Voice Operated Page Turner
Surrey REMAP were contacted by the daughter of an MS patient who used to own a book shop, and couldn’t get on with new the iPad and PC options for reading a book. The patient, a quadriplegic who needed to control her physical book page turning through speech commands.
The Challenge
The client simply wanted to read books independently. Before the page turner was installed she relied on her family members to physically turn the pages of the book she was reading. There are no equivalent commercial solutions.
Turning the pages of a book is simple by hand. The patient no longer had that ability so, a machine that could do that task was designed. Replacing the dexterity of human fingers is complex. Different books use different paper quality and thickness. Some books are thin, and some very thick.
The patient could not use foot pedals or push buttons and possessed little head movement. Her only means of communicating was through speech. A Voice Dialog Shield assembled with the Arduino Uno computer allowed the client to operate the page turner. The Voice Dialog Shield captured the verbal commands and digitised the signals. The Arduino Uno processed those signals and generated commands to motors, servos and fans to turn pages.
The solution
All the materials were available online, though one motor had to be ordered specially from China. A design was created, components bought in, assembled, and software written. The solution was well received by the client and her family. There remains the issue that a few books may exhibit two pages sticking together. This is a natural phenomenon but it can be overcome by continuous use of the “Next Page” and “Turn Back” commands.
There is a lot of technology out there. I would like to apply more of that to the difficulties experienced by disabled people.
The benefit
The client can now read her books independently (she has dozens if not hundreds on her bookshelves). Extracts from her daughter’s texts:
“Mum is enjoying the page turner a lot, the two biggest issues we have is that she is struggling with her breathing so can’t speak very loudly. I’ve orderd a new microphone.”
“New microphone works great (although I’ve realised it’s exactly the same as the original one).”
“Mum is getting on with it really well, I don’t think there are any glitches at the moment but I’ll double check when I see her this afternoon.”
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