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Physically-Challenged Gamer Hacks Together Custom PS3 Controller

Posted by Soulskill on from the quick-get-a-patent dept.

Destructoid has a neat post about a gamer whose condition prevents him from using a standard video game controller. With the help of a company called GimpGear, which markets devices for people with limited mobility, he designed and built a custom input device that makes use of fingers, toes, and even sips or puffs of air to control his favorite games. Pictures and a video of the setup are both available in the post.

33 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. "GimpGear" FTW by Valacosa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The best way to fight a derogatory term is to take it back. A group trying to run away from a word with negative connotations is simply running on a treadmill, each new euphemism becoming an insult in a few years. (e.g. Retarded -> Mentally Disabled -> Differently Abled etc.)

    --
    "Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
    1. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by dosius · · Score: 5, Informative

      I actually prefer to refer to myself as "handicapped" rather than "disabled" - since handicap suggests a slight limitation, disabled suggests a total incapacitation.

      I'm not the first person to say this either.

      -uso.

      --
      What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
    2. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by wild_quinine · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The best way to fight a derogatory term is to take it back. A group trying to run away from a word with negative connotations is simply running on a treadmill, each new euphemism becoming an insult in a few years. (e.g. Retarded -> Mentally Disabled -> Differently Abled etc.)

      My brother is severely physically disabled (oh no! that's the not the politcally correct way of saying it any more!) and playing online video games has given him a freedom and confidence I've never seen in him. When he gets on teamspeak, he's just one more of the guys. He's not the greatest gameplayer in the world, but he doesn't let the side down in a five man instance, for example.

      He doesn't play on Xbox Live! though. In his words 'Those guys are retards'.

    3. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I know a person born with no arms who says she isn't handicapped or disabled, since she never had arms in the first place so didn't "lose" physical abilities, does everything (and I mean everything) with her feet, and knows no other way of doing things.

    4. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Agreed. I'm blind in one eye and deaf in one ear. But you don't notice it unless you've had a chance to talk to me. So I usually use the word "impaired" for hearing and "partially blind" to describe the other.

      And it's such a gray area, too. Do I need assistance? How do I know?

    5. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by Heian-794 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's absolutely the right way to go about it.

      I myself was born partially blind and am often asked by "normal" people if it's difficult to get through life. I have the irresistible urge to quote Hall-of-Fame Chicago Cubs pitcher Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, who, when asked the same question regarding the disfiguring hand injury he sustained in a mining accident as a child, would reapond, "I wouldn't know. I've never tried it the other way."

    6. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by Daimanta · · Score: 3, Funny

      "In his words 'Those guys are retards'."

      No, they are differently abled.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    7. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      The best way to fight a derogatory term is to take it back. A group trying to run away from a word with negative connotations is simply running on a treadmill, each new euphemism becoming an insult in a few years. (e.g. Retarded -> Mentally Disabled -> Differently Abled etc.)

      On the other hand, for each derogatory term that a group reclaims, a new pejorative will be coined to take its place. If you're proud to be a Gimp, they'll start calling you a Feeb.

    8. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'm a giant, so technically as retarded physically as someone with an extra ear/arm.. BUT I did find the PS3 controller would of been better suited if I had tiny flippers instead of huge man hands.

      The 360 is the only way I can play consoles with my big hands.. the ps3 was blatantly made for tiny little girl hands (I blame the maker - but do I mean Sony or God?).

    9. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by JoshJ · · Score: 1

      I've got a friend who follows the disabled-awareness movement (for lack of a better term) and there's a surprising amount of them who use the term gimp.

      --
      Care about privacy? Read this!
    10. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by KindMind · · Score: 1

      That's absolutely the right way to go about it.

      I totally agree. I was born with severe hearing loss in both ears. I'm not deaf, and so consider myself fortunate. But it's still a struggle, and I think attitude matters a lot.

      ... "I wouldn't know. I've never tried it the other way."

      That's a great quote. I'm going to remember that one for when I get that kind of question. Thanks - you made my day.

      --
      Politicians complicate life - logic is sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
    11. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by Scherf · · Score: 1

      Out of curiosity: What's the definition of a "Giant"? I mean, are you just a really big guy?

    12. Re:"GimpGear" FTW by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      I absolutely agree. See when I was born the mid-wife pulled too hard on my head and it came off. Fortunately part of my brain remained attached to the rest of my body so I was able to survive.

      Over the years people kept asking me how difficult it is to live without a head and just enough of a brain to breath and swallow food. To which I would reply, "I don't know, I've never gave it much of a thought."

      --
      You just got troll'd!
  2. How? by skirmish666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm impressed and confused that someone who can't hold a PS3 controller managed to build a custom input device.

    --
    Sigger than your average
    1. Re:How? by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 3, Informative

      from TFA:

      KitsuneYume made things work, working with an engineer to devise an adaptive controller to help him get his game on.

    2. Re:How? by neumayr · · Score: 1

      Well yes, there are those that argue that games have become too complicated nowadays.
      Seems they might be on to something there..

      --
      Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
    3. Re:How? by khellendros1984 · · Score: 1

      AC, with your comment, you've hurt me where my heart would be....if I wasn't American too.

      --
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
  3. True inspiration by Andr+T. · · Score: 1

    "Since 1986 I have lived for gaming and will continue to do so for eternity."

    What can I say? This brings tears to my eyes.

    --

    Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

  4. This could mess one of my favorite movies by Andr+T. · · Score: 1

    Zed: Bring out the Gimp.

    Maynard: Gimp's playing in his PS3.

    Zed: Well, I guess you're gonna have to call him now, won't you?

    --

    Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

  5. Re:bah by 21st+Century+Peon · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...the PC crowd must be on holiday or something.
    Which is why he built it for the PS3! Badum-tsh!

    --
    "Knowledge, sir, should be free to all!"
    ~Harcourt Fenton Mudd
  6. Ben Heck by adamofgreyskull · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ben Heckendorn, has also done something similar for the XBox 360 controller, with left-hand and right-hand versions.

  7. Re:Yawn... by Amouth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Gotta love how being disabled automatically makes everything you do amazing and inspiring."

    That is because it is amazing and inspiring - if you have ever worked one on one with disabled children - and seen them struggle on the simplest of concepts - when they findly get it it is inspiring - but when they go past that and do something you had never even considered them able to do - that is amazing and truley inspiring.

    your comment as a lack of compassion - till you have any understanding what these peoples lives are like do not by any means put them down for anything they do or can't do - instead just keep quite and move along

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  8. Re:bah by tepples · · Score: 1

    I'm actually amazed a company dealing with "physically-challenged" people has managed to get away with calling itself "GimpGamers"

    I'd be inclined to give them a pass: GIMP runs on a PS3; Photoshop doesn't.

  9. I am disabled too. by antdude · · Score: 2, Informative

    For me, I play computer games since I like big clicky keyboards and mice. I used to own an Atari 2600 and their joysticks were simple. I can't use the newer game consoles' controllers very well, including the normal ones from NES'. I have no thumbs and only four fingers. I have to have support to hold my controllers in order to play.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    1. Re:I am disabled too. by corky842 · · Score: 1

      Have you seen BenHeck's new controllers? Even though there's five modules, you probably would only have to use four at once (at most) since the d-pad isn't used at the same time as the analog sticks in nearly every game.

    2. Re:I am disabled too. by antdude · · Score: 1

      It asked me to login. :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    3. Re:I am disabled too. by corky842 · · Score: 1

      Try their homepage here: http://www.edimensional.com It should be the first thing listed under 'game controllers'.

    4. Re:I am disabled too. by antdude · · Score: 1

      Thanks. Interesting. It looks huge. I cannot find the dimension sizes and weight. Is it big as a standard PC keyboard?

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    5. Re:I am disabled too. by corky842 · · Score: 1

      I can't find any dimensions either. Each one of the modules looks 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter, but it's kind of hard to tell. Here's some pictures of it semi-disassembled.

  10. Nintendo did this in the 80s. by PyroMosh · · Score: 1

    Obviously it doesn't have the cool-factor of a lone hacker putting something together like this, but Nintendo offered a similar device for the NES in the late 80s called the Nintendo Hands Free Controller (HFC).

    I seem to remember reading about it at the time (though I can't verify) that Nintendo also worked with the Starlight Foundation to distribute the devices to hospitals as well.

    --
    Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
  11. Re:Yawn... by fractoid · · Score: 1

    Or maybe just at the fact that he now has to play Tony Hawk by modulating his breathing through a straw. :P

    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  12. Re:Truly inspiring by fractoid · · Score: 1

    As opposed to all the other, more useful stuff he could be doing, like... um... theorizing about black hole physics? If this guy can have some fun for once in his life then good on him!

    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  13. Re:bah by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
    I know..my first though was...when did the term handicapped stop being "PC"?

    Do we no longer have Handicapped parking spaces?

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........