Glove Controllers for Rehab

I spent a little while in Barcelona recently and was fortunate enough to visit UPF to look at some of the new technologies that they were working with. I know its a tough job, but i rose to the occasion as ever. One technology I managed to get my hands on (or in) was a set of Glove controllers.

Whilst they took a bit of getting used to, especially with my big hands, the technology was very easy to use and certainly encouraged co-ordination and movement.  








The question that sprang to mind as I used the technologies was how was the specialist technology different from many of the things that I could do on a Nintendo Wii or more recently things that we see developing on the Microsoft Natal platform. The real difference that the system offered lay in the software, which leads us to the potential of such virtual worlds being made commercially for mainstream platforms or dare we suggest as open source or creative commons options. Those could then be made available via the online delivery of software that is available via wii points or Xbox live.
But the really important thing is that after practice I became really good at hitting the ball back and Im happy to take on all comers !

AT of the Week - Potential New Service

I was thinking the other day about what can I do to help make access technologies more widely available. In the past I've worked with large IT companies to help integrate free and open source technologies into gold build systems for schools and companies, and Ive supported the work of Raising the Floor whenever I've been able to. But the trurth is Id like to do a little more - and something which would reach directly to users as well as to those working with them.

One of the things Ive done in the past was to set up a bittorrent tracker for open source AT and information resources, my timing wasnt the best as it coincided with the announcemnet from ISP's that they would close down your connection if you were caught file sharing - no regards to social responsibility was made !

But for  a while Ive been a follower of giveawayoftheday a great source for freebie versions of software which has at times included magnifiers or text input solutions and that led me to think could I create a small repository of AT that was released to users on a regular basis - say a new programme each week or so - that would give people time to find out about them - and would give me time to find, upload and share those resources 

I could probably do that via dropbox or similar - but Id love to know if it is something you would see as useful 

David 

   
   

Introduction to AAC

This slideshare is from my colleagues at Enable Ireland

Introduction to AAC

View more presentations from David Banes.

Welcome to my Personal Blog

Hello to anyone who comes this blog. For those who dont know me I work as Director of Developmnet at AbilityNet in the area of assistive technology and access technologies. For the past few years Ive managed our web 2.0 presence and developed our online communities. More recently Ive wanted to talk a little more personally about the field within which I work and this is part of that response. 

Im especially interested in the integration of online communities into a single network, and wanted a degree of flexibility to test and trial ways of doing that so creating a personal blog will help me to do that.

Ill still be contributing to the AbilityNet blog from time to time, but to help integrate that thinking, Ive archived all of my personal bloggings from the past couple of years onto this blog as well (if for no other reason to remind myself what Ive already said !) 


I guess the final thing to say in an introduction is the disclaimer - I like these, they hopefully get me off any hooks I impale myself upon - but basically all the ramblings here are the product of my own head, they certainly dont reflect any views held by my employers, and may not even reflect my own views tomorrow. 

I look forward to sharing those ramblings in the future  

Some thoughts on Apple

Why do I not love apple products - its not rational I know - I admire their build, their interface, the clarity - all of that stuff, but for some reason I dont love them

I was sitting here looking at my Ipod today, its silver and shiny and plays back music, shows me my videos photos all sorts of things, but I have the same affection for it that I do a housebrick

I think I feel no affection because it doesn't reglect me individually at all. My PC is an extension of me, where files are stored, how backups are run what it looks and feels like are all extensions of me, they are shaped arround my needs and preferences

My Ipod just stares at me, daring me to want it to be different, in my more paranoid moments it seems to be saying "Im an Ipod - you have to love me" its like my cat used to be - demanding but inflexible.

And thats my problem with the IPod - its so good out of the box that I can do nothing with it - and I want - right down to how I copy my music over to it - I dont wnat to use Itunes - its slow and irritating to me but there doesnt really seem to be an alternative - My Napster subscription doesnt work with my Ipod, I suspect because Apple dont want me using Napster.

On a serious note this lack of ability to customise impacts upon the usability of the device - I cant seem to increase fonts, change contrasts all of the things that help me as a user - its really quite frustrating

I suppose its allways good to come up with new analogies - but the Ipod is like a supermodel, expensive, cool, beautiful but really out of reach for people like me - I htink Ill stick with the girl next door