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Communications

Communicating with Handicapped Loved Ones? 43

Posted by Cliff from the making-the-complex-ultra-simple dept.
Trx asks: "Many of us regularly exchange digital images from our loved ones, but the disabled are often left on the dark side of this digital divide. My dad is quadriplegic, and I've been looking into ways I might outfit his room with an automated download of images to his television. Have any Slashdot users attempt something of this sort? He lives in an assisted living facility, with personal telephone/cable lines. He has special response buttons for control of television channels and phone. Due to high staff-turnover, training-in staff to help him download emails or images hasn't worked out. I am stationed overseas, and can only get back once every 6 months if I'm lucky, so low-maintenance is key. WebTV would be an option if it didn't require mouse or keyboard. We've also considered investing in a laptop DVD player, and mailing disks. Any suggestions?"
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Communicating with Handicapped Loved Ones? More

Communicating with Handicapped Loved Ones?

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  • Digital Picture Frame (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Sunday January 16, 2005 @02:58PM (#11379743) Homepage
    I think a digital picture frame is your best bet. While the larget ones are expensive (ouch), you could build your own larger one out of an old laptop or something much cheaper. Then you just have it automatically dial in (or use high speed internet if that's an option) and download pictures off a FTP server (or some such) somewhere every night. When you want to give him a new picutre, just upload it to the server. Then the next day it will automatically be one of the ones in the slide show. No controlls, no nothing. Just a static object in the room that doesn't require any interaction that does exactly what you want easily.

    Now if you wanted to give him some controll (forward, back, pause, etc) that could be much trickier. The best I can think of off the top of my head (and this wouldn't be too easy) would be to set it up with a microphone and teach it to listen for whistles or some such. One quick whistle is stop, two is forward, etc. Or you could use different pitches (A is stop, B is forward, etc). That would be easy to controll once he got the hang of it and would require no controll device, wouldn't have to be rigged into the ones currently provided, etc.

    Of course that assumes he knows how to whisle. He does know how to whistle doesn't he? He just puts his lips together and... sorry, couldn't resist.

    • Here's a Slashdot story [slashdot.org] that covered building your own digital picture frame, if you do decide to go that route.

    • Re:Digital Picture Frame (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Sunday January 16, 2005 @03:02PM (#11379761) Homepage
      OK, other idea. The quality wouldn't be as good (due to it being on TV) but it's still an option. Does he need channel 3 or 4? You can buy those little devices (often at Radio Shack (blech)) that let you plug in recent electionics (the kind of S-Video or RCA jacks) into old cable ready TVs. So you take a little PC (or laptop, or Mini-ITX or somesuch) with video out, and plug it into that box. Then you put that box between the TV and his cable line. Then whenever he goes to channel 3 or 4 (I think you can buy kits on the web to do it on other channels) he gets the pictures. From this point it is exactly as I described in my picture frame idea. You could do the same things for controll (or rig up other stuff for the same purpose). That would allow it to be on TV, and it would be much cheaper than the picture frame idea (buy an old laptop off e-bay with a busted screen and hide it behind the TV. It doesn't need the screen, just the video out.)

      Good luck.

    • You might take a look at this: http://www.ceiva.com/home/hp/index.jsp [ceiva.com]

    • There are several adaptive technologies that would allow your father to actually use a computer, not just display photos, although he could easily do that as well.

      I know that some years back, I did some work with a local charity here to assist them in adapting the IHADS targeting system to be an on screen head-mounted pointing device. Combined with an on screen keyboard like this http://march-of-faces.org/resources/vkt.html and there are several of these available, your father could have full use of

      • Dynavox Systems [dynavoxtech.com] have devices to allow access to computers, etc.
        That might be an option.
        Health insurance might cover the cost of purchasing the device, particularly if he has trouble communicating.

        PS. I work for them, but please don't hold that against them.
    • I would have to say after a lot of thought on the same subject, this would be the best way to go. Automating the downloads of pictures in the middle of the night would allow you to show him fresh pictures for when he woke up. You should be able to program the device to turn off the screen at, say 8pm and turn back on at 7am so it doesn't disturb him while sleeping. Mounting it on the wall or just above the TV would allow him to see it as he normally would.

      It would also allow you to get pictures to him the

  • Keep it simple (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bishop ( 4500 ) on Sunday January 16, 2005 @03:44PM (#11379999)
    You mention a laptop with DVD player. An easier solution is simply a DVD player. Creating a DVD or VCD with a sequence of still images is very easy. With the correct indexing it is easy to go forward and back between images. Google for it.

    Another simple solution is to have your digital pictures printed out and delivered. There are many shops that do this. It is inexpensive. The big advantage is that there is nothing to break. Also no staff need special training (ditto for a dvd player). There is also an added bonus in that your father can easily display photos that he likes.
    • Are there any photo labs that will print and post your photos to your relatives from their nearest lab to get the cheapest postage / fastest delivery time?? Basically offering a similar service to an email / fax gateway only for digital prints... (hmm, maybe I should apply for a patent :).
      • In any decent sized city there should be atleast one local shop that prints digital pictures. As far as the major chains are concerned it is not worth sending the job to a physically closer lab. It is usually more cost effective to setup one large distrobution center. Most of the shipping cost is handing the package to the shipping company, not how far the package will travel.
    • Most new cheapo DVD players will play CDs or DVDs that simply have a bunch of JPEG files loaded onto them. You could put thousands of photos on a single CD, and even more on a DVD.

      My grandma gets a big kick out of watching photos on the TV.

  • More info, please (Score:4, Insightful)

    by plsuh ( 129598 ) <plsuh@noSpAM.goodeast.com> on Sunday January 16, 2005 @03:48PM (#11380017) Homepage
    Sounds like an interesting situation, but a little more information would be useful:
    • You imply that he has some ability to press buttons for changing channels, etc. Can he handle a mouth- or tongue-joystick device? If so, you have many more options since he has the equivalent of a computer mouse.
    • How tech savvy is your dad? If you give him access to a full-blown computer, can he deal with it?
    • What kind of local tech support can you hire/barter for/guilt into helping when you're not there -- buddies, cousins, etc.? And what kind of skill set do they have?
    • You stated that he has his own "personal telephone/cable lines". Does he have a cable modem as well? If not, does he have a second line to use for dial-up access?

    Without this information (and possibly more) it's kinda hard to say what would be best for you and your father. One thing you might want to look into is the new Mac mini [apple.com] since you can easily add S-video output to his TV and Mac OS X requires a lot less upkeep than Windows.

    --Paul
    • He could also use Smartnav [naturalpoint.com], or since it is practically the same thing at half the price, Trackir. [naturalpoint.com]

      Provided you set it up properly, the only operator training needed would be for someone to put a ball cap with the reflective dot on your father's head. Lots of people use it for flight sims, especially the IL-2 series [pacific-fighters.com].

      Since they use as a Situation awareness aid, they all know how to set it up.
      • Sorry, I forgot an aspect that might interest you: since most online sims support online audio comms, hardcore simmers simply place a dot on their headset's microphone. I think that it could be possible to rig something like that, and your father could use it for remote comms .

  • The old fashioned way (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Jorkapp ( 684095 ) <jorkapp&hotmail,com> on Sunday January 16, 2005 @03:56PM (#11380060)
    Plain old 3x5 pictures are probably the best way to go. Many places can develop 3x5 pictures from both 35mm and digital sources. Sure, postage may be a little more, but there's nothing to break, requires no training, and he can easily have some staff member simply sit at his bed-side and flip through them for him.
    • While I'm not the story parent, I can say that this won't work well.

      I'm also stationed overseas with a handicapped sister. Mailing something to the states can take up to a month or more, depending on the season. At one point, I did manage to get a package back home in a record 10 days, a small miracle if you ask me.

      Also, the pictures could tend to get lost and it would require staff to sit with the parent's dad. This isn't something their going to want to do. To them, just having to be around patients eve
  • Okay, maybe this isn't practical, but here goes:

    Code an extension for Thunderbird that parses incoming email for certain keywords (code words you provide/select to prevent false positives) and for attachments. It then collects attached photos, and ports them to a second/dedicated video card connected to the/a TV. It will cycle through the photos n times then stop, "reset," and wait for the next batch of email/images.

    You think?

    No flames, please. Havent't coded in about 10 years, but used to do some simil
  • I don't know if it's feasable in his situation, but the Mac line has a decent voice recognition, and with training can be set up to respond fairly accurately to simple commands. It also allow scripting to add more commands, and works with the e-mail and web browser for most basic functions. Perhaps you should look into that?

  • Hauppauge MediaMVP (Score:3, Informative)

    by DavidYaw ( 447706 ) on Sunday January 16, 2005 @05:26PM (#11380627) Homepage
    MediaMVP [hauppauge.com] is a device that hooks up to your computer via ethernet, and hooks to the TV via SVideo. It can play MP3s, show still photos, and play MPEG1 and MPEG2 movies.

    Since he can control a TV using a remote control type device, then he should be able to control this using a remote control.

  • Download? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Sunday January 16, 2005 @05:30PM (#11380651) Homepage Journal
    The key word here seems to be "download". There are any number of ways you can ship photos to your father, but I imagine you've already thought of those. I'm guessing you want your latest photos available to your father without much delay -- and without it being difficult for him to access them.

    I can think of a couple of solutions. For example: You get a cheap desktop or laptop computer. You use it for nothing but your father electronic picture downloader. You turn it on, and it automatically runs a web browser with a script that does a slideshow of all the photos on a particular web site. (A little serial port or IrDA hacking could maybe interface the slideshow with your father's existing gadgetry; otherwise you can just put the whole thing on a timer.) The web site belongs to you, and you just upload new photos to it whenever you want your father to see them. With a little work, you could also add audio files for narratives and background music.

    That's just one idea -- a little brainstorming would produce a couple more. If you lack the expertise to do the necessary software hacking, I'm sure you could find some volunteer labor. (I'd be pleased to offer my own skills.) The same goes for hardware hacking, though for that you'd need somebody on the scene.

  • Maybe a simple solution.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kponto ( 821962 ) on Sunday January 16, 2005 @05:54PM (#11380813) Homepage

    You could create a webpage that refreshes itself every couple of minutes or so and displays full size photos chosen at random from a folder on the site. Plenty of prefab scripts out there that can do that. Just set up a laptop in his room and all the orderlies need to do is open Firefox with your photo page set as the default home page. You could also use this to send him message s by just editing the page. he wouldn't need to do anything as long as he has a dedicated phone line that can be online all the time. If he doesn't and can only be on sporadically, then just type up some simple instructions on how to double click the "Internet" button and then double click the "Firefox" button so the orderlies can get him signed on and tape it to the desk where the machine sits.

    I dunno...maybe something like that.

    k

    • Damn, why didn't I think of that. Simple, elegant, functional, even more so if cable boroadband is available, as the original article suggests.

      Maybe setup the startup so it launches Firefox automatically at boot would make it mostly orderly-proof.
    • Gallery [sf.net] has built-in slideshow capability and you can create unlimited albums and sub-albums. Just e-mail him a link to the latest album on the Web and have him set his Gallery preferences to flip through the slideshow at X seconds per image. Both Web and fullscreen Java slideshow is supported.

  • VNC (Score:5, Informative)

    by winstonantisex ( 762252 ) on Sunday January 16, 2005 @08:05PM (#11381605)
    If you configure a computer to automatically start a vnc server after booting, you can control the mouse and keyboard remotely. This opens up many possibilities. I have done this for my parents and been amazed at how much it seems like I am physically present when using vnc in connection with a telephone conversation.

    See, for example, http://www.tightvnc.com/ [tightvnc.com]: "TightVNC is a free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer."

    • Re:VNC (Score:3, Informative)

      by Tux2000 ( 523259 )
      ... but make sure you don't run VNC on an unsecured machine connected to the internet. At least close all other ports and tunnel VNC over ssh (see google for how this is done). You don't want a bunch of script kiddies to take over the PC, do you?

      Tux2000

  • Closing the Gap (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In the 1980's I worked on 'adaptive devices' for the handicapped. Many of the suggestions I see here are great, but I know there is 'old tech' out there that will help. There was, and may still be, an outfit in Stout-Meninomee (sp) Wisconson that published "Closing the Gap', a journal dedicated to the handicapped and adaptive tech. If you look around, there are many specialized devices that will allow a quadraplegic to operate a PC- puff switches, eye trackers, nod switches, voice activated controls, and
  • Why not give him a Linux box (maybe a mini-itx box or Linux X-box [xbox-linux.org]?) connected to an ADSL ethernet modem (or other 'always' on connection). Give yourself a remote login.

    That way you can log in from your overseas location chat to him, pop images up on the screen for him and generally have a 'father and son' session. (Others have also suggested VNC.) If using an x-box could something be done with the x-box controller for local control??

    You can also admin the box from your remote location. Provided you

  • I'm assuming there are no other relatives nearby that you could send the images to that are able/willing to print them on inkjet (or use one of those photo-print deals) and take them to him physically.

    The unix box that you could log into remotely, place upload the pictures to (ftp, scp, whatever floats your boat), and then remote control to show them onscreen (or heck you could hook an inkjet printer to it, leave a supply of ink cartridges, and the paper and ink loading instructions next to, and you could
    • Heck, if you wanted to really go overboard, you could buy or build one (or more) of the recently discussed 'digital picture frames', put it/them in his place, and set it up for remote picture loading.
  • I'm wondering if you might be able to make something work with Tivo?

    I use iPhoto on my Mac, and then share my photos with my Tivo over a wireless LAN. One possibility might be to find a way to transfer the photos to iPhoto and then your dad could use the Tivo remote to pick which pictures to see.

    Given that the Mac comes with unix utils, I'm thinking that a wget script could be used to pull the photos to the Mac, and then probably an applescript could be used to add new photos automatically to the iphoto
  • You might want to contact the SHARE Foundation. (Society for Human Advancement through Rehabilitation Engineering). http://www.share.umassd.edu/ [umassd.edu]
    Dr. Les Cory is the founder and a really good guy, as well as extremely technical. He was one of my professors and advisors when I was in college. Phone numbers and email address are available on the website (I'll try to be nice and keep some of the spambots away by not posting that info here.) These folks are really good at doing cool technical things on a li
  • Depending on how many photos you're sending the simplest might be to simply print out the best ones at an online photo site and have them mailed directly to your dad.

    This is assuming the staff there have the time and desire to show them to him and/or post his favorites on a peg board, or by his bed, or wherever he would want them.
  • First off, all of what I say requires training/money because frankly, the effort has to be there on the half of the disabled regardless. If he doesn't care to learn how to use a computer, ignore this post. Is he able to get any sort of financial assistance in the way of grants etc? You might want to check out this overprice monitor [tobii.se].
    I got to testdrive one of their monitors at a London convention that follows your pupils regardless of head movement and it's nothing short of amazing (including the
  • You could try a cheap laptop, with cd-drive, Tv-out, connection to internet (LAN/Wifi) and convert it into a Internet Kiosk. With FireFox [livecd.net] or Stallion [livecd.net]. (Details [livecd.net] and Demo [ljudmila.org]).

    The reason I suggested this option, is for low-maintenance, all that is required is to switch on the computer. The operating system is read-only so can not be changed - nothing to break. The homepage of firefox can be perminatly set to your website.

    You can then set up your website remotely, have each webste automatically progres to the

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