Jun.21, 2013
Young Thomas has muscular dystrophy, a disorder that weakens a person's muscles over time. Thomas can gradually lose the ability to do the things most people take for granted, like walking or sitting up. Gaming, at some points could offer a release of frustration, which is very important for kid like Thomas. Thomas loves to play Minecraft, playing games makes him feel he 's like everyone else.
When tinkerer Caleb Kraft found out that pressure switches marketed at the disabled were extremely overpriced, he felt angry and helpless. He decided to build simple cheap interfaces for Thomas and people like him, and posting the plans online.
His idea was to make low pressure lever activated momentary switches using a 3D printer, and used a Teensy, 20$ development board with extremely simple keyboard/mouse emulation code. All it does is emulates W,A,S,D, space, escape, E, Q, mouse movement, and right and left mouse clicks, but that is enough for playing Minecraft.
Caleb posted his plans online and created thecontrollerproject.com, a forum where people with a little bit of DIY knowledge can offer their services to build custom interfaces for others, and people who need such a custom device can make a request. "I will personally put up easy to follow directions on how you can make some simple devices for people even if you've never soldered or touched a microcontroller." writes Kraft. If you want to help with custom gaming controllers, check more information here.
Source: Hack a day
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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As a rehabilitation specialist working with lots of children with disabilities I think this is outstanding work. Congratulations and keep inventing and making this technology accessible to those who need it.
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