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[Music]
so hello everyone welcome to the
beautiful milway
stage um it's so nice uh to see all of
you h on this nice and sunny day which
is going to be very hot so what do you
have to do drink water oh
[ __ ] that's true also use sunscreen and
stay in the shade take care of your
fellow creatures
so we are
live yes yes all right so also to my
dear creatures on the internet I'm
really pleased to announce U Mel Mel
likes to play with machines and is going
to talk to us about a very interesting
and important topic it's going to be
about open- Source technologies that
promote accessibility please everyone
give a warm Round of Applause to
Mel well good morning CCC uh today I'd
like to talk to you about how open
source technology can help compensate
certain
handicaps um I don't like to talk about
myself so just let's just get rid of it
uh first who am I I'm a 46y old web dev
Dropout who turned into infos um an
infos consultant got uh too many
interest to be an expert with anything
but I like to play with machines and and
I felt in love with a hardware hacking
during a uh mid man's uh so doing
Workshop uh during which I soldered the
TV began and that was like 10 years ago
and um I've enjoyed playing with
alternative ways to control devices ever
since and I'm about to leak some of my
most precious medical data and expose my
biggest
vulnerabilities today so that you dear
best hackers in the universe can gather
enough information and motivation to
hack the hell lot of not just mine but
as many handicaps as you
can well the context is that we have an
environment that's full of connected
object and other gadgets and that makes
our life way
easier uh now we can do about anything
from a smartwatch and a
smartphone um can spy on your kid or uh
turn on the the heating or water the
plants and these Technologies are also
very useful to have comp to sorry to
help compensate uh certain handicaps but
they have limits when it regards people
whose handicap or combination thereof
prevents them from manipulating um a
smartphone reading a screen or using
vocal command and as a patient it can it
is very fr ating to be shut off from all
these possibilities especially when they
have the potential
to um improve our quality of life and um
to become more independent uh being as
as autonomous as possible is a need we
all share and it shouldn't be a luxury
the good news is that it's not necessary
to reinvent the whe because as you all
know here I think there are alternative
ways to interact with our in technology
iCal environment and yeah they already
exist so Define handicap a handicap or
disability in proper English is a
condition that restricts a person to
function physically mentally or socially
and they come in all shapes and form
they can be visible invisible painful
not painful uh temporary
chronical and
um and the impact that your handicap has
on someone's life mainly depends on
available support resources and
surroundings from uh my own experience
there comes the Leake I can safely say
that being diagnosed with a serious form
of
endometriosis um turn my life upside
down and for those who don't know what
endometriosis is like me it causes uh
among other unpleasant things uh chronic
pain and there's no no cure yet yet so
it took a few years of hormonal therapy
and surgeries but now I'm able to see
walk stand again uh but there were a
long period of time where every single
move uh and step was painful and so
precious and it had to be anticipated
and optimized but I'm okay
now uh Define hack my handicap well as I
haer I made a mistake to consider my
body like a complex yes yet fascinating
machine that was full of signals and
electrical
impulses and where the peripheral
nervous system was just another Network
to debug uh senses like the sight of
hearing or touch could be replaced by
cameras microphones sensors and a lot of
mcus since machine didn't need them to
function and but movement limitation
could be
expanded uh by robotic and mechatronic
solutions but yeah in short I wanted to
treat my handicap like a vulgar bug or
shortcut that needed fixing but I was
wrong my perspective changed when I met
two other the
techn who whose whose handicap were
different from mine and we also looking
for alternative ways to make our uh to
improve our quality of life and so we
naturally became friends
the target well our group is uh small
but the combined list of our uh
illnesses symptoms and things we cannot
do is as long as my arm so I guess we
are the targets uh with the notable um
exception that we are doing it willingly
as long as it's in a controlled and safe
environment it's not that we don't
appreciate our privacy but let's face it
there's no such things as problem
solving without proper problem solving
without proper information gathering
none of us is smarter than all of us and
it's an illusion to think that our
medical datas are safe
anyway so we are represented by this
little mascot she called Nan as you can
see
she she can do um she she represent the
combination of our handicap and this is
who you should actually be hacking she's
representing us so as you can see she
can uh she can communicate a bit but
it's painful and she can uh grab things
a little bit so that's the objective to
make that that makes it very difficult
to use a a mobile phone for instance so
we need to find an alternative but she
reminds us also of the things we can do
instead of the things we cannot
do and she's a
cutie so Define the scope well living
with a handicap in
2023 isn't as effortless as it should be
I mean we have uh more knowledge uh
protective laws medical equipment than
ever uh but many disabilities cannot be
compensated yet in my opinion the main
reason for this
exclusion is not caused by the lack of
available technology called solution but
getting access to them in France for
instance it's a bureaucratic hell to get
equipment uh their price is outrageously
expensive so it usually takes at least a
year between the request for adaptive
equipment and it's actual delivery to
the patient and that's the best case
scenario
um some patient that have to wait years
for a diagnosis without which with uh
it's not possible to even apply for
medical equipment so you can really stay
years without support and as long as you
don't have the handicap stamp on your
card then you cannot even request any
equipment
and yeah and even then we our profile
has to fit a strict protocol that
doesn't make any sense where handicaps
are categorized no sort of spreadsheet
and with
percentages and this uh Spreadsheet will
determine whether your access to a
better quality of life is granted or
not the attack surface so I wish we
could hack the whole planet to make it
accessible for all but it's going to
take years to have to make it happen if
ever and reason that that this is not
happening yet is money of course strict
legislation proprietary softwares
medical certific certification because
every devic is that used by somebody
with a handicap has to be stamped with a
c um
um uh it has to be certified to be used
and
um yeah all these things has to be taken
into consideration but unfortunately
there's a hack to bypass this all these
constraints uh since it's not illegal
yet to hack our own devices and our own
homes it is possible to build interfaces
that will only work for one p patient
and their
environment and uh another tip is to
avoid doing it for commercial purposes
if you want to stay out of trouble so it
would be um don't do this for
money so long live open source
technology uh so I guess the attack
surface is located anywhere between what
the patient can do and what the patient
really would like to do on their
own how too well most of us know someone
who lives with a handicap uh so that's a
good place to start uh in many cases
it's just sufficient to to show patient
how to exploit the uh Native uh
accessibility functions of their
smartphones um like screen readers vocal
command uh
magnification color corle correction or
just adding shortcuts to the home screen
and many more and that really really
helps a lot because most people don't
know how to fully exploit the their the
possibility of their
smartphone you can
also um find uh a lot of information
online but it's not as if efficient as
uh joining the for instance the open-
source Medical Supply
community and or participate to the um
hacking Health Marathon so the so you
can just get your hands on
it and as a tip uh also um even if you
really want to help please do not impose
your help uh to someone with a handicap
unless they really agree to it and don't
call your beta testers guinea
pigs it's not very
appreciated uh
resources uh well nowadays it's quite
easy to find some uh affordable uh
Hardware uh that's uh well documented
and open source but my favorite tools to
play with are the TV beun it will always
be my favorite because it was the first
and it triggered a small revolution in
my head cuz uh yeah soldering it it
taught me so much it gave me countless
hours of
fun and it was also an Excell an
excellent um and and it it brought me a
enough confidence not a lot but enough
confidence to start playing with
hardware and that's yeah soldering the
TV began and uh playing with the the
Arduino platform and it really uh opened
my world to The open- Source Hardware uh
tools like ardino raspberry pie and
there are many Shields and
clones uh
another tool I like to play with is the
easy 430 Kronos from Texas instrument
which is a weable sportwatch development
kit that has a microcontroller MSP for
30 with a integrated S G wireless
transceiver and it also has a few
sensors but uh basically it can allow
you to program custom Wireless
application that's back in
2013 I think it's not sold anymore but
um I have one with me if you want to
play
later uh and I found it particularly
useful to use as a mouse replacement
because there a um uh sometimes I needed
to get a more comfortable position and
uh the laptop on my legs and the mouse
and it wasn't very handy so that also
worked for lazy people by the
way so it was just easy to to control my
computer from um I couldn't do
everything with it but I could at least
scroll select and go back so that was um
that was
um yeah that's it's not open source but
it cost like
50 and uh there's a a platform a
development platform with a gra
graphical interface so it's a really
good way to start playing with this uh
um kind of uh Wireless application uh if
you want something that's
custom and one thing I really like too
if anyone participated in making it uh
it's the radio batch from the CC Camp
CCC camp from
2015 uh that was basically uh yeah
that's a full feature SDR of dlex
transceiver sorry uh software compatible
with the
HF and it can process uh data Standalone
or pass the samples um to the computer
where further signal processing can take
place with new radio for for for example
and uh also the robotic arm um Edge so
it's a kit a robotic arm kit um from o
kit um which is not open to us but that
cost also like
50 uh and yeah it's quite affordable
very fun to play with uh it comes with a
Serial remote but it's possible
to yeah it's like a Arduino Shield let's
say modified the Arduino with a shield
motor in one and then yeah you can do
about anything you want with it uh but
you yeah some people can uh control it
with Bluetooth for
instance but uh I tried to control it
with my sport watch it didn't work so
far but I'm not giving
up work in progress uh so I've been
participating to the hacking heal
Marathon since 2019 that's an event that
takes place once again in my hometown uh
it's co-organized by the regional
hospital the city hall and the PO M
technique so which is a kind of
federation that gathers um 240 local
industrial companies and Sher on the
cake it'ss perfectly
legal about 20 challenges are selected
every year and each challenge represent
a problem that a problematic suggested
by patient or medical care provider
for which uh no solution has been found
yet after that we get 48 hours to
provide a Pok or prototype with the
support of many experts and well and uh
with a well equipped fabl lab in a
fantastic environment and amazing
people and so far uh from the previous
participation I'm glad I had the
opportunity to work on developing
developing a communication model uh
dedicated to people people with a loin
syndrome uh some kind of alternative
universal control uh for someone who
couldn't move a lot of too and an
assistive robotic arm that help people
eat on their
own The Impossible interface uh
so yeah I was participating to the
hacking G for three years and last year
I to took all my coverage but I
suggested a challenge uh instead of just
participating and the challenge I
offered was to find a solution for
people with low arm and finger
Mobility um couldn't use smartphone the
traditional ways and that would allow an
easier interaction with their connected
object as well with nonconnected object
such such as the button of the lift or
just a light switch and this is why it
was nicknamed
impossible because yeah you either can
control something that's connected or or
you have an arm to press a switch but
there's no there's no app that can uh
put on the LI uh uh that can press uh
lift button our time was limited so we
focused on hiking the lift and build a
prototype that's basically a Servo Moto
on rares uh with a Arduino Uno control
by the Arduino and we made a nice fake
finger uh so that uh yeah it really was
like a physical finger that was uh that
could be uh controlled with the Arduino
uh was through uh Arduino
infrared um uh
remote um because we didn't have
Bluetooth options at the time infrared
is not really good for people with low
Mobility by the way because you have to
be right in front of the receiver
to uh to to to to get the to be able to
control it oh 19
minutes uh so yeah when I playing with
the lift was very instructive but the
solution had too many limits and only um
as only adapted lift could have been
used anyway so I went back to the
original idea of building an universal
remote control that could handle several
communication protocol like a Bluetooth
and uh Wi-Fi infrared low and that could
also control a robotic arm when a
physical interaction was needed so I'm
still convinced it is possible to build
it uh so I Chang the name from The
Impossible interface to Buu which
fically sounds like little cute in
French um however there's still a long
road ahead and it's going to take a lot
of time to get there and that's why I
like to take this opportunity to ask for
your precious help uh to make Buu safer
stronger and smarter so don't hesitate
to contact me by mail if you have any
question at project at al.
Tech and um yeah the the help I need is
not just sending money because with the
money I'm only going to buy some
hardware and um what I we really need
this uh technical
expertise um because there once again
none of us is smarter than all of us uh
so there and for last this is a picture
of what Buu looks like for
now it's a five AIS robot uh that's are
doino
compatible uh with uh there are actually
six uh Servo Motors and the extra one I
put it on the top with this fake
finger to show that uh that uh we could
manipulate it uh uh yeah an like an
extra finger if uh the hook wasn't
enough and um on the right hand side you
have one of my beta tester and uh it's
not on scale it's just a prototype but
the idea would be to um to be able to
clip it on wheelchair tablet and then um
uh use uh this uh we did the test with
the bi
uh from MCH from last year and use it as
a Bluetooth remote
control and there's nanat on it so it's
cool um okay so that's it for today any
[Applause]
questions thank you so much M for your
insights and sharing all your
experiences we have five minutes for
questions over there is an angel if you
wish to ask a question please go over to
the angel and speak into the
microphone um but um maybe you could go
a bit more into detail what kind of
technical knowledge you read right need
right now maybe can you say something to
that robotic mechatronic signal
treatment
um um any
uh yeah U web dev web developers I I
think it would be nice to build a
website I didn't do it yet but uh it's
in the pipe so if someone could take
this out of my hand I would be lovely
but uh yeah always say if you want to
help uh I'd rather have a donation in
time uh but if you have nothing else you
can offer money but I'm only going to
buy Hardware with it so I'd rather have
hardware and and Technical
expertise uh hello thanks thanks for
showing your experience and insights um
my question would be if I uh someday or
some of us might uh come into a company
that is building um some kind of
Technologies it's like person lifts or
whatever um and we want to suggest
optimizations um but do not have ourself
the experience of having some kind of
disability is there some kind of
document wellknown issues I could just
hand over and say hey maybe these are
the problems let's go into it because
well the usual problem as we all know is
that often in this rooms where the
decisions are made we have a lot of MWI
people sitting no handicaps and no one
is just aware of hey it could be easy if
we just implement it but we are not
aware of it is there some just a p
there's no centralized platform where
you can you know like a week page not
yet that's why I need a web there the
plan is of course this is open source
and the goal is to make it under 500 but
that would be indeed ideal if we had
just the one uh platform where we could
gather all the
information uh work in progress where do
I need help and
uh there is the website of op s medical
supplies uh.org uh that is uh very good
and it does uh it was born during U the
first wave of covid and so um yeah
there's a whole Community out there
we're not alone anymore and so you can
already find a lot of solutions uh
alternative solution let's say uh
whether it's about um making water
drinkable or making a a face mask and uh
the uh some assistive uh open source
assistive robots I I'm not the first one
to try this there there's lots of C
documentation online but uh I'm not sure
I answered your
question I mean you can still drop an
email if you're interested don't
hesitate to the email the email to the
homepage yet on one of your first slides
um hack my HS or something uh hack my
handicap but I I I put my email right
there
[Laughter]
as the here take feature you
want um yeah oh Christian yeah thank you
for the talk and uh you mentioned
donations and Hardware is there anything
specifically that you'd like and can
people send it to you and is you know
what what sort of anything uh really uh
we can uh uh I mean all
the uh micro USB devices that are
obsolete now we can still use them you
know all the Legacy tech let's say so if
you have I don't know old arduinos uh uh
old raspberry pie Servo Motors uh yeah
microcontrollers uh um yeah the the
hardware is uh hard to get uh my hands
on it's it's affordable now but I I
break so much stuff that it cost me a
lot of
money but yeah but the expertise is
really the most precious for me uh cuz
uh uh this is like my hobby this is not
my profession and uh and uh I'm not that
I'm not that
smart on my own so yeah any help really
is welcome but definitely Hardware uh if
you have anything you know uh lots of
people get the badge don't use it
so if you don't know what to do with
your badge you can recycle it with me I
will take great care of
it
thanks all right all right thank you all
for your questions uh this was the talk
of melano hack my handicap please give a
warm Round of Applause for our awesome
[Applause]
speaker
[Music]