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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: 0.212s | 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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1. deergomoo ◴[16 Nov 24 20:15 UTC] No.42158926[source]▶
It’s a shame the UX around voice navigation is often so poor.

My mum just recently switched TV provider and while the new box has quite capable voice search (including both regular TV channels and integrated streaming services), it always takes her about 3 attempts to get it.

The “correct” way is to just press the button and say what you want without waiting. But she needs some sort of visual indication that it’s listening to know she’s “doing it right”, which takes just long enough to appear on screen that it’s either stopped listening and started trying to process background noise, or she presses the button again thinking she didn’t get it.