Being a cyborg is cool right now, but using a bionic arm can suck
March 4, 2021 5:16 PM Subscribe
This was really enlightening. Thanks for posting it.
posted by janell at 5:54 PM on March 4, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by janell at 5:54 PM on March 4, 2021 [8 favorites]
This was enlightening to read. Count me in as having fallen for the "oh cyborgs, how cool!" hype.
This isn't quite the same, but I'm reminded of a colorblind coworker who told a story about his wife encouraging him to try those glasses that selectively enhance the wavelengths of light for which a person my not have enough cones to see the color(s) those cones pick up. She was in part motivated by feeling sorry for him after seeing one of those "what a normal picture looks like to a colorblind person" images -- i.e., he must be pained by the lack of certain colors. His response was that, apart from having trouble reading charts that rely on red-green color scales, there is no "lack" in his world. He sees how he's always seen -- it's not like he once saw in full color and then had it taken away.
I realized then that I'd been thinking about colorblindness like his wife had been. I too had seen the tear-jerker videos of people trying on those glasses and being overwhelmed with emotion and, in the back of my mind, felt that people like must be seriously bummed to not see all the colors I see. And that's not to say those reactions aren't real and that a lot people don't have that kind of reaction or that it's somehow wrong for them to have it, but it was a lesson in just how much the hype around these technologies relies on this notion that "these people who are getting by just fine are nevertheless lacking because they don't see a color or have a left arm below the elbow and that must pain them terribly" and so was this article.
posted by treepour at 6:18 PM on March 4, 2021 [14 favorites]
This isn't quite the same, but I'm reminded of a colorblind coworker who told a story about his wife encouraging him to try those glasses that selectively enhance the wavelengths of light for which a person my not have enough cones to see the color(s) those cones pick up. She was in part motivated by feeling sorry for him after seeing one of those "what a normal picture looks like to a colorblind person" images -- i.e., he must be pained by the lack of certain colors. His response was that, apart from having trouble reading charts that rely on red-green color scales, there is no "lack" in his world. He sees how he's always seen -- it's not like he once saw in full color and then had it taken away.
I realized then that I'd been thinking about colorblindness like his wife had been. I too had seen the tear-jerker videos of people trying on those glasses and being overwhelmed with emotion and, in the back of my mind, felt that people like must be seriously bummed to not see all the colors I see. And that's not to say those reactions aren't real and that a lot people don't have that kind of reaction or that it's somehow wrong for them to have it, but it was a lesson in just how much the hype around these technologies relies on this notion that "these people who are getting by just fine are nevertheless lacking because they don't see a color or have a left arm below the elbow and that must pain them terribly" and so was this article.
posted by treepour at 6:18 PM on March 4, 2021 [14 favorites]
Amen, treepour. That's exactly how I felt after I read it.
Most of the artificial limbs I've encountered in life have been legs, and those are really not very cyborgy in general, I don't think. I've seen some which were meant to mimic human legs and others that were just metal poles and others that were more fanciful in various ways (one was made to look like it was made from a long gun, for example). I'd probably be pretty "gee whiz" if I encountered a cyborg arm while out and about because it IS pretty neat technology.
I do admit, I'd never thought much about how those who wear them feel about them as devices or as social tools or whatever. Enlightening is the perfect word for this article, indeed!
posted by hippybear at 6:33 PM on March 4, 2021
Most of the artificial limbs I've encountered in life have been legs, and those are really not very cyborgy in general, I don't think. I've seen some which were meant to mimic human legs and others that were just metal poles and others that were more fanciful in various ways (one was made to look like it was made from a long gun, for example). I'd probably be pretty "gee whiz" if I encountered a cyborg arm while out and about because it IS pretty neat technology.
I do admit, I'd never thought much about how those who wear them feel about them as devices or as social tools or whatever. Enlightening is the perfect word for this article, indeed!
posted by hippybear at 6:33 PM on March 4, 2021
I do admit, I'd never thought much about how those who wear them feel about them as devices or as social tools or whatever. Enlightening is the perfect word for this article, indeed!
yeah I worked with a guy who had a fancy-looking cyborg arm & shamefully enough I just assumed he wore it for the physical functionality & it worked better for him than his small arm did, never even thought about the social aspect or my own contribution to it, so this article was great
(one night the team was hanging out at a bar after work playing Never Have I Ever & he was all "never have I ever... had two arms!" & we were like "WOW ok if this is how it's gonna be" & that was the most cutthroat game of Never Have I Ever I've ever played; I guess if it's coworkers you need an alternative gimmick beyond descending into specific categories of butt sex though)
posted by taquito sunrise at 7:26 PM on March 4, 2021 [9 favorites]
yeah I worked with a guy who had a fancy-looking cyborg arm & shamefully enough I just assumed he wore it for the physical functionality & it worked better for him than his small arm did, never even thought about the social aspect or my own contribution to it, so this article was great
(one night the team was hanging out at a bar after work playing Never Have I Ever & he was all "never have I ever... had two arms!" & we were like "WOW ok if this is how it's gonna be" & that was the most cutthroat game of Never Have I Ever I've ever played; I guess if it's coworkers you need an alternative gimmick beyond descending into specific categories of butt sex though)
posted by taquito sunrise at 7:26 PM on March 4, 2021 [9 favorites]
Nthing that that was really interesting.
Factoids I hadn't known before reading the article:
* recent advances in prosthetics were driven by the high number of casualties in the war on terror (not by general advances in medicine and greater awareness of the needs of the wider disabled population)
* most insurance policies don't cover myoelectric arms, which is appalling
It was really great to get this person's insight into their own experience.
Especially this, at the end:
I really appreciate the chance to read this. Thank you so much for posting it, latkes!
posted by kristi at 8:20 PM on March 4, 2021 [8 favorites]
Factoids I hadn't known before reading the article:
* recent advances in prosthetics were driven by the high number of casualties in the war on terror (not by general advances in medicine and greater awareness of the needs of the wider disabled population)
* most insurance policies don't cover myoelectric arms, which is appalling
It was really great to get this person's insight into their own experience.
Especially this, at the end:
In other words, none of us is utterly independent; we are constantly receiving help from other people or from some tool or piece of technology. If more people saw this clearly, then prosthetic limbs wouldn’t be turned into “savior” devices by the media.If only more of us seriously thought about the eyeglasses and hearing aids that so many of us have - especially the fact that many people find their hearing aids next to useless.
I really appreciate the chance to read this. Thank you so much for posting it, latkes!
posted by kristi at 8:20 PM on March 4, 2021 [8 favorites]
Mark me down as someone else who has traditionally been overly enchanted with cyborg chic; I grew up watching The Six Million Dollar Man, and while I remember Steve Austin occasionally (and maybe just in the pilot) being dismayed at the loss of his natural limbs and eye, the emphasis was on his accident and limbs/eye replacement as all part of a superhero origin story. When I fantasized about getting bionic parts, it was really just a power fantasy. This is an initially dismaying but much needed reality check. Of particular interest is her talking about Angel Giuffria, who has quite a striking prosthetic. This is a recent tweet of hers: "i waited 6 weeks for my new iphone and i got it in the mail last night. i get to t-mobile just now and dropped it flat on the screen in the parking lot and now it’s covered in dents and scratches. i didn’t even get it turned on yet. excuse me while i cry in my car." No word on which hand she was holding it with.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:45 PM on March 4, 2021
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:45 PM on March 4, 2021
This made me realize I wouldn't want a cyborg arm but maybe a computer in the shape of an arm could be useful.
posted by hypnogogue at 9:45 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by hypnogogue at 9:45 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
If the prosthetic limbs really did come with built in laser cannons, I feel the voices of the people who use them (or don't) would be much more prominent in the conversation.
posted by Panjandrum at 11:43 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Panjandrum at 11:43 PM on March 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think there's a lot of this sort of technology that is the "answer looking for a problem" sort of technology that isn't really helping anyone yet. But stumbling through all that is often how we arrive at a good place.
It's important to remember that "normal" people are adapted for the world we live in and, in turn, our increasingly manufactured environment is typically designed for the median person. Differing from the norm might make your life very difficult or it might be that, e.g,
> apart from having trouble reading charts that rely on red-green color scales,
> there is no "lack" in his world
In which case it will be unlikely that the benefit of assistive technology will outweigh whatever costs it has.
> If only more of us seriously thought about the eyeglasses
This might be part of the problem though. I wear glasses. Without them I have difficulty with almost everything I do, ranging from annoying through dangerous to completely impossible. But I put them on every day and completely forget that they are there, to the extent that I do things like trying to wash my face without taking them off, and my corrected vision is better than almost every non-glasses-wearer I have asked. This seems like an almost ideal prosthetic to me, and it is so common as to be mundane. Perhaps we fall into the trap of imagining all other prosthetics to be similar.
posted by merlynkline at 12:05 AM on March 5, 2021 [7 favorites]
It's important to remember that "normal" people are adapted for the world we live in and, in turn, our increasingly manufactured environment is typically designed for the median person. Differing from the norm might make your life very difficult or it might be that, e.g,
> apart from having trouble reading charts that rely on red-green color scales,
> there is no "lack" in his world
In which case it will be unlikely that the benefit of assistive technology will outweigh whatever costs it has.
> If only more of us seriously thought about the eyeglasses
This might be part of the problem though. I wear glasses. Without them I have difficulty with almost everything I do, ranging from annoying through dangerous to completely impossible. But I put them on every day and completely forget that they are there, to the extent that I do things like trying to wash my face without taking them off, and my corrected vision is better than almost every non-glasses-wearer I have asked. This seems like an almost ideal prosthetic to me, and it is so common as to be mundane. Perhaps we fall into the trap of imagining all other prosthetics to be similar.
posted by merlynkline at 12:05 AM on March 5, 2021 [7 favorites]
I feel like most "heartwarming moment" videos are cynical clickbait that tend to highlight some terrifying fracture in our society rather than an inspirational path forward. I keep thinking of the recent trend of "Watch this ten-year-old's face as he discovers his parent has taken a week off from the horrors of Forever War to attend a milestone event!!", for example.
But the "first sound ever heard through cochlear implant" videos used to make my teeth grind, when they were making the rounds. Everything I have read or heard about cochlear implants is that it's like having a tin ear wired for someone else's brain. I think of "backwards-brain bicycles" and the experiments with lenses that flipped the world upside-down for participants. And I had my own problems (however mild) with glasses, where to this day I have to make trade-offs between clarity and depth perception (my brain learned to use the variations in astigmatism to enhance stereoscopic vision, alas).
But we see the implants and think "OOH NEATO LOOK A CIRCUIT IN THE HEAD JUST LIKE NEUROMANCER JACK ME IN BABY!!!" and don't think "Three years before you can maybe pick a human voice out of the exhausting hornets-nest mess of static and squelching." I wish we could both be honest about the limitations of technology while simultaneously improving it for a possible future, but we keep promoting Commodore PET-level assistive technology as if it's the equivalent of a 2021-model MacBook.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:44 AM on March 5, 2021 [11 favorites]
But the "first sound ever heard through cochlear implant" videos used to make my teeth grind, when they were making the rounds. Everything I have read or heard about cochlear implants is that it's like having a tin ear wired for someone else's brain. I think of "backwards-brain bicycles" and the experiments with lenses that flipped the world upside-down for participants. And I had my own problems (however mild) with glasses, where to this day I have to make trade-offs between clarity and depth perception (my brain learned to use the variations in astigmatism to enhance stereoscopic vision, alas).
But we see the implants and think "OOH NEATO LOOK A CIRCUIT IN THE HEAD JUST LIKE NEUROMANCER JACK ME IN BABY!!!" and don't think "Three years before you can maybe pick a human voice out of the exhausting hornets-nest mess of static and squelching." I wish we could both be honest about the limitations of technology while simultaneously improving it for a possible future, but we keep promoting Commodore PET-level assistive technology as if it's the equivalent of a 2021-model MacBook.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:44 AM on March 5, 2021 [11 favorites]
I have a similar (albeit on a different scale) as a person with Type 1 Diabetes. My doctors (and many people) encouraged me to get a Dexcom Constant Glucose Monitor. It’s a little medical device that sticks into my stomach and measures my blood glucose 24/7 and sends data to my phone. It’s great because I no longer have to stick my finger.
But it’s not great because it’s a Bluetooth device and has all the associated flakiness. It’s not great because the sensors are temperamental and about 1 out of 10 has to be replaced entirely. It’s not great because if I roll over on it when I sleep the data is bad. It’s not great because it’s advertised as “no calibration needed” but in reality nearly 50% of the sensors need to be calibrated. It’s not great for many many reasons that doctors and Dexcom cheerfully overlook in their marketing and advertising.
Overall it’s a neat piece of technology that does improve my life. But it’s up to me to find the drawbacks when everyone tells me there are none.
posted by paulcole at 5:51 AM on March 5, 2021 [16 favorites]
But it’s not great because it’s a Bluetooth device and has all the associated flakiness. It’s not great because the sensors are temperamental and about 1 out of 10 has to be replaced entirely. It’s not great because if I roll over on it when I sleep the data is bad. It’s not great because it’s advertised as “no calibration needed” but in reality nearly 50% of the sensors need to be calibrated. It’s not great for many many reasons that doctors and Dexcom cheerfully overlook in their marketing and advertising.
Overall it’s a neat piece of technology that does improve my life. But it’s up to me to find the drawbacks when everyone tells me there are none.
posted by paulcole at 5:51 AM on March 5, 2021 [16 favorites]
It's important to remember that "normal" people are adapted for the world we live in and, in turn, our increasingly manufactured environment is typically designed for the median person.
I'm gonna push back hard on this. The world we live in is adapted for "normal" people. Every single human-mediated bit of it, including and especially the social part, and it has been for thousands of years. The fact that our environment is "increasingly manufactured" has very little to do with it.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:39 AM on March 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
I'm gonna push back hard on this. The world we live in is adapted for "normal" people. Every single human-mediated bit of it, including and especially the social part, and it has been for thousands of years. The fact that our environment is "increasingly manufactured" has very little to do with it.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:39 AM on March 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
Interesting article. I have a background in electronics and software, and other hacker/nerdly inclinations... and I was disappointed to learn that these 'cybernetic' prosthetics aren't that functionally sophisticated yet, and in particular that they aren't that useful to many recipients.
And that they're so freaking expensive, given their limited benefit.
I'd like to see some young minds and a few who need prosthetic arms get together for a sort of prosthetic hackathon, to come up with some new concepts for these arms. Something that provides desired utility at an affordable price. I know that socketing and electrode position are always going to be custom, but surely there's some level of modularity possible.
Hey Elon - how about a TESLA prosthetics division?
posted by Artful Codger at 6:50 AM on March 5, 2021
And that they're so freaking expensive, given their limited benefit.
I'd like to see some young minds and a few who need prosthetic arms get together for a sort of prosthetic hackathon, to come up with some new concepts for these arms. Something that provides desired utility at an affordable price. I know that socketing and electrode position are always going to be custom, but surely there's some level of modularity possible.
Hey Elon - how about a TESLA prosthetics division?
posted by Artful Codger at 6:50 AM on March 5, 2021
This was really interesting—I hadn't known much about the details of these fancy arms, and appreciated learning more.
treepour, one of my teenage kids tried those glasses for color-blindness, and ended up returning them. He felt like they were kind of cool for a minute, but not something that was going to make his life better long-term.
posted by Orlop at 6:55 AM on March 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
treepour, one of my teenage kids tried those glasses for color-blindness, and ended up returning them. He felt like they were kind of cool for a minute, but not something that was going to make his life better long-term.
posted by Orlop at 6:55 AM on March 5, 2021 [2 favorites]
In other words, none of us is utterly independent; we are constantly receiving help from other people or from some tool or piece of technology. If more people saw this clearly, then prosthetic limbs wouldn’t be turned into “savior” devices by the media.
I've been meaning to write about this for a long time. I'm an ambulatory wheelchair and electric scooter user, which is to say I can walk very short distances, like around my house, but use a wheelchair or electric scooter on longer trips. The considerations aren't that much different than the ones I made as an able-bodied person, evaluating how much time, energy, and patience I have to decide which tool or machine I might use. When I was able-bodied, the consideration might be: walk, bike, ride the bus, drive. I might choose to drive because I was short on time, or because the weather was bad, or because on that day I just didn't have the energy to ride my bike or deal with the challenges of public transportation. It's the same! I just have a different mix of energy, time, patience, and pain, and some new tools in my toolbox, while some options, like walking and biking, have sadly dropped off the table. But most of us have times when we make these kinds of calculations, and in that way, disabled me is not that different from able-bodied me—or from able-bodied you, for that matter.
posted by Orlop at 7:01 AM on March 5, 2021 [14 favorites]
I've been meaning to write about this for a long time. I'm an ambulatory wheelchair and electric scooter user, which is to say I can walk very short distances, like around my house, but use a wheelchair or electric scooter on longer trips. The considerations aren't that much different than the ones I made as an able-bodied person, evaluating how much time, energy, and patience I have to decide which tool or machine I might use. When I was able-bodied, the consideration might be: walk, bike, ride the bus, drive. I might choose to drive because I was short on time, or because the weather was bad, or because on that day I just didn't have the energy to ride my bike or deal with the challenges of public transportation. It's the same! I just have a different mix of energy, time, patience, and pain, and some new tools in my toolbox, while some options, like walking and biking, have sadly dropped off the table. But most of us have times when we make these kinds of calculations, and in that way, disabled me is not that different from able-bodied me—or from able-bodied you, for that matter.
posted by Orlop at 7:01 AM on March 5, 2021 [14 favorites]
It was good to hear her perspective. I'll admit I was in the "oooh, shiny chrome arm!" camp, mostly due to reading scifi all my life, I guess.
I was reminded of a personal web site I saw years ago, some British dude who was suddenly in need of a wheel chair. He was less than thrilled with several aspects of the chair, from a technical perspective. Being an electronics engineer, he approached the company that made the chair with some informed suggestions, and by his account the reception he got was beyond frosty. As a wheelchair user he had no business trying to tell the manufacturer anything. The manufacturer's staff all having 100% use of their legs, of course....
posted by Harald74 at 7:09 AM on March 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
I was reminded of a personal web site I saw years ago, some British dude who was suddenly in need of a wheel chair. He was less than thrilled with several aspects of the chair, from a technical perspective. Being an electronics engineer, he approached the company that made the chair with some informed suggestions, and by his account the reception he got was beyond frosty. As a wheelchair user he had no business trying to tell the manufacturer anything. The manufacturer's staff all having 100% use of their legs, of course....
posted by Harald74 at 7:09 AM on March 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
Huh, it might have been this guy (wheelchairdriver.com)
posted by Harald74 at 7:22 AM on March 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 7:22 AM on March 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
There was a post not long ago on the blue about a woman's tools and adaptations for daily living, here it is: Adhesive wall hook, scrap of silicone vs. $90,000 myoelectric hand. And here is the article the post was based on: Adaptive engineering: one woman's tools for daily living. It took a look at the adaptations she had made and it was clear that expense and engineering research are not infallible indicators as to the usefulness of an adaptive tool.
posted by glasseyes at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by glasseyes at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
> I'm gonna push back hard on this. The world we live in is adapted for "normal" people.
> Every single human-mediated bit of it, including and especially the social part, and it has
> been for thousands of years. The fact that our environment is "increasingly manufactured"
> has very little to do with it.
Well yes. Except that by "increasingly manufactured" I mean exactly what you're saying - "human-mediated" - I think. E.g. why is it that a person without legs has difficulty living in the world? If you took away everything human-mediated (or manufactured) they'd still have difficulty. But if we lived in the sea, they might have less difficulty. But we don't, so we're adapted to live on the land. And that's not human-mediated or manufactured. OTOH why do they, even with the best prosthetics, have difficulty getting upstairs? Obviously because the stairs are adapted for "normal" people, and that is, of course, manufactured or human-mediated. Compared to the past, more of our environment is manufactured, and I expect that even more of it will be in the future, and I am cynical about it getting better in this respect.
Of course the social part is a whole other thing, and I confess that I was ignoring that, and it is certainly a huge issue for people who might need prosthetics, whether they choose to use them or choose not to. Even my mundane glasses have caused me to experience (very slight) effects of that.
posted by merlynkline at 12:16 PM on March 5, 2021
> Every single human-mediated bit of it, including and especially the social part, and it has
> been for thousands of years. The fact that our environment is "increasingly manufactured"
> has very little to do with it.
Well yes. Except that by "increasingly manufactured" I mean exactly what you're saying - "human-mediated" - I think. E.g. why is it that a person without legs has difficulty living in the world? If you took away everything human-mediated (or manufactured) they'd still have difficulty. But if we lived in the sea, they might have less difficulty. But we don't, so we're adapted to live on the land. And that's not human-mediated or manufactured. OTOH why do they, even with the best prosthetics, have difficulty getting upstairs? Obviously because the stairs are adapted for "normal" people, and that is, of course, manufactured or human-mediated. Compared to the past, more of our environment is manufactured, and I expect that even more of it will be in the future, and I am cynical about it getting better in this respect.
Of course the social part is a whole other thing, and I confess that I was ignoring that, and it is certainly a huge issue for people who might need prosthetics, whether they choose to use them or choose not to. Even my mundane glasses have caused me to experience (very slight) effects of that.
posted by merlynkline at 12:16 PM on March 5, 2021
Hey Elon - how about a TESLA prosthetics division?
When your cyborg hand accidentally crushes the life out of your dog, instead of petting it, 1,000s of weird nerds will hound you for the rest of your life accusing you of being a long time dog killer that's just trying to impede their God Emperor's vision.
Yeah, you don't want Musk involved in anything actually important.
posted by sideshow at 6:55 PM on March 5, 2021 [7 favorites]
When your cyborg hand accidentally crushes the life out of your dog, instead of petting it, 1,000s of weird nerds will hound you for the rest of your life accusing you of being a long time dog killer that's just trying to impede their God Emperor's vision.
Yeah, you don't want Musk involved in anything actually important.
posted by sideshow at 6:55 PM on March 5, 2021 [7 favorites]
From the article: "Did I mention that you cannot reprogram the hand to include more grip patterns without an appointment with your prosthetist?"
It sounds like the prosthetic community needs some jailbreakers like the tractor community has.
Also I'm surprised that the interface with the arm is still so basic - I thought they were over to reading neural impulses by now.
posted by ymgve at 8:25 PM on March 5, 2021
It sounds like the prosthetic community needs some jailbreakers like the tractor community has.
Also I'm surprised that the interface with the arm is still so basic - I thought they were over to reading neural impulses by now.
posted by ymgve at 8:25 PM on March 5, 2021
Worse yet, Musk himself will find that woman who worked out all the cheap adaptations with silicone globs and adhesive wall-hooks and start a public campaign to denigrate her personally.
Keep Musk behind closed doors, please.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:30 AM on March 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
Keep Musk behind closed doors, please.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:30 AM on March 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
If Musk did start a prosthetic limb company he probably would call it something cute like CYBORG. But one thing is for certain: the credit would be all Musk's regardless how many hundreds or thousands of engineers and technicians worked 90-hour weeks to make it happen. And the media would make it out to be yet another one of his "inventions." And the "invention" would probably be something that already existed but was repackaged more slickly.
posted by drstrangelove at 5:45 AM on March 9, 2021
posted by drstrangelove at 5:45 AM on March 9, 2021
So I woke up in a hospital last year unable to walk, talk, or use my hands well. The lack of a real social safety net kind of made me choose focusing on walking and to just settle for the talking I got on my own practice time. Lets ignore walking, that's not something I want to focus on. So, I depend on my hands to type, and computers have been a large part of my life. So, I got lots of practice with recovering my ability to do that. I found smart home stuff, and there are some wins and losses. Remote control lights via a phone app are GREAT except that if your internet is shaky basically all of the stuff I bought and is most common will become unreliable or completely offline. That means your lights are stuck off or on. There are projects like openhab to try to get this control back, but the most popular producer Tuya (rebranded under hundreds of names) actively fights the community to lock them out. And openhab and ilk are not easy to setup. But there's Alexa! Which is really flakey as far as connectivity if it doesn't love your wifi or internet. And it is designed for people without any speech irregularities. I live with people with a foreign accent and anything we want Alexa to do turns into an argument, or begging. I had the most luck changing the trigger word and switching to English (Indian). I speak more slowly, so I have to say Echo fast and in a specific way or I get ignored. It takes a few tries, and then it's really iffy if it will understand my request. All of my dots have essentially become talking clocks. It reminds me of the time a couple of times a day, and if we feel adventurous we try to ask it for the time.
I thought it'd be fine. But, recently my hands have become a problem. It might be arthritis,I dunno, I'm going through tests. I sat down one day and tried to learn how to use my Android phone by voice. Basically I began to prepare for not having hands. The design isn't bad, but it can't understand me. There's a limited number of commands in voice assist mode, but they don't limit the voice recognition to that domain of words. I can see it transcibe all kinds of nonsense, when it would do soo much better if it just limited the words it was listening for. I can't use it. One company I came across advertised an app for iOS that seemed to grasp the issue more, but the Android app was 'coming soon' and I know what that often means even though most of the people in need are likely not iOS users do to price or preference.
I looked into the computer part of things, and the only solution anyone says is any good is made by Nuance. If you look at their website it will tell you all about the magic of their software for use by professionals for dictating into word processors, and they pretty much fail to acknowledge people who are there because of hand issues. I guess they allow a mod'ing community, but they killed their Linux version, so you need to run it in a virtual machine with connectors other people have written. And that sort of just leaves you with stubs on linux and you have to design how it's gonna work. The concept is daunting for someone who invested decades learning how to do things with keyboard shortcuts and uses things like regexp syntax that feel like it would be a nightmare to painfully say out loud. And that assumes it interprets what you say correctly or you're asking it to go back and delete what it misheard. Someone tipped me off about eye tracking, which sounded awesome. I haven't followed through with that completely, but the advertising for the products I saw was aimed at gamers.
I'm hoping the scary medicine I'm testing provides relief, as the alternate possible causes are pretty grim. I've had some ergo mice arrive and an ergo keyboard. The ergo keyboard I liked was 5 weeks out on orders, and the one that seemed most well designed would be really close to learning to type again and a really expensive experiment if I found out it wasn't for me. I'm just going on hope now and if it gets worse I'll try pain killers for as long as that lasts.
It's been shocking to see the state of these things, and how they really aren't designed for those who need them most. Multiple disabilities and your options really get thin. You are completely oblivious to these challenges until you have them. There are some really inspirational people on youtube who are gracious enough to discuss how they've solved things and it's motivating to see their drive. They got me up to speed quickly at first and helped me skip months of adapting my thinking and realizing the new challenges i faced. I owe them a lot. And I've come into this from an extremely privileged position.
posted by joelr at 12:53 PM on March 11, 2021 [6 favorites]
I thought it'd be fine. But, recently my hands have become a problem. It might be arthritis,I dunno, I'm going through tests. I sat down one day and tried to learn how to use my Android phone by voice. Basically I began to prepare for not having hands. The design isn't bad, but it can't understand me. There's a limited number of commands in voice assist mode, but they don't limit the voice recognition to that domain of words. I can see it transcibe all kinds of nonsense, when it would do soo much better if it just limited the words it was listening for. I can't use it. One company I came across advertised an app for iOS that seemed to grasp the issue more, but the Android app was 'coming soon' and I know what that often means even though most of the people in need are likely not iOS users do to price or preference.
I looked into the computer part of things, and the only solution anyone says is any good is made by Nuance. If you look at their website it will tell you all about the magic of their software for use by professionals for dictating into word processors, and they pretty much fail to acknowledge people who are there because of hand issues. I guess they allow a mod'ing community, but they killed their Linux version, so you need to run it in a virtual machine with connectors other people have written. And that sort of just leaves you with stubs on linux and you have to design how it's gonna work. The concept is daunting for someone who invested decades learning how to do things with keyboard shortcuts and uses things like regexp syntax that feel like it would be a nightmare to painfully say out loud. And that assumes it interprets what you say correctly or you're asking it to go back and delete what it misheard. Someone tipped me off about eye tracking, which sounded awesome. I haven't followed through with that completely, but the advertising for the products I saw was aimed at gamers.
I'm hoping the scary medicine I'm testing provides relief, as the alternate possible causes are pretty grim. I've had some ergo mice arrive and an ergo keyboard. The ergo keyboard I liked was 5 weeks out on orders, and the one that seemed most well designed would be really close to learning to type again and a really expensive experiment if I found out it wasn't for me. I'm just going on hope now and if it gets worse I'll try pain killers for as long as that lasts.
It's been shocking to see the state of these things, and how they really aren't designed for those who need them most. Multiple disabilities and your options really get thin. You are completely oblivious to these challenges until you have them. There are some really inspirational people on youtube who are gracious enough to discuss how they've solved things and it's motivating to see their drive. They got me up to speed quickly at first and helped me skip months of adapting my thinking and realizing the new challenges i faced. I owe them a lot. And I've come into this from an extremely privileged position.
posted by joelr at 12:53 PM on March 11, 2021 [6 favorites]
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posted by clawsoon at 5:45 PM on March 4, 2021 [3 favorites]