Category Archives: lifekludger

Dave the Lifekludger gets a mention by Mark Pesce on New Inventors

Over a month back I mentioned in a blog post titled “Mind control interface a near reality” the Epoc Headset, being developed by Emotiv. The other day on the New Inventors on the ABC here in Australia my friend Mark Pesce gives a shoutoput to me. Ref 1min in.

The touch barrier — responses

After my previous post about the “Touch Barrier” as referring to the inherent issues of the pervasive use of touch technologies I had some good responses. @lucychili pointed me to work Peter Hutterer is doing with MPXLaurel wrote a blog post “Disabilities social networks games” pointing to a article DISABLED GAMERS’ COMPRISE 20% OF CASUAL-VIDEOGAMEContinueContinue reading “The touch barrier — responses”

The Touch Barrier – Accessibility and usability issues around touch technologies

I’m Worried. Worried about recent technology developments – actually the application of one technology in particular – touch. In this instance, when I say ‘touch’ I’m referring to devices requiring skin – a finger as opposed to a stylus – ala the iPhone and nearly every laptop on the market. For the past 60% ofContinueContinue reading “The Touch Barrier – Accessibility and usability issues around touch technologies”

Bluetooth Wireless Input Pen

SMK Corp developed “Wireless Input Pen,” which can transmit characters written in the air and displays them on a monitor. According to SMK, it is the world’s first pen-type device that can transmit characters written in the air to a monitor … I caught this via a story on Engadget. Engadget mention the pen canContinueContinue reading “Bluetooth Wireless Input Pen”

Equipment becoming even harder and costlier to get

Interesting article on the state of getting medical equipment in the States over at New Mobility. It certainly is an indicator of how the available funds for equipment is becoming scarce — how much is artificial is another argument. My point is that when something becomes scarce we need to start looking at how somethingContinueContinue reading “Equipment becoming even harder and costlier to get”

Travel Second Life hands free

Lots of new and interesting input and interface devices being developed it seems lately. Lets hope we can see some real world uses for access to technology evolving from them. Mitch Kapor (from Linden Labs Board) and Philippe Bossut designed a prototype interface that demonstrates the possibilities for operating Second Life “hands free” without aContinueContinue reading “Travel Second Life hands free”

ConnectingUp – Get ConnectED: Weaving A New Social Web for People with Disabilities.

The following is fro the Blog of Beth Kanter, a friend who’s up in Brisbane at the ConnectingUp Conference for Non-profits. Big thanks to Beth. I am posting her notes on this breakout session as it highlights some of the key Benefits and Barriers for people living with disability participating in the digital space -ContinueContinue reading “ConnectingUp – Get ConnectED: Weaving A New Social Web for People with Disabilities.”

Mind control interface a near reality

Be interesting to see what practical applications this device from Emotiv can be put to use as. There’s some discussion on the Facebook Emotivated Group discussion around using it for computer control by those with a disability. I’m looking forward to being able to walk in second life, and fly, by thinking with it. 🙂ContinueContinue reading “Mind control interface a near reality”

Lifekludger Research Lab

Seeing this site and video made me think that a Lifekludger Research Lab would be a good idea. Someone getting behind outfitting Lifekludger endeavours. Te GRL’s slogan is “Dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source technologies for urban communication”. How cool would it be to have support for Lifekludging with the motto “Dedicated toContinueContinue reading “Lifekludger Research Lab”

People don’t scale, People Networks do.

I read with interest my good mate, Hugo Ortega’s UberTablet blog. Hugo was the very first guest on our Extraordinary Everyday Lives podcast and, outside of my regular colleagues, has been the single biggest supporter of my Lifekludger endeavours, and indeed myself, in a substantial way – providing equipment to try with my mouthstick especially.ContinueContinue reading “People don’t scale, People Networks do.”

Alarm backup power from phone lines?

I came across this site called 5min.com. It’s a how-to style video sharing site with heaps of neat tricks and tips. This video below got me thinking about emergency backup sources for such things as alarms etc. Watch it to the end. http://www.5min.com/Embeded/12198/ How to Get Free Electricity Watch more DIY videos on 5min.comhttp://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Get-Free-Electricity-12198 NearContinueContinue reading “Alarm backup power from phone lines?”

Turn phone into walking radar to detect physical spaces

The “Walking Radar” project connects up a Basic Stamp and IR sensor to your cell phone in order to detect objects in the environment and influence games on the device or trigger SMS messages to be sent. [Make] It occurred to me this gadget if hooked up to the vibration part of your phone couldContinueContinue reading “Turn phone into walking radar to detect physical spaces”

Modeling Second Life virtual objects in the Physical – Paper Prototyping

I recently came across this site called Export To World which offers a method of taking virtual objects created in Second Life and creating a physical paper model of it in First Life. In effect making physical objects from virtual ones. Novel concept you say, but so what? Well, think of the situation where aContinueContinue reading “Modeling Second Life virtual objects in the Physical – Paper Prototyping”

AlarMe – Alert watch with style

AlarMe is a very unique watch that has the ability to alert those who cannot hear an audible alarm by vibration. Multidirectional microphones that can register a drastic change in ambient sound level, or pick up specially asigned frequencies alert the user. The LED lights and face alert the user as to what the alarmContinueContinue reading “AlarMe – Alert watch with style”

Pointui – touch for when you don’t have fingers – acting agnostic

Recently I was made aware of a program called Pointui while scanning Frank Arrigo’s blog (hi Frank). I thought it sounded interesting if for no other reason than the screenshot looked to provide bigger buttons. So I visited the Pointui site. Pointui is a interface layer for Windows Mobile based devices. It adds larger iconsContinueContinue reading “Pointui – touch for when you don’t have fingers – acting agnostic”

5 Dangerous Things Kids should do

Dangerous Things Kids should do     photo by Leo Reynolds 1. play with fire 2. own a pocket knife 3. throw a spear 4. de-construct appliances 5. break the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) [5.5 drive a car] Confused? Then watch this video from TED. You may just be able to impart some realContinueContinue reading “5 Dangerous Things Kids should do”

XBox 360 Controller for Mac OSX

Came across this neat little project that could be an alternate input device. Not sure if it could double as mouse and gaes controller, or just games.  “…a USB driver which allows you to use wired XBox 360 Controllers via USB, and wireless XBox 360 Controllers via the Microsoft Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows, on yourContinueContinue reading “XBox 360 Controller for Mac OSX”

Unforseen custom uses for Wii as input device

There exists assistive technology devices that use tracking of a reflective dot by infrared to control a computer. They cost in vacinity on USD $4-500. Now take a look at this video and think about the unforseen possibilities of general purpose ‘stuff’. And what happens with mass market uptake and the effect it has onContinueContinue reading “Unforseen custom uses for Wii as input device”

Phone fingers need a finger to work

[img:1943139268,small] [A Phone Finger on my mouthstick. All revved up with no place to go.] Well, I bought the Mac book home to try these phone fingers on my mouthstick. Doesn’t work. Still needs a finger. I had originally thought the phone fingers might have been made from material that acted like the human fingerContinueContinue reading “Phone fingers need a finger to work”

Phone Fingers – Solution for ‘no finger’ touch?

I’ve been under a rock. Just decided pop my head out and saw that these Phone Fingers had been released. Immediately I thought that this may at long last be the answer to the problems I have using anything that requires a finger skin to operate it. I’m off to order some and see howContinueContinue reading “Phone Fingers – Solution for ‘no finger’ touch?”