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[...] A sip-and-puff can make a world of difference to a quadriplegic, but they’re not exactly cheap. So to help out a friend, [Jfieldcap] designed and built an open source sip-and-puff mouse on the cheap. As is best for such devices, the design is simple and robust. The hollow 3D-printed mouthpiece acts as handle for a joystick module, and a length of tubing connects the mouthpiece to a pressure sensor. An Arduino lets the user move his head to position the cursor; hard sips and puffs are interpreted as left and right clicks, while soft mouth pressure is used for scrolling. In conjunction with some of the accessibility tools in modern OSes and personal assistant software like Siri or Cortana, the sip-and-puff opens up the online world, and for all of $50 in material.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday April 30 2018, @01:58PM (2 children)
Except of course that R&D time is a one-time expense, now paid. Liability insurance does not apply to DIY devices, and not all quadriplegics have the luxury of being supported by someone making a good enough wage that an extra $110 is negligible. As for labor - lots of people out there that have a lot more time than money to spend - first quartile weekly wages are only $589, even for bachelors degree holders it's only $798, meaning $100 represents the better part of a full days wages.
Also, the cheapest s&p mouse I could find on the first page of google results was over $1500, even just the switches were over $200. And I couldn't find the Orin at all, even when specifically adding the name to my search. So either you were very lucky with your Google-Fu, or I was very unlucky. Either way finding a better deal is clearly not trivial for everyone.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 30 2018, @02:23PM (1 child)
Yeah well thats kinda an important point, I feel weird making people bookcases, if that sucker falls over and kills their kid, even if I told them not to let him climb it, even if I told them to anchor it to the wall, it doesn't matter if I'm an amateur woodworker or a giant corporation I'm gonna get sued. And a quad in a wheelchair can't build his own S+P even if he already has a S+P, etc, so someone is assuming a huge financial liability. Also in the grand scheme of accounting I think it more likely a quad can get medicaid to pay for a commercial S+P rather than "I'd like to give my buddy $100 for an art project he made thats like a real one but not really".
http://www.orin.com/access/sip_puff/#Sip/Puff%20Switch [orin.com]
I have no connection just a google result. All the money seems to be in the gooseneck and mounting hardware which of course is extra cost, the electronic box and pressure sensor and some hose is the $160 part. I suppose its like microphones, similar to how spending $200 on a nice mic is pointless if you're only spending $9.95 on a mount/stand/arm.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday April 30 2018, @02:39PM
Notice that that is only a a sip and puff SWITCH, NOT a mouse. With that you only have the buttons, you still lack the cursor control and scrolling. Which one might argue is the larger part of the functionality of a mouse...
As for liability, well you gotta call that like you see it - but it strikes me as *extremely* unlikely that the child/spouse/sibling that you are caretaker for will sue you over a malfunctioning sip-mouse. And almost certainly neither will your quadriplegic buddy who you gave computer access to when they had zero chance of affording it on their own.
As for your bookshelf example - I seriously doubt there's a mass-produced consumer bookshelf in the world that could survive a kid climbing it without tipping. Yes, some asshole with their head impossibly far up their ass might sue you, but you can be sued for anything - it's the responsibility of the judge (or their lawyer) to toss such groundless suites out on their ear.