Wii will all go together when we go
Here’s a cool hands-free wheelchair control setup, based off a Wii remote. It’s a high school science project for now, but has tremendous potential for being a low-cost commercial strategy that could significantly improve chair design.
Engadget: Student moves quadriplegics with Wiimote wheelchair control
Mind field
As usual, a proposed “thought-controlled technology” will probably be run in practice via other physical capabilities. That doesn’t mean we’re not looking forward to some of the hands-free environmental control strategies being developed by Japanese researchers, including the ability to have heaters and air conditioners automatically respond to changes in an individual’s body temperature. Cognito, ergo summer?
iPad your pad
Environmental control has always been a huge issue for people with mobility disabilities; if you can’t control the TV from afar, for example, you may be stuck watching bad reruns long after your program of interest has ended. Ability to integrate environmental control for multiple devices into a single, easy-to-control unit is always good. If that unit is a widely available and affordable mainstream device such as an iPhone or iPad, so much the better.
Crunchgear: Is this the first home controlled solely by iPads and iPhones?
And so to bed
There are two observations from a New York Times report on the Las Vegas Market furniture show that have potential implications for people with mobility/dexterity disabilities. One is that the public at large is choosing to do more computing in the bedroom, which may well result in more design options and greater comfort becoming available to computer users who have to work from bed. The other is a promising solution to an often pressing problem: how do you get your partner to stop snoring if you don’t have enough gross motor function to nudge them? The answer is the button on a remote that temporarily inclines their side of the bed, tilting them so the cacophony goes away. If the button can be activated with minimal pressure, it could be a relationship saver.
May bear a RFID
We haven’t run across any RFID applications for awhile now, so we were happy to hear the rumors that an RFID reader may be built into the next-gen iPhone. The initial vision is that this would facilitate automatic connection to wireless networks–a laudable goal in itself–but what if it could also read other RFID tags to enable environmental control, information transfer, or…?!
Electronista: Rumor: 4th-gen iPhone to be equipped with RFID reader
Ch-ch-ch charges
Power cords, power cords — will we ever be free of your kinky, retentive ways? The bane of portable electronics — especially for people with impaired dexterity or strength — has been the need to insert chargers into wall outlets, and cables into gadgets. Prototype wireless chargers have come and gone, but now we’ve got Powermat — a real product. Just lay your mobile phone or media player on the mat and come back later to a fully-charged pocket playmate.
People who need PeepHole
Door peepholes are problematic for a lot of folks–from those with low vision to those whose eye level doesn’t line up with the standard installation height. Enter the PeepHole Viewer, which provides an enlarged, digitized view of the BFF or travelling salesman on your stoop at the push of a button. You still need to be within a reasonable distance from the viewer to see it, though; a more remote version would be nice, too.