MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by sahmeepee » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 8:32 AM UTC

lilyball wrote: post #121

ryanckulp wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for your family cal, check out TRMNL. can go on a fridge w/ magnets: https://usetrmnl.com (disclaimer, i'm the founder)

My fridge isn't magnetic. A lot of modern fridges aren't. Might be a neat idea to offer a magnetic mount for it, like a flexible flat magnetic board shaped to fit the TRMNL with a sticky backing so you can attach it somewhere and then use that to attach the TRMNL (your site doesn't seem to say anything about being magnetic so I'm guessing you have to attach magnets to the TRMNL too though?). For that matter, the site…

You can buy sheets of rubbery material with sticky backing and metal powder embedded in the rubber. One supplier is WarMag - people use them as a surface for putting magnetic-based figures on.

I came into possession of several sheafs of the A4-sized ones, which now serve as "generic surprisingly heavy objects".

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

#242

Post by rramadass » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 8:36 AM UTC

smeej wrote: post #6

Understanding that the condition is rare enough that most of us really don't have a need to prepare for it, I wonder if there are any habits one could cultivate that would make it easier to live with amnesia. Learning new things is my favorite past time and strongest coping mechanism, so the though of not being able to do that anymore is up there with locked-in syndrome on my list of greatest living fears. For exampl…

A simple battery replaceable pocket voice recorder is often very much overlooked.

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

#243

Post by pflenker » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 10:31 AM UTC

xd1936 wrote: post #209

harpastum wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're comfortable with microcontrollers (esp32/arduino), I can definitely recommend Inkplate. I found them when I was making a similar setup for my parents, and they have various sizes up to 10" and up to 6 colors they can display. You can either just get the module, or buy with a battery and mountable case already attached. I think all of the models are also available via Digikey and Mouser if people don't trust…

Seconded. I matted and framed one InkPlate 10 and hung it on our wall, then wrote a simple "show the next three days from everyone in the family's Google Calendars" image creation script and it's been wonderful.

I looked into inkplate. I have no experience at all with microcontrollers. How difficult is it to build something like you did?

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

#244

Post by mattmanser » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 10:53 AM UTC

chgs wrote: post #193

withinboredom wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I taught it by standing (kneeling) behind, so my left was my son’s left. Didn’t occur it could be done the other way. However my wife, who’s 3 weeks younger than me, ties her shoes in a completely different way to me, which I believe is a “bunny ears” method. Give the large variety of ways to tie shoes, there’s no way you could infer anything other than the way they are doing it now.

There actually is a right way and wrong way to tie your shoes.

Even with the bunny ear method right bunny ear over left is wrong, it comes undone much easier than left bunny ear over right.

If you're like me there's a Google rabbit hole to disappear into for 1/2 hour, completely forget about, and carry on doing it completely wrong.

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

#245

Post by swyx » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 1:14 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #204

NB: As the article mentions concerns about burn-in, this doesn't seem to be an issue for e-ink devices. Many ship with a standard image or set of images displayed when powered off or suspended. Presumably those display for long periods of time. My experience over ~3 years with a similar Onyx BOOX device has been that those images don't burn in at all. What is experienced is temporary ghosting which varies by display…

lovely note thank you. i checked out Boox and it seems to all be sold out - any ideas how to get one (or a good enough alternative) today?

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

#246

Post by swyx » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 1:19 PM UTC

bool3max wrote: post #191

albert_e wrote: post #19

> One small challenge was maximizing the size of the message text. Sometimes a message is just a word or two; other times it might be several sentences. A single font size can’t accommodate such a wide range of text content. I couldn’t find a pure CSS way to automatically maximize font size so that a text element with word wrapping would display without clipping. > I ended up writing a small JavaScript function to ma…

How the hell is this not already a CSS feature? font-size: "as-big-as-possible-while-still-fitting-parent-container"; or maybe just font-size: max;

i asked this on bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/swyx.io/post/3lb2x53wuwc2y) and immiediately got this https://kizu.dev/fit-to-width/ which means theres no technical barrier now, we just need the powers that be to prioritize it

anyone with influence on the CSSWG?

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

#247

Post by vanderZwan » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

jdiff wrote: post #68

zrail wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be nice to add default messages that can auto-populate the date so she won't notice if network goes down for awhile or someone forgets to post a message.

Nah, at that point, just let mom call.

This assumes the mother can form the new memory required to remember to call in that situation, which she by definition of the disease can't.

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

#248

Post by 0x1ceb00da » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 3:45 PM UTC

bregma wrote: post #45

My wife acquired anterograde amnesia after a car accident. This device may or may not have worked for her: she would probably have discovered the device anew every time (as in, every 10 minutes or so), although she would probably be pleased each time. Thankfully she fully recovered after a few weeks. It takes a lot of patience to deal with someone like that, and you could tell it frequently caused a lot of frustratio…

What exactly causes anterograde amnesia? Why is it temporary for some people and permanent for others?

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

#249

Post by jdiff » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

vanderZwan wrote: post #247

jdiff wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, at that point, just let mom call.

This assumes the mother can form the new memory required to remember to call in that situation, which she by definition of the disease can't.

It (hopefully, theoretically) shouldn't make that assumption. It only relies on her apparent natural tendency to call her kids when/as she believes she hasn't heard from them in some time.

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

#250

Post by deergomoo » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 8:15 PM UTC

vitorbaptistaa wrote: post #122

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…

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.