The theme of the last Hackaday Prize challenge was Assistive Technologies, and there is perhaps no assistive technology as desperately needed as a device to help people who can’t use common input devices. Using a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen can be hard, but this Hackaday Prize project turns all these problems into a simple Bluetooth-enabled switch.
The BOSI – the Bluetooth Open Source Switch Interface – is, at its heart, just a big Bluetooth button inside a 3D-printed enclosure designed in Solidworks. These enclosures house a button connected to an Adafruit Bluefruit EZ-Key. Add a battery and a charging circuit, and you have a button that can be pressed by anyone, that connects to any device, and can do anything.
The real trick to a system like this is the software stack, and for this, BOSI can be used with iOS and OS X using the Switch Control interface. Android works, too, and the entire device is exceptionally usable for anyone that can’t use a normal input device. A great entry for the Hackaday Prize.
If only there had been some kind of widely available inexpensive hardware you could repurpose for this kind of thing…. http://hackaday.com/2016/09/14/hacking-a-dollar-store-bluetooth-device/
“If only there had been some kind of widely available inexpensive hardware you could repurpose for this kind of thing” -> With schematic, no less.
http://chaungxinhong.ic37.com/uploadfile/member_news/2015-01-19/5829909c-8a4f-460c-bb95-a0e9123c2245.png
These things are not uncommon and there are many HID based switch adapters for mobile devices. The really good ones
have specific features: can be programmed easily (eg dipswitch) to different keystrokes, good power management so the
battery is not constantly an issue, low battery warning, durable easy to mount enclosure (usually with velcro), reliable connection – constant needing re-pairing is a problem.