magpie midi is an adaptive tool that
enables cerebral palsy patients and
others with muscle control disabilities
to express themselves in new ways our
product combines functions of four
external accessories into one device
allowing our users to achieve much more
than ever before
the device offers new means for cerebral
palsy patients and alike to express
their creativity
in areas of computer games music digital
arts and writing
as of now we are still in the middle of
the prototyping stage however
we are able today to demonstrate some of
the features that we are aiming to
include in our final product
magpie media consists of two main
components the base unit which is
responsible for interfacing electronics
with the computer
and harmonica unit which the users puff
or sip into the device
and move their heads in order to
interact with their computers
to use the mouse the user can simply
move their head to move the cursor
similar to using a joystick
puffing into the device will left click
and sipping from the device will right
click
with this feature the user can carry out
everyday computer tasks
that involve using a mouse
unlike a conventional harmonica with 10
air holes our device has 13
air holes this enables magpie midi to
type out the full 26
alphabet letters without the need for
additional buttons or controllers
puffing into the first air hole for
example will type out the letter a
and sipping from the first air hole will
type out the letter b
last but not least magpie midi can also
be used as an external midi device to
play digital instruments
at the moment our device is able to play
single notes from c3 to a4
with puffs and sips enabled however our
users will be able to play up to 26
notes
we've also added a midi potentiometer so
that it can be used to control sound
design parameters such as volume gain
kill pan and reverb
so with this brief introduction to our
product we would now like to talk about
the beginning of this project
elaborate on key design decisions we've
made so far
and discuss our plans for future
improvements in mid-july i was mostly
stuck at home looking for projects to
work on that could help people during
this unprecedented time
around this time i came across the
hackaday prize on the hackaday website
i instantly liked the way the prize had
organized real world problems into
tangible projects challenges
i thought that if i could participate in
one of the challenges
i could be sure that i am contributing
my time and effort to something
meaningful
i also took this opportunity to work
with my good friend pato
whom i met during one of my past
internships
we discussed various ideas and
possibilities but at the end we settled
on our current idea that addressed the
design challenge from the united
cerebral palsy los angeles
to design high quality tools and devices
for creative expression
there were two sources of inspiration in
my idea the first was a ted talk by jeff
paradee
where he introduced an especially
designed sip and puff gaming controller
for disabled computer gamers
the second was from seeing street
performers play the harmonica
hands-free
while playing the guitar at the same
time i combined and
expanded on these ideas by trying to
take advantage
of the harmonica form with multiple air
holes for user inputs
over multiple discussions and research
we have made many design decisions to
give our device the best chance of
becoming something
that will make a meaningful impact on
our users
we know that cerebral palsy has a wide
range of effects on motor controls
and this is different for everyone
although we know that this device alone
will not be able to support every type
of user
we want to do our best to help as many
people as possible
one way we are planning to do this is to
make everything
including the hardware electronics and
the software open source
by making everything open to the public
we believe that a community of users and
developers could come together
and share hardware and software
customizations
in our research we have seen many simple
sip and puff switch devices costing over
four hundred dollars
by making everything open source our
device will be cheaper
more flexible and more customizable than
its proprietary counterparts
this is not to mention the additional
capabilities of magpi midi
such as its ability to be used as a usb
keyboard
and a midi musical instrument device
instead of for-profit companies
developing this product
in the interest of running the business
magpi midi will be driven by a community
of users with
pure intentions of developing this
device for themselves
their families or someone within their
own community
we have also kept in mind about keeping
our device as universal as possible
for this reason we have used one-quarter
unc
threads in our mounting system which is
the most common type of thread
used in consumer grade cameras this will
allow various camera accessories such as
flexible tripods
or stands to be used in conjunction with
our device
as mentioned already we are still in the
middle of the prototyping phase
our current prototype device cannot do
everything we intend to include in our
final product
first we plan on writing a code for the
device to be used as a gaming controller
with 13 air holes a joystick and a
potentiometer our device will be able to
do
everything that a conventional console
style gaming controller
is able to do this will be the
fourth core function of our device in
addition to a usb mouse
usb keyboard and midi instrument we will
be adding
haptic feedback to our device with haptic
feedback driven by
vibration motor similar to the ones
found inside phones
the user will find it easier to interact
with the device we plan on creating a
device software for customizing
what each of the airways in the device
does
many softwares require shortcuts such as
pressing ctrl and w
at the same time using the software the
user will be able to program this
without a single line of code
we also want to support multiple magpie midi
to be used simultaneously
for example many midi musicians like to
have a midi keyboard and a midi drum
pad or a mini knob placed next to each
other
by adding this feature magpie media will
expand its application
to an even wider range of users with
demanding tasks
we've only mentioned some of the
features and improvements we're planning
to add
and we're always coming out with more to
get the full idea of the work we have
done so far
and the improvements we plan on making
please read the project description page
on our hackaday project
page it's been our pleasure working on
this project so far
and every bit has felt worthwhile thank
you for watching our video until the
very end
and we hope to hear back from the
hackaday community
