Head-mounted pointer for quadriplegic
Hi Fellas,
Not strictly metalwork, but I don't know where else to post this.
I do volunteer technical work for a charity here in VIC. "Assistive Technologies" is the pukka term for what we make. I have a client with quadriplegia who does mouth-painting. Currently she uses a paint brush taped to a special mouth-held iPad stylus. She is finding this is making her feel sick after a while. She would like something that attaches to her head with the brush protruding from her chin. There are head pointers commercially available which have a pointer coming from the top of the head, but she doesn’t want that because she feels the pointer will obstruct her vision. Also the fixing point is a long way from where she is used to (i.e. her mouth) so she would need to relearn to paint.
Zytec used to make a device exactly like we want, but it is no longer available. Here's what it looked like:
Zyteq - Electronic Assistive Technology Australia
I think I'm going to have to make something using a commercially available head mount. I think it will need to have mounting points near the temples. I envisage making an aluminium or carbon fibre arm with an adaptor on the end for clamping a brush into. That should be fairly straightforward, but I'm stuck for ideas where to get the headgear from. Thinking aloud- perhaps by gutting a hard-hat or welding mask?
Would love to hear any ideas.