Bit of advice required with gaming keyboard for feet.

[G4Z]

Got a mate who lost one of his arms in a motorcycle crash, I was talking to him today and he asked me if I had played Stalker yet as it was fantastic. Obviously I asked him, how on earth are you playing stalker with one hand and he told me he was using the keyboard with his feet.

That got me to thinking that really there is no reason you couldn't build a custom gaming keyboard for your feet so he can play the game without pausing every couple of minutes to look down and adjust his toe position. I figured it can't be to hard to cobble together some sort of moulded keyboard, that would be far more comfortable to use. I have had bit of a google and there is really nothing out there to cater to this need at all so I thought I would post on here and see if anybody knew better or had some ideas on how to go about making something like this?

Was thinking 5 or 6 keys for the toes and maybe some sort of heel control.

[Recoil]

shouldnt see why it couldnt be done - just need design it correctly.

[G4Z]

Yeah, thats what I was looking for advice on.

I have a mate who could do electronics and another who could write a driver. I think the biggest challenge is how to make the thing, and what to make it out of.

[Slick]

How about attaching a wiimote to your foot, using the keyboard with the hand and assign a couple of buttons on the keyboard for mouseclicks?

Here's a vid of the wiimote playing half life - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asY_I8y6C0M

Or failing that, get a few of these:

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/

Put one on the heel which he can use to turn left to right and put another couple in front of that to assign to buttons that he can stamp on with the end of his foot

[lekky]

It must be pretty hard to play with only using your feet, but all the more respect for doing so!

[G4Z]

Well to clarify he has one good arm and he uses that for the mouse, but yeah the dude deserves respect for not letting his injury stop him enjoying his games!

Come to think of it maybe if you could get some sort of head tracking mouse that could work...

[BEANFro Elite]

How about the "track-IR" concept.

You need a webcam capable of 30fps and a decent resolution.

So, you can get your mate to cobble together some code or whatever into Stalker or an overriding code so it runs in between the game and the webcam's driver so its recognised by the games as a mouse?

Just a suggestion...

[Howard]

Could he not also do the reverse of what he does, use the keyboard with his hand (if possible, map all the keys near each other or something) and operate the mouse with his feet? I'm sure there's more "variations" of mice in existence than keyboards Just a thought... lol

[Dareos]

nice thought, but its possible to get a mouse with several buttons, allowing more complex combinations than would be available with your feet. Mainly it would be strafing/moving and possibly inventory bindings etc that the feet could control.

some kind of pedal board would be the thing i think, and i'm sure there must be something here for amputees, perhaps a specialist rehabilitation centre can help

[GoNz0]

if its just for WASD keys he could buy foot switches and use 4 ?

[just_laze]

Hi,

Spotted this, remembered reading this thread and thought I'd come back and post it for consideration.

Hope it helps.

laze.

[Whiternoise]

You've got a " in your URL

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/...lassic_review/

[Steve B]

that thing got a crap write up
why dont you take a trackball, pick some arbitary point and drill a hole. then mount a small rod coming out of the hole, onto which a small foot-shaped platform is attached. thus, by moving his foot to the right-left-forward or back, he can move

[just_laze]

that thing got a crap write up

Desperate measures.

laze.

[Steve B]

haha true. what about constructing a trackball, only bigger, so he can actually stand inside it then wear a headset with screens on the inside?

[just_laze]

Wouldn't that make him a... hamster?

laze.