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MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

(jan.miksovsky.com)
2093 points pabs3 | 1 comments | 14 Nov 24 12:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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vitorbaptistaa ◴[14 Nov 24 20:53 UTC] No.42141097[source]▶
I love these kinds of projects. Congratulations to the OP.

Unrelated, but does anyone know a good TV remote for elders? I'd like something like a Stream Deck with big buttons for things like :

* Turn it on/off

* Switch to TV channel 315

* Switch to TV channel 517

* Play Planet Earth on Netflix

* Play Young Sheldon on Netflix

My grandparents are 92 and 97 and even big remotes aren't cutting it. Not only that, but I'd like for them to be able to use ondemand video platforms, not only random TV channels.

To control the TV itself, it seems a RPi or ESP32 with an IR led is enough, but to put something to play on Netflix is surprisingly difficult. I'm able to control a Fire Stick using remote adb commands, but not sure how reliable it is. I'd love to find something like this off the shelf.

Technology is great, but it's not made for elders. It frustrates them (and me), and they end up feeling stupid, which angers me.

I am sure someone else must have done this, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

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zamadatix ◴[14 Nov 24 21:23 UTC] No.42141381[source]▶
Is their problem the size (big buttons) or the UI complexity the buttons control (trying to navigate on Netflix is a PITA compared to hitting a preset channel button)?

On the former I had luck with one of those jumbo remotes that just has a few buttons (channel up/down, volume up/down, power, mute) and separately programming the TV to only have the channels they cared about in the list. When it came to smart apps it just became impossible to try to fix via the remote as the remote wasn't really the problem.

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1. greentxt ◴[15 Nov 24 14:17 UTC] No.42147156[source]▶
This matches my experience. Sadly the way tech has evolved has made a lot of entertainment totally unaccessible for a lot folks. It needn't be that way. Seniors would be happy to just have a button thst played a netflix title randomly, but somehow that is unattainable.