Hi,
a family member suffers by Parkinson's disease. Over the years, he lost many abilities. In the last year, speaking got very complicated. Most of the time, no voice comes out of his mouth.
First, I planned to write an iPad app, which should play recorded words or sentences. But meanwhile, touching an iPad is hardly be possible. Therefore, I should build something simple. Very simple.
Idea:
- Use an old and big digital joystick as input control
- Left / right -> previous / next word
- Up / down -> previous / next word category
- Long up / down / left / right -> play selected word.
- An Arduino should read the joystick's state and transfer it to an iPad
- iPad reads joystick's state and displays words according to short movement.
- On long up... plays voice recording of the selected word / sentence.
I'd use an iPad, since it is able to display BIG words or sentences. A dot-matrix display is like to be too small. E.g. a Nexus 7 is probably applicable too.
Is anybody aware of such a solution or how to let Arduino communicate with an iPad using Bluetooth? Could an Arduino directly connected with an iPad using wires / a cable? Would WiFi be a better communication method?
I'd attach the joystick and the table computer somehow to his wheelchair or alternatively to his bed. Attaching to / disconnecting from wheelchair / bed needs to be simple, so that a nurse regularly can do. But this should be the simplest part of this project.
Kind regards and thx everbody for assitance
Max