Disability

[rwarshawski]

Hello all-
I think this is my first post to this forum!

One of my partners is a C5 Quadriplegic. This means he is in a wheelchair with partial use of his arms and hands. It seems to me that if he had an automation system it would make life easier.
Presently, he can do things like turn switches off and on- if he can reach them -and handle some of the remotes for his A/V system, but he has to get his cartaker to put a cd in the player, etc.
needless to say he is dependant on the caretaker when he is out of the chair for everything.
I understand that HAL can be operated via microphones for voice control. This would be a help. Room occupancy sensors to automatically turn on the lights, etc., seems a natural. I threatened to take him to the vet's to put an RFID chip in him so the house could know where he was!

Is there a forum to dicuss things of this nature?

Has anyone had any experience?

bob

 

[Monk]

Hello all-
I think this is my first post to this forum!

One of my partners is a C5 Quadriplegic. This means he is in a wheelchair with partial use of his arms and hands. It seems to me that if he had an automation system it would make life easier.
Presently, he can do things like turn switches off and on- if he can reach them -and handle some of the remotes for his A/V system, but he has to get his cartaker to put a cd in the player, etc.
needless to say he is dependant on the caretaker when he is out of the chair for everything.
I understand that HAL can be operated via microphones for voice control. This would be a help. Room occupancy sensors to automatically turn on the lights, etc., seems a natural. I threatened to take him to the vet's to put an RFID chip in him so the house could know where he was!

Is there a forum to dicuss things of this nature?

Has anyone had any experience?

bob

Welcome Bob

Short answer is YES - the collective HA experience here is high. Most everything you want has already been written - needing only to be found via the search function. You will find yourself spending countless hours coming up to speed - not sure how your first view on the board appears to you, but using this link should display a long list of forums, each whose name will be descriptive of the content.

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

 

[Sacedog]

I would also have a look at the SetNet website, as they did a project that sounds right up your alley.

http://www.setnetpro.com/steve_smith-1.asp

Tony from SetNet is a regular on this forum (his handle is Number20).

 

[mustangcoupe]

I would say just one thing that would help reduce his dependency is to rip all his audio and dvd's to a HT server and then he wouldnt have to put the disk in every time to listen or watch something.

 

[Sokoloff]

Or perhaps get a multi-disc changer (Sony 777 or some rough equivalent) so that all the media can be available via a remote, even if your friend/family/caretakers aren't quite technical enough to manage a hard-drive based solution.

 

[icellama21]

Another use is emergency notification. If the client becomes injured or trapped in a place where a phone is not accessible a wireless panic button can be very useful. This coupled with a security system that has listen-in microphones can serve the purpose well.

 

[Neurorad]

Cocoontech forum and AVS forum member Ingeborgdot is in the same situation as you - he has a friend who is quadripelegic, and he's been asking questions related to information to help his friend.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1118716

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1118715

Search through his recent (last 6 weeks) threads on AVS, and PM him.

There are some off-the-shelf systems available, but one of the best known (to me, called Multimedia Max) is ~$10K - it's mostly a voice-PC interface, and then from the PC you can control other things.
http://www.multimediadesigns.com/prod01.htm

Cocoontechmember pkoslow, owner of Santa Barbara Smarthomes described some experience with this, in a prior post, found using the search term 'quadriplegic'.
http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3471

Some HA links, from a quadriplegic's personal website:
http://www.angelfire.com/il/pmahc/sciinfo.html#automation

 

[Neurorad]

http://www.setnetpro.com/steve_smith-1.asp

Tony Stewart at SetNetPro.com has a category of HA products 'for the handicapped'/differently abled.

Edit - D'oh! Duplicate of Sacedog.

 

[rwarshawski]

Thanks guys (&gals too, I guess...).

I've got a lot of homework to do!

It's good to see that people care about taking care of people. We are still in the "what do you want it to do" stage, which I find quite interesting. Not knowing what is possible limits the response. Your ideas will spur us on!

Will keep you posted.

Thanx again!

bob
\


ps: is this a topic that should have its own forum? After all, there is going to be a big need for this in the near future. The longer you can stay in your own home the better!

 

[Spanky]

Tony Stewart with Setnet did a great job in putting together the talents to implement the Steve Smith project. My hat is off to you Tony.

Other companies are doing home monitoring to allow people that would normally go to a nursing home to be able to stay at home longer.

Simply-Home, Inc. is one of these companies using the ELK M1's capability to monitor the activities of the individual at home and to keep track of care givers.