We have a special needs daughter who has been afflicted with Cerebral Palsy from birth.
She does not have use of her arms or legs, and is pretty much non-verbal, but she can access a computer by tapping a switch with the side of her head.
The following series of articles describe all of the things that she can do with this single switch.
The Tobii Communicator 5 software is the heart of Tiffany's many systems.
"Communicator is an alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) software platform designed with you in mind. Communicator converts text and symbols into clear speech, gives you computer access and even allows you to control devices and appliances in your surroundings (ECU). Communicate the way you want, when you want, giving you new levels of control and independence."
Tiffany started at a young age with an AppleII GS and a single switch input device called "The Discover Switch" by Don Johnston Inc. The Discover Switch platform was purchased by Mandentec Inc. and adapted to Windows, which we used for a quite a few years. Madentec eventually dropped support, and we switched to Communicator in 2018.
The software is installed on a AsusPro laptop running Windows 10. Many predefined templates are provided for speech, typing, computer access, etc., but we chose to design our own. Designing our own screens allowed us to closely replicate the action of The Discover Switch.
As stated before, Communicator 5 is the heart of Tiffany's many adaptive systems.
It appears on the laptop screen as sort of a pop-up window as shown below. This is the main pop-up.
When Tiffany clicks her head switch, the red outline starts scanning the squares from left to right. There is also auditory feedback to say which square is highlighted. When the desired square comes up, Tiffany clicks her switch again, and a different pop-up appears.
For example if she chooses A thru M, the following screen appears. It starts scanning the rows from top to bottom. When the desired row is highlighted, another click of the switch scans that row from left to right. When the scan gets to the desired letter, another click of the switch "prints" that letter to a Word Document on the laptop screen. The scanner window then goes back to the main selection pop-up.
As one can imagine, this is a very time consuming process, but it allows Tiffany to let her feelings be known to others.
The 'Special" square in the main pop-up opens up many other IOT (Internet of Things) selections, so that she can control her environment.
The Communicator software uses a single switch input in order to "scan" . To avoid interference with other software, we opted not to use the left or right mouse button. Instead, we chose a USB device called X-Keys by PI Engineering.
This allows us to assign the switch to an unused key press. We chose F13 which is unlikely to be used by any other programs.
Tiffany can control her world with the help of WIFI connected devices.
When she clicks on the appropriate selection from the "Special" menu of Communicator she can do the following:
Turn on a light, radio, or a fan, or any other 110v device plugged in to a relay box.
Turn on a TV, and control the channels and volume, via a custom IR remote control. (More detailed information about these devices can be found in the Arduino tab of this website.)
Call up a list of games to play on the laptop. The games are played via her switch, one click at a time.
Call up a list of predefined messages that will print to the Word document along with auditory output.
Open a WIFI camera that is located at our pond in the backyard.
We are constantly trying other methods to allow Tiffany the ability to have a "normal" life.
