Help from all you guys....

[RhinoZ]

I've google only a little bit, but I'm not getting what I'm looking for.

So it's up to you guys and all your know how!!!

My wife has a family friend who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 40 yrs ago. This guy is a super amazing artist and poet. We have some of his paintings hanging in our house. So you can imagine, his path has been going down hill for a long time. He has been in a wheel chair since I've met my wife (16yrs) and he's gone from painting with his hands to using his mouth to paint and to type on the computer, but now that is getting to be an impossible task.
So here is where you guys come in. There has got to be something out there for him to use to be able to type on the computer. I found a morse code program for apple computers, that uses a clicker that he could put under his chin and dit dot for the letter and they come up on the screen, but I need something for a PC. I did find a kind of prg like that for a PC but it uses the clicks on an onscreen keyboard so that you have to do like 7 clicks to use the letter 'h'. If I can get something better, great, otherwise I might have to go with that. But I'm hoping there is something better.
So I'm hoping you guys have something up you sleeve.
I'll check out MS sites and contacts tomorrow since everything is closed for the weekend.
Thanks
R

[VJ]

What kind of mobility has he got?
(speech? handmovement? headmovement? eyemovement?)

Do check out the accessibility options in the Windows control panel: filterkeys allows you to eliminate duplicate keystrokes and so on.

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsxp/usingkeyboard.aspx

You can also set the onscreen keyboard to scan (just try it: start > accessories > accessibility > onscreen keyboard):
It can be set to first scans the rows, upon an input (spacebar or serial/parallel/gameport device) it start scanning on this row. Another input and it selects the key.

xkeys ( http://xkeys.com ) are affordable external key solutions (scroll down to the USB interface and accessories), allthough making a single serial key might not be that difficult either. (their software allows you to emulate any key, so if you set it to 'spacebar', you could control the MS Onscreen keyboard )

More advanced:
There are mouses controlled by eyemovement (blinking clicks), which can be used in combination with an onscreen keyboard. There are various alternatively controlled input devices: mouth controlled (blowing/sucking does an action), eye controlled, ...
There are mouth pointing devices (stick in mouth to type on a keyboard), but this requires more acurate movement.
Here are some hardware things I could find via google:

http://www.keyalt.com/kpointer.htm

Most are expensive though...

Hope this helps!


Jörg

[Helevitia]

I think I can steer you in the right direction. I have a disease called Transverse Myelitis. It is similar to MS. The big difference is that people with MS continue to decline where as people with TM, usually only have one episode and never get any worse. Anyway, I won't bore you with the details.

Jim Lubin, who basically runs the Transverse Myelitis website, is on a venthilator from TM and he uses a sip and blow mechnism for all of his computer tasks. I don't know much about the system, but I'm sure you can email him. Check him out here: http://www.makoa.org/jlubin/closeup.htm

He has designed tons of websites including this one: http://www.myelitis.org

Here is his computer setup: http://www.makoa.org/jlubin/mypc2005.htm

[Helevitia]

looking voer the site, there are tons of resources. I found this video of Jim demonstrating the sip and puff system. http://www.paralysis.org/site/c.erJM..._Computing.htm

[Helevitia]

Wow! That video is amazing! They talk about how brain control is in the works and that will soon be a way to comminicate with the computer. They also show just about every way possible to comminicate with the computer and how to find it. Good stuff.

[az]

While this isn't directly helpful, Berlin Scientists have made great advances in Brain-Computer Interfaces: http://ida.first.fraunhofer.de/bbci/index_en.html (The Berlin Brain Computer Interface). They are hopeful that the System won't require carefully hand-connected electrodes and can be used with a hat instead within the year.

[RhinoZ]

Holy smokes...THAT video is freaking amazing.

Thanks guys I've got lots to catch up on. And I've got a few contacts locally to weed out too.

As always you guys are the best.
Thanks a mint VJ, Helevitia and Az
Woohoo..
R

[TnT]

Here's the work that was done at my college on eye tracking

http://www.cs.uoregon.edu/research/cm-hci/