my gut was feeling about it.
The issue of the digital divide is also not going to go away. So when we work on these solutions, we need to keep making sure that the inclusiveness is protected, the inclusiveness that is an integral part of the digital native value set.
[emphasis mine]
There’s something inherent in the abundance of a digital world and dawning digital culture that requires, even demands, openness on many fronts. It’s something we who are emerging from a scarce, analog, closed, culture are coming to grips with – or at least will be forced to – sometimes clawing and screaming.
But there’s something about this openness that bodes well for inclusion beyond just the digital world, and largely because of those who are growing up digital as it’s part of them – ingrained in their psyches and in their being.
Abundance demands openness. And openness bring inclusion. Sometimes it just takes a long time … time being an analog concept.
This story from the Santa Cruz Sentinel shows the power of connection and what can be achieved when a Maker (Jon Bjornstad, a Santa Cruz freelance computer programmer) is backed by a Giver (Roy and Ana Cook of Saratoga) to help a Liver (Karadole, a paralyzed woman who lives in Croatia) – with the end result being empowerment and enriched lives for everyone.
Makers, Givers and Livers are key parrts of the Lifekludger eco-system. For more see the Lifekludger wiki.
An article in Technology Review reveals development of pressure sensitive touch pads that could be used on future generation devices.
Why is this Lifekludger newsworthy? Because the pads are reported to combine features of both kinds of existing touch pads. To me, this might mean some breaking down of the Touch Barrier and the seeming ubiquitous use of capacitive type touch pads on todays technology.
At very least it could offer options, which is what accessibility is all about.
This small piece I quote below, from the full article, I do so as it offers clues to how capacitive pads work and hence possible alternative materials than a finger for use as an input device.
I might see if I can get in touch [sorry pun] with Ilya or Ken and explore other possibilities.
New York University researchers Ilya Rosenberg and Ken Perlin are developing an interface that goes even further. It’s a thin pad that responds precisely to pressure from not only a finger but a range of objects, such as a foot, a stylus, or a drumstick. And it can sense multiple inputs at once. — Devices like the Palm Pilot, which use a stylus to input data, typically detect touch by measuring changes in electrical resistance when an object taps the screen. But these screens can register only a single touch at a time. Touch screens on smart phones, meanwhile, use a sensor that detects changes in capacitance, or the material’s ability to hold an electric charge; capacitance changes when objects containing water–including fingers–move across the screen. Such screens can sense multiple touches, but they can’t detect pressure.
This blog is about supporting the idea of Lifekludger, which you can read about here. On it you'll find information about ideas, devices, methods and custom uses for 'everyday stuff' that could be used to adapt, build, kludge, hack or make things work for people living with disability, as well as links and opinion on useful existing devices. I sometimes rant at length about all manner of things, usually with a technical slant and always with a unique view.
Lifekludger Project Funds m.lifekludger.net
Thinking about how your phone’s touchscreen operates, you might assume that the so-called optical pads that have been making appearances on 
