This might be Linux related, sort of.
My 89 year old mother has macular degeneration. We sold her car last year. She can't read letters. She still has a Gmail email account but can't keep up (dementia creeping in). Lately she has been losing track of the day of the week, which is important for doctor appointments. We got her a large letter (8.5 inches) electronic calendarhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but the letters aren't distinct enough to read (S looks like a 5, etc). Which led me to this brainstorm ...
I envision a large PC monitor screen, say 22 inches diagonal, with the day of the week at the top in letters large enough to fill frame to frame. The month and year could follow on the next lines. Design criteria:
1. Large video monitor screen (could be thrift shop item to keep cost down).
2. Raspberry Pi ? as a smart controller to run only a calendar app. Could be mounted up behind the monitor to hide it.
3. Must be fully recoverable from power drops - boot up and run calendar app.
4. Other functions such as temperature display, auto dimming and alarms would be likely add-ons for a wider audience but they would only complicate this for my mother. Programmed dimming for sleeping hours would be ideal though.
5. Needs appropriate calendar application.
The calendar application is the biggie problem for me. I can put together hardware - been building my own PCs since 1988. I can load OS and suitable applications of course but programming has never been my thing. DOS batch files were fun! Here is a crude but simple layout:
SATURDAY (full width, frame-to-frame)
..APRIL 24 (couldn't get these lines to center without dots)
...2018
I think this project is do-able and I think it may have benefits for sight impaired more generally. But there doesn't see to be a forum that addresses these questions as part of its mission. That's why I'm asking here. If you know of a better forum for such a project please let me know. I hope i have described adequately what I am trying to do.
-=Ken=-
My 89 year old mother has macular degeneration. We sold her car last year. She can't read letters. She still has a Gmail email account but can't keep up (dementia creeping in). Lately she has been losing track of the day of the week, which is important for doctor appointments. We got her a large letter (8.5 inches) electronic calendarhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but the letters aren't distinct enough to read (S looks like a 5, etc). Which led me to this brainstorm ...
I envision a large PC monitor screen, say 22 inches diagonal, with the day of the week at the top in letters large enough to fill frame to frame. The month and year could follow on the next lines. Design criteria:
1. Large video monitor screen (could be thrift shop item to keep cost down).
2. Raspberry Pi ? as a smart controller to run only a calendar app. Could be mounted up behind the monitor to hide it.
3. Must be fully recoverable from power drops - boot up and run calendar app.
4. Other functions such as temperature display, auto dimming and alarms would be likely add-ons for a wider audience but they would only complicate this for my mother. Programmed dimming for sleeping hours would be ideal though.
5. Needs appropriate calendar application.
The calendar application is the biggie problem for me. I can put together hardware - been building my own PCs since 1988. I can load OS and suitable applications of course but programming has never been my thing. DOS batch files were fun! Here is a crude but simple layout:
SATURDAY (full width, frame-to-frame)
..APRIL 24 (couldn't get these lines to center without dots)
...2018
I think this project is do-able and I think it may have benefits for sight impaired more generally. But there doesn't see to be a forum that addresses these questions as part of its mission. That's why I'm asking here. If you know of a better forum for such a project please let me know. I hope i have described adequately what I am trying to do.
-=Ken=-
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