Raspberry Pi Forums

As a newcomer to the Raspberry Pi, it struck me as an ideal project to help a good friend with cerebral palsy. He is confined to a wheelchair and currently uses a Windows XP computer, neck micro switches and a programme called Grid2. Although it works well, the number of "clicks" he has to us to do anything seems excessive. I looked at getting a licence for the software so I could work on a more effective layout, but the cost was prohibitive.

Plan B is to use a RP to create a way for him to control his TV & HiFi through a remote control as well as playing music and showing photos stored on an external hard drive. The inputs would have to be limited to 3 neck switches.

I wondered if any forum members have built anything similar? Any hints or tips would be most useful, as well as any potential pit falls to watch out for.

Hi,

withnail67 wrote:I wondered if any forum members have built anything similar?

Similar (in terms of goal).
What I have (and is compatible with RasPi and WinXP you mentioned) is that a single "click" on one (out of several) switch equals to typing any sequence of keys on the keyboard and/or any movement + clicks of the mouse.

withnail67 wrote:Any hints or tips would be most useful, as well as any potential pit falls to watch out for.

Pit falls is that with reduced number of "clicks" you can access reduced number of original functionalities...

Since you have working system already, you could use RasPi just to reduce number of needed "clicks" within existing system. You can define mapping and put RasPi between "neck switches" and WinXp computer - RasPi reads "clicks" according to (temporarily, a kind of "submenu") reduced set of clicks and expands them to original WinXp set according to deifned mapping.
(RasPi could be too powerful for this task, but this doesn't hurt... )


Best wishes, Ivan Zilic.

withnail67 wrote:As a newcomer to the Raspberry Pi, it struck me as an ideal project to help a good friend with cerebral palsy. He is confined to a wheelchair and currently uses a Windows XP computer, neck micro switches and a programme called Grid2. Although it works well, the number of "clicks" he has to us to do anything seems excessive. I looked at getting a licence for the software so I could work on a more effective layout, but the cost was prohibitive.

Plan B is to use a RP to create a way for him to control his TV & HiFi through a remote control as well as playing music and showing photos stored on an external hard drive. The inputs would have to be limited to 3 neck switches.

I wondered if any forum members have built anything similar? Any hints or tips would be most useful, as well as any potential pit falls to watch out for.

coild try controllinga modified xbmc system ionly use up down left and right arrows to control minexmbc xb has a lot of features already configured and has remote functionvia mobilr phone ap

Thank you for the replies. I hadn't considered using the Pi as a method of reducing the number of clicks needed to access the most used features.

One other reason I'd like to try this project is to reduce costs. The XP system my friend currently uses cost several thousand pounds about 6 years ago!

I suspect the hardest part will be optimising the menus so he will be able to find what he wants as quickly as possible.

Hi,

withnail67 wrote:I suspect the hardest part will be optimising the menus so he will be able to find what he wants as quickly as possible.

If I were you, I'd start with tree-structure. Frequently used actions/items are closer to the top (starting) node. What you have to do next is to attach a hits counter to each, which you use (periodically) to move related action/item closer to (or more far away from) the top node.
Most likely, at the beginning, there would be many rearrangements, probably causing also some confusion of the young man (just remember yourself when after upgrading M$ Word 2003 to 2007 ), but this should quickly settle down. So, you get a "self-learning" menus system which optimizes number of clicks... (and you could also improve this simple counter selector by including also time component, etc.)


Best wishes, Ivan Zilic.

Thank you for the counter idea to help minimise the number of clicks needed to access favourite options. Although D. (I won't use his full name to protect his privacy) has "learning difficulties" he seems to pick up new ways to use a computer fairly quickly. Especially if the end result means he can listen to music

I want to strip away all the extra stuff that he doesn't need at home. He uses his computer to talk to people who are not used to his speech, but that is just clutter when at home. I want to use 3 switches and tiered menus to try and make things as efficient as possible.

Cheers