K-Ability

Description

There are many aids that facilitate the use of computer devices for people who have neuromuscular pathologies, but they are expensive and most them do not allow complex touchscreen gestures on mobile devices (swipe, double touch, drag and drop).

K-Ability aims to create a self-produced and cheap device (less than 20 €) to give people with tremors, spasms and more general problems of control and neuromuscular coordination the possibility to access for mobile devices and computers at a reasonable price.

Details

K-Ability consists of 7 buttons and a little oled screen.

The 4 lower buttons are used to move the cursor on the screen and the 3 upper buttons to select and operate various gestures.

The selectable gestures are:

simple touch/simple click
scroll up/down
swipe in up/down/left/right
double touch/double click
drag and drop

The keyboard connects to computers and mobile devices via USB cable and works on Windows, Apple, Linux and Android operating systems.

The body is entirely 3D printed in order to have less protruding screws and bolts.

It is designed to have a shield for the buttons about 1 cm deep.

The screen indicates the selected gestures and the actions that are being performed.

K-Ability has no batteries and is powered by the same USB cable that is used to connect the device.

Future developments

Create a modular design to be adaptable to various diseases
Add a rechargeable battery
Add a bluetooth connection
Create a configuration wizard to set up the keyboard settings (speed, sensitivity, etc.)

Files

k_ability_top.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 1.05 MB - 08/09/2018 at 09:59

Download

k_ability_bottom.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 559.85 kB - 08/09/2018 at 09:59

Download

k_ability_screen.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 207.21 kB - 08/09/2018 at 09:59

Download

k_ability_shield.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 52.43 kB - 08/09/2018 at 09:59

Download

Components

1 × Arduino 32u4 Like Leonardo, Micro, Mini

7 × Tactile buttons

1 × Usb / micro USB cable

1 × OTG cable

1 × OLED Display 128x64

Project Logs

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K-Ability Dev Kit Project
dariocose • 06/16/2020 at 08:08 • 0 comments

K-Ability Dev Kit aims to give makers and designers a set of tools to develop accessibility devices designed around the specific needs that characterizes each neuromuscular pathology and customized to the user.
Please follow https://hackaday.io/project/172392-k-ability-dev-kit for all the updates!
K-Ability V2
dariocose • 06/10/2020 at 07:45 • 0 comments
This prototype is the second version of K-Ability.

K-Ability V2 introduces several new features to the project that add comfort and ease of use:
- replacement of physical buttons with capacitive buttons
- HID bluetooth connection to the master device (smartphone, tablet and computers)
- possibility of power supply from powerbank or external battery
- possibility to create customized designs
More info about the project
Code added!
dariocose • 08/22/2018 at 11:06 • 0 comments

Arduino code added in Dropbox!
Short video
dariocose • 08/09/2018 at 17:45 • 0 comments
Prototype history - 3
dariocose • 08/09/2018 at 17:43 • 0 comments

Version 3
Oled display and 3d printed body added!
Prototype history - 2
dariocose • 08/09/2018 at 17:41 • 0 comments

Version 2
In this version I added a cardboard shell and 5 colored LEDs.
In the circuit I used an Arduino Micro and 4 pull-up resistors for the directional buttons.
Prototype history - 1
dariocose • 08/09/2018 at 15:39 • 0 comments

Version 1

The first prototype consists of an Arduino Uno and some buttons.
To turn my Arduino UNO into a USB HID device, I used this guide:

http://mitchtech.net/arduino-usb-hid-keyboard/
.stl files for 3d printing added
dariocose • 08/09/2018 at 10:03 • 0 comments