
Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son - Aissen
http://www.hackingsma.com/?p=257
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Kliment
Just a random offer, I don't mean to hijack the thread - I do electronics and
robotics design for a living. I will happily help anyone who has a need like
this for cost of materials or less, the result will be open source hardware.
If you or someone you know could use help with a similar project, contact me
at kliment at 0xfb.com or on IRC (I'm Kliment on the freenode network).

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stbtrax
From the comments of the father's blog there seems to be an organization for
pairing up people with skills to people with needs:
[http://www.tetrasociety.org/](http://www.tetrasociety.org/)

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Kliment
Thanks, though it appears to be North America only, and I'm in Europe.

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DanBC
Amazing write up.

It does make me a bit grumpy to see things like SnapChat being offered $3bn,
but nothing like this ever getting that kind of funding. That's a lot of
engineering and manufacturing that isn't being done.

Even the boy with the formula one arm had to raise funds himself. (With help,
but no funding, from Mercedes. But the engineering they gave is very cool.)
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/87006...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/8700621/F1-fan-
receives-bionic-hand-from-Mercedes-team.html)

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aram
I completely agree; it's the same thing as with entertainment/sports industry.
Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they
do does not have much real value.

Thanks for sharing the link.

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elmuchoprez
"Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what
they do does not have any real value."

Serious question: Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for
society?

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pradocchia
People would make their own entertainment if sports and Hollywood were not
available: games, stories, conversation, crafts, and so on. Our lives might
even be a bit richer for it.

And in that sense, the entertainment industry captures value that we would be
making anyhow. Yes their entertainment is better somehow, better in the sense
that people will pay for it, so this is the bottom-line "better", inclusive of
demand generators (eg, movie trailers, team rivalries, etc), and not
necessarily a general-welfare "better".

You might even argue that this is welfare-capture: once you have seen the
movie trailer (for free), or acquired team-loyalty (for free), your welfare
becomes dependent on seeing what happens (not free). My son saw a trailer for
WALL-E last night. Now he wants to see it. Having seen it, will his net
welfare have increased? I don't know. He seems happy enough with his blocks
and pencils and such.

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randomdata
_> People would make their own entertainment if sports and Hollywood were not
available_

I'm afraid I disagree with you. I notice even when getting together with a
group of friends to play games, there always tends to be someone who is happy
to just sit back and watch the games take place. Some will make the
entertainment and others will want to watch. It seems to be basic human
nature; professional sports and Hollywood have just figured out how to make
money from that.

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lostlogin
I have to ask - what games? We're months into a series of cut-throat games of
Puerto Ruco and Power Grid (a new find). It's seriously competitive.

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bbayer
I really burst into tears when I first saw it. This is really fascinating how
a dad worked hard to make his child every day life easier. I can understand
his effort as father of disabled child and very proud of achievement he made.
It is hard to believe how hard to reach resources for a disabled child. Some
European countries has very good regulations about supporting disabled
children thus equipment is very expensive. It is impossible to effort for
families with low income and social benefits which are provided especially
from government agencies is a must.

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nova
> Some European countries has very good regulations about supporting disabled
> children thus equipment is very expensive.

Regulations, at least the well intentioned ones, try to avoid accidents from
ill-designed products. The downside is expensive or never made technology
needed by a small number of patients.

After all, dead or injured children due to faulty machinery are very
noticeable, whereas unassisted ones (because the technology doesn't exist) is
just "a fact of life", and invisible to most (except their parents). "What Is
Seen and What Is Not Seen", again.

Same with medicines.

We need a two-tier system: 1) certified and expensive, and 2) best-effort and
on your own, but cheap.

(And don't let me get started on patents)

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lifeisstillgood
This is where the value of Stem educations come in. 50 years ago you could
pick up enough mechanics to fix your car, enough electronics as a hobbyist.
today you need to start at 14 building / making at school like we did in
woodcraft and metalwork lessons - otherwise when you are a dad and need those
making skills, they just aren't there

but like everyone else on the thread - massive kudos - that's what dads are
for.

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noonespecial
In case you don't know what "MAX" is:

[http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/71544521BDE34FFB86256...](http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/71544521BDE34FFB86256FCF005F4FB6)

Its something I'd like really like to see an open source version of make it
into the Arduino universe.

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ibsathish
Epitome of Father-Child relationship. Moved to tears. Thanks for sharing.

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brianmcdonough
At one point in the video he seemed to be looking at the camera, saying
perhaps, thanks for being an awesome dad.

BTW, I think the reason why there's so much talk about entertainment in the
comments is because people feel guilty for pursuing simple pleasure when you
have pursued something so noble by comparison. What they don't know is how
much satisfaction you must have derived from this project. You have achieved
something not many of us have, something noble and satisfying. There should be
a website for noble stories like yours, but I'm afraid there wouldn't be
enough content ;)

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story.

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pt
I would like to contribute money for Alejandro (as I do not have the hacking
ability/skills to contribute anything meaningful for the tech). Is there a way
to contribute money for Alejandro and his dad?

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itry
Pure Love

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el_shayan
Just imagine what a Gene Hacker Dad can do...

