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MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

jan.miksovsky.com

111–120 of 259 posts

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#112

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we're adding more docs on running your own server soon, which will include 1-click deploy starter projects that Just Work. if you think about it, we are incentivized to do this. no subscription fees means the more you ping our server, the lower our margin. but for now we're wrapping up fulfilling all pre-orders, scaling, etc typical new product issues. even without BYOS (bring your own server) docs however, it's alre…

OK, thank you for the reply. The product looks great. I will roll the dice seeing the OSS firmware. Thanks!

appreciate your support!

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#113

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I'm a backer, but this would probably fit your bill https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/usetrmnl/trmnl-the-e-in... I wanted the same kind of general eink device, but this is also supposedly super hackable!

hackable indeed :) https://docs.usetrmnl.com no longer a Kickstarter btw, shipping same-day now (see homepage)

Anyway you could check on mine? I've yet to receive it, and I'm ready to start hacking!

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#114
Love this! A couple years ago I had to do similar for my grandma (94 at the time) who was losing her hearing as well as short term memory loss. Was surprised how few off the shelf options there were.

Had to write a medium article with exact instructions for how to use it otherwise she was very skeptical of using it. The only issue was that she would sometimes read aloud which would enter her into a feedback loop lol.

https://medium.com/@admangan2018/how-to-utilize-the-transcri...

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#115

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Yes same for me on guitar. If I try to play something too slowly or if I really start thinking about what I'm doing it all falls apart. I think that's when you really know a piece, when you can play it incredibly slowly. Paradoxically it's easy to play quickly and just let your fingers play out their muscle memory, playing something really slowly is the challenge.

I ran into this when teaching my son to tie his shoes. He now ties his shoes “upside down” from me, because I tied it from my perspective. It’s surprisingly hard to tie shoes in slow motion, it took some practice by paying attention to myself tying shoes quickly. Now I’m wondering if you can tell a kid is from an “even” or “odd” generation by which way they tie shoes…

My dad's left-handed and I'm right-handed, so I got to learn to tie in mirror image. That was helpful.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#116

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That study is an interesting suggestion that there might be a physiological basis for the explicit / implicit distinction in terms of memory. Makes sense in many ways that some kind of memory might be embedded in the motor cortex. I wonder if the same is true for emotional memories and midbrain structures, as hinted at in your last paragraph. I always find those non-obvious connections fascinating, like the disorders…

I thought we discussed it here a few years ago but neither algolia nor DDG are giving me hits. I’m probably using the wrong search terms. I have a relative with anterograde amnesia from a stroke, so that story got passed on to my father when it happened. 8 years ago perhaps?

OK, thanks for trying - will try a bit of searching myself.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#117

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> but studies showed that he could remember some things, just not consciously. This reminds me of muscle memory. I can play pieces on the piano even though I don't actively remember the sheet music of them. My hands just "know" what to do. Funnily enough the moment I start actively thinking about certain passages that ability worsens by a lot.

Yes it is strange to practice a song one day and then come back to it again the next day. It's like meeting a new person who plays better than I did yesterday, and practice involves finding out more about this new person.

My choir director does this with new rehearsal pieces on purpose. We go through them once at the beginning and then let them "percolate" while we practice some other songs. Then we go back to them in "stabilization" before the end of the same rehearsal and they suddenly feel familiar, so we can pay better attention to things like dynamics. It's wild.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#118

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hackable indeed :) https://docs.usetrmnl.com no longer a Kickstarter btw, shipping same-day now (see homepage)

Anyway you could check on mine? I've yet to receive it, and I'm ready to start hacking!

i imagine we aren't at your cohort yet but email team@usetrmnl.com and we'll get yours out today, regardless. tiny thank you for the shout here!

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#119
post #95

This is one of the few HN articles that have profoundly moved me. Such a beautiful and simple use of technology to make a clear and big improvement in someone's life. As a side note on his mother remembering that the tablet exists, it sounds like she has amnesia quite like Henry Molaison, a famous case study in neuropathology. He had very specific brain damage that seemingly stopped him forming new memories in the sa…

There was a study that suggested that the motor cortex can remember even if short term memory conversion was destroyed. If nothing else, myelinization counts as a form of memory. Strengthened by reuse. I would love to know if those warm feelings are stronger with individuals who remind you of someone you used to know. “This nurse reminds me of Aunt Sarah, who was nice to me when my dog died.” And so forth.

I have this weird issue where about a third of people I meet for the first time swear they know me from somewhere, and it's somewhere specific that I know I've never been. My dad and brother have the same issue, and we strongly resemble each other, so I think I just have a congenitally familiar face.

I have no idea if feelings would automatically transfer to me from people with amnesia, but they certainly do for people without it, even though I don't remind them of anyone they know well enough to name.

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