Adoption threshold is inversely related to functional novelty, i.e. “If you are replacing a function already addressed by existing assistive technology, it needs to work substantially better.” Brian Dekleva at the Workshop looking at design and Home ... willwa.de/2023/06/08/ado…

I met some OTs at #bci2023 ! Whoop! Check out the work from Canada looking at paediatric (CP, Rett syndrome and other diagnoses) in mobility and play using BCI. (x.com/sneakyshoes137… and x.com/sneakyshoes137…) imagination-centre.ca/research

Detecting hand writing - and outputting as speech - with BCI: willwa.de/2023/06/09/det…

"“While deep contemplation is useful for problem-solving, overthinking can impair these abilities, leading us to act impulsively and make counterproductive choices.”" From The Paradoxical Nature of Negative Emotions. ryanbruno.substack.com/p/the-paradoxi…

SLT’s having fun with their laminators.. ho ho.. (Credit actually Roz Thompson aka Trash sells Trash (not actually a SLT..)) cdn.uploads.micro.blog/31227/2023/a74… facebook.com/groups/trashse…

Looking forward to delivering day 9 today of our Assistive Technology Unit (with the University of Dundee). The focus is on Activity & Occupational Analysis - which I feel is an essential part of our AT assessment process. (Adapted from Acitivity & ... willwa.de/2023/06/14/loo…

Having a great chat with our team of OTs about how we measure outcomes and sharing our old presentation from 2011, which still stands. Whatever happened to the adapted GAS for AT? Well GAS Light looks interesting. Outcomes in Occupational Therapy (& ... willwa.de/2023/06/19/hav…

A fascinating couple of papers that Simon Judge notes in his blog about the design and abandonment of AAC systems - “the role of communication aids in an individuals’ communication is subtle and not a simple binary ‘used or not used’”. sjinterface.wordpress.com/2023/06/14/ret…

What duck are you today? On the rubber duck scale I think I’m feeling a bit of a 4.. (if not on that scale- but maybe a 4 on this page: theatlantic.com/photo/2023/06/… ) cdn.uploads.micro.blog/31227/2023/flb… x.com/tbelmontedu/st…

I am reviewing the “traffic light” system for AAC by Karen Erickson for our ATU this week. It’s similar to ideas in an Activity & Occupation Analysis - but much more reduced and focused on AAC activities in a day. Redrawn here - maybe too reduced ... willwa.de/2023/06/21/i-a…

From our fab OT student today "So are you telling me my phone can autocorrect but that’s not done on AAC Devices .. and the user always has to select their predictions?." Hmmm. I wonder if I was missing something.. anyone?

Just for fun really - dasher in visionOS. I think this totally needs rethinking for this platform - particularly given the hand detection stuff built into visionOS. (“Must not get distracted.. must not get distracted..” ) cdn.uploads.micro.blog/31227/2023/scr…

Project Gameface was announced with fanfare - but the actual experience is something that isn’t very “complete”. There is a ton of issues & installing it is not fun. We made an installer at least which helps.. a bit. (warning: it’s not signed. You ... willwa.de/2023/06/29/pro…

Midiblocks is a super neat idea. A block editor to program your gestures . Under the hood it’s using HandsFreeJs which is another wrapper around MediaPipe. Similar to EyeCommander and Project Gameface. Talking of which I’ll just leave this here. Eek. ... willwa.de/2023/06/29/mid…

Nice trip to Wales (Brecon to be exact) the other weekend. Although the mosquito bites here were crazy 📷 cdn.uploads.micro.blog/31227/2023/img…

Made a tool yesterday to help AAC users translate (& speak) their message to any language. It’s using google translate & TTS but also pyttsx4 which is super neat as it allows us to use offline TTS - using coqui or SAPI github.com/AceCentre/Tran… vid youtube.com/watch?v=c6zSPY…

I was lucky to see the latest iteration of the Colibri (“Hummingbird”) from Colibri interfaces a few weeks ago. It’s a wireless head mouse - and blink switch. They also have a free web-based Scanning Speller, which is accessible with Blink from your ... willwa.de/2023/07/07/i-w…

Just released a new build of our RelayKeys stack. RelayKeys allow us to turn any Windows AAC device into a Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse (and to come.. Games controller). You plug a small dongle into the AAC device - pair it with any Bluetooth device - a ... willwa.de/2023/07/11/jus…

Need an AAC/AT textbook but nowhere near a library or have money? This is awesome from Internet Archive. Loan a textbook for free for an hour at a time. archive.org/details/inlibr… (and my personal fav : archive.org/details/altern…)

The new voice creation tool in iOS and live speech (in-built tts app from any screen) in iOS. My voice is definitely.. clunky .. but bear in mind I recorded this at like 2am in a AirBnB and didn’t want to wake the neighbours. 15 mins recording. willwa.de/2023/07/15/the…