After battling Guillian-Barre syndrome with a short-term period in induced coma, my friend’s rehabilitation required to re-learn basic hand movements and other physical activities which many of us take for granted.
This joystick was designed to sit in the hand while lying in bed. The large button on top of the device reduces the amount of effort required to perform a mouse click, while the joystick creates a more controlled method of positioning the mouse cursor.
Apart from helping out a friend, I want this project to be released to the community, within an open source ideology, in hope that this may help others in similar situation, or used in ways that are not intended here.
Please – take this idea and recreated it. Modify/redesign it to be used for an alternative reason. With the help of an open community, this project could assist many people in need.
This project was created by collaborating with the family member. See some of the research photos and discussions.
The large button on the back of the device allows the user to use their palm for the mouse click. The side buttons function by squeezing the device. A new finger rest was designed to replace the existing joystick knob, allowing the two or three fingers to move the joystick.
To keep within an open acessible framework, electronic conponents and fabrication was kept within generic conponents and techniques. Arduino micro controller and stock (very accessible) joystick parts and switches where used to allow for easy replication of the device
All CAD source files have been included link. Please fork this design and/or push changes that helps you and maybe others.
This research seeks to better understand the open source framework and how it can be incorporated within the creative arts field to further innovation.
Open source is a paradigm of open collaboration and sharing, where ideas are developed within communities. These communities allow their ideas to be freely available for anyone to replicate, adapt or innovate upon the initial concept. Open source is commonly associated with the computer industry and is often misunderstood to be 'free and accessible software.' However, this definition is limited. Open source, correctly framed, is the dissemination of knowledge, an ideology of openness, transparency and innovation.
To create an understanding of how ideas can be disseminated within the open communities, this research project seeks to experiment with an online collaboration platform called Github, (https://github.com). This platform, traditionally used within software development, allows users to publicly share their work, encouraging collaboration and potential innovation. Although the GitHub is being utilised within other disciplines outside of software, there is great scope to investigate how the creative arts can benefit from this established and tested platform.
The intention is to use GitHub to disseminate current and future project information, in order to investigate:
- How people use this information. Whether the published information is replicated or modified.
- Ways in which this information is modified. Is the information used in unintentional ways? GitHub structure allows the research to
- Communicate research objectives and information to participation. GitHub facilitates a comprehensive licencing protocol, allowing users to establish licencing agreements. This will also enable the communication of research intentions and information to participants about their involvement within the research project.
- Follow people's use of the information (within the constraints of the GitHub platform). Through built-in analytics, traffic to GitHub can be tracked and reported.
- GitHub has built-in chat, commenting and wiki facilities to collaborate with participants. As it is a membership based platform, members can be easily identified and contacted.
THIS GITHUB REPOSITORY IS A UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECT This research seeks to better understand the open source framework, and to observe how concepts and ideas, published within this repository, are used. All information within this repository is open for the participant to modify, change and innovate. However, it is encouraged, that all future iterations of this project is to be published within a BRANCH of the master repository. Please read the following statement to understand your participatory requirements. By BRANCHING – COMMENTING – PULLING - PUSHING – COPYING and other function associated with this GitHub repository, you are agreeing to be a participant of this project. This information should remain intact within any future iterations. Your confidentiality All information that identifies the participant within this project will be altered for anonymity, within any publication or reporting i.e. no user name or profile information will be published outside of this repository. For your privacy within GitHub please refer to https://help.github.com/articles/github-privacy-statement/ . No analysis data from this research will be published within this repository. All research data will be achieved within the appropriate data storage system of Griffith University Australia.
Your participation within this project is voluntary, and you can withdraw from the study at any time. You have the right to delete any of your own contributed data.
There are no foreseeable risks associated with participation in this research
Questions / further information
All enquiries can be sent to the associated contact details attached to this repository.
The ethical conduct of this research
Griffith University conducts research in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. If potential participants have any concerns or complaints about the ethical conduct of the research project they should contact the Manager, Research Ethics on +617 3735 4375 or research-ethics@griffith.edu.au
Communication of Results / Reporting
All participants will be able to request materials relevant to their involvement, during and after the completion of the project.
Contact Details Research Team
Researcher: Paul Bardini - paul.bardini@griffithuni.edu.au
Research Supervisor: Dr Beck Davis - beck.davis@griffith.edu.au
All research data will be archived within the appropriate data storage system of Griffith University Australia for a period of five years. Griffith University Research Ethics Clearance Number: 2016/858
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
