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Wheelchair Mouse

Wheelchair acts as mouse
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Using either a cable or radio-link to a PC, turn your wheelchair into a gigantic mouse. Rollers attached to the wheels enable forward movement of the wheelchair to be translated into upward movement of the cursor on the screen etc. A reset button re-centres the cursor and a button on either arm rest enables left and right-clicking.
DrBob, Mar 10 2003

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       Will there be a rolling road that the wheelchair sits on or will the wheelchair user move about the room?
oneoffdave, Mar 10 2003
  

       No, I thought briefly about a pressure sensitive floor but it's not exactly portable is it? Much better to have all the necessary equipment onboard the wheelchair, then you can connect up to any old PC that you like.
DrBob, Mar 10 2003
  

       Great way to get a work out whilst working and the greater movement required might be easier for those with poor fine motor control to get the mouse over the thing they actually want.
oneoffdave, Mar 10 2003
  

       I think you just made computers less accessible for the handicapped. All that moving around seems a little cumbersome. I think a better idea would be to have a switch on the wheelchair that would simply override the controls so that the joystick controller no longer moves the chair, but instead acts as a wireless mouse.
blahginger, Mar 10 2003
  

       Yes, but Google tells me that that's been baked and my idea hasn't. I saw this more as a fun thing than as a serious aid to computing for the disabled. For starters, unless you've got the monitor on-board the wheelchair, you're going to have serious trouble reading the screen.
DrBob, Mar 10 2003
  

       The joystick adaptation would work well for powered chairs but the user of a manually propelled chair with good strength but poor fine control (i.e. someone with cerebral palsy or the like) may find this 'coarsening' of the mouse action an improvement.
oneoffdave, Mar 10 2003
  

       It sounds a good idea for laptops, or at least better than most laptop mouse substitutes. You could use an office chair instead of a wheelchair.
pottedstu, Mar 10 2003
  

       Thanks [pottedstu]! I now have an image of an office with no desks and people wheeling like mad around the room.
oneoffdave, Mar 10 2003
  

       Well, depending on the gearing, they could either accomplish cursor movement by gently rocking back and forth or by zooming up and down the whole length of the office.
DrBob, Mar 10 2003
  

       I wonder if I can use my recent, hypnotically induced psychic abilities to determine when Segway Mouse will be posted.   

       Good doctor, you could use this to build a wheelchair version of "Dance Dance Revolution".
waugsqueke, Mar 10 2003
  

       I think this would be a little too physically exhausting. Even an able bodied person would soon tire of it. I know a wheelchair/computer user with limited motor skills, and just getting himself set up in the right position at the desk is a major exertion, although I think some sort of mouse built into the arm would be a good idea, after seeing his frustration at trying to find a comfortable position for one.
Helium, Mar 11 2003
  

       It'd be great until after a round of solitaire, you find yourself in the other sex's restroom, or the VP's office. 'Really, sir, I was doing statistical research on the probability of a winning hand...'
RayfordSteele, Mar 11 2003
  


 

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