How One Man Helps Keep Game Controllers Accessible 130
capedgirardeau writes with a clipping from the AP about engineer Ken Yankelevitz: "[W]ith the retired Bozeman engineer's 70th birthday approaching, disabled gamers say they fear there will be no one to replace Yankelevitz, who has sustained quadriplegic game controllers for 30 years almost entirely by himself. The retired aerospace engineer hand makes the controllers with custom parts in his Montana workshop, offering them at a price just enough to cover parts." Yankelevitz builds interfaces to control an Xbox 360 or PlayStation.
Why is a third party manufacturer needed? (Score:1)
Re:Why is a third party manufacturer needed? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft and Sony should build these controllers to increase their reputation, so that people will see them as "savior of the disabled". This gives them one extra chance to do massive evil.
The "dynamics of capitalism" is just market force. It doesn't have to be capitalism actually.
North Korea wouldn't be building these controllers (even if there are to be 360s sold there) as it isn't seen to be beneficial to the country, it's better for people to focus on work. All the funding needed to get the controller
Re: (Score:2)
The argument that Microsoft and Sony should build these controllers to increase their reputation, but do not because of market forces seems contradictory to me.
In other words, Microsoft and Sony should NOT build these controllers because the cost to do so would outweigh the small increase to their reputation that would result. After all, companies commonly do charitable things to increase their reputation. So who do we blame when it stops being advantageous for them to do so? Most want to blame the compa
Re: (Score:2)
Can you tell me why Microsoft and Sony should be building these controllers, and what specific "dynamics of capitalism" keeps them from doing so?
I don't see North Korea building these controllers for their people.
What Sony, Microsoft, etc al... will do is: to tie up the controller interfaces with patents, so that even this guy would get sued into oblivion for trying to do the socially responsible thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
and also due the dynamics of capitalism, someone else fills in the void, in this case it's Mr. Yankelevitz.
Re: (Score:3)
and also due the dynamics of capitalism, someone else fills in the void, in this case it's Mr. Yankelevitz.
Didn't bother to read the article, did you?
Mr. Yankelevitz didn't recognize a profitable niche market and use his small-business agility to step in where the big guys couldn't. He's selling these controllers for the cost of materials and giving away his time, skills, and experience for free. He's not making money and has no expectation of a return on the time and effort he's expended, ever. It would be impossible for him to make a living wage manufacturing these devices at his current price point.
If
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Charity is part of the free market. This is capitalism, which is all about free trade i.e. not having the government interfere in the economic lives of individuals.
With that sort of logic then religion, communism and even Government interference are part of the free market too. The latter especially if the Government is bought or supplied by the Corporations ;).
Q) How many free market capitalists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A) Free market capitalists don't change lightbulbs. They sit in the darkness writing academic crap[1] and wait for Adam Smith's Invisible Hand[2] to do stuff.
[1] If you're going to say charity is part of the free market then free market the
Re: (Score:2)
And in the case where the voters elect a government, it is also part of the free market too. After all using your reasoning, voting is just another transaction. In such a case there would be no point grumbling about Government interference getting in the way of the free market. By your logic, governm
Re: (Score:2)
The entities consensually doing the transaction may negatively affect those who are not directly involved in the transaction.
Would that that mean it is not a free market transaction as long the transaction has negative effects/impact on others?
Or is that transaction still a "free market" transaction (willing buyer, willing seller), but the subsequent acts by the Government might not b
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Why is a third party manufacturer needed? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a quality of life issue, asshat.
Quads spend most of their time confined to a bed. A game controller build to meet their needs opens worlds of interactive entertainment to people who would otherwise be limited to passive consumption (television) or limited interaction via a visual keyboard.
captcha: network
And thats what these people gain: a greater network of human interaction. Shame on you for pissing on that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Shouldn't this be something Microsoft and Sony should be doing anyway?
No it should be done by an entrepreneur who will fill a niche and make a living doing do. That's how capitalism is supposed to work. Expecting the behemoths to do so and then being snarky to them for not doing it shows your failure to understand capitalism and self-reliance.
Oh, wait, this is /. ........
Re: (Score:2)
Shouldn't this be something Microsoft and Sony should be doing anyway?
No it should be done by an entrepreneur who will fill a niche and make a living doing do. That's how capitalism is supposed to work.
Bespoke engineering in small quantities would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit. It would be right up there with custom military equipment. At that price nobody would buy the units.
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to say "...but bespoke engineering in small quantities is exactly what he's been doing for 30 years." and then realized he started doing it when he retired and charged just enough to cover his costs, so he wasn't actually making a living out of it. Really the only person - or people - who could take over are other people with the required skills who don't need to make a living out of it but have the time to spare.
Re: (Score:3)
"Shouldn't this be something Microsoft and Sony should be doing anyway?"
The can't even be bothered to comply with the laws to make their websites usable by people with disabilities.
Re: (Score:1)
Many companies make right-handed ergonomic or gaming mice, but few make them for left handers. Lefties are about 10% of the population, and it isn't a big enough market for them to bother with. I don't know the percentage of quadriplegics, but I'd wager it's ay least 4 orders of magnitude less.
Re: (Score:3)
Don't forget that in a world where console manufacturers were forced to make their consoles accessible to people with disabilities, there basically wouldn't be a Wii (or PS Move, or Kinect).
Until a few months ago, a friend of mine was dating a girl who worked as a therapist in a centre that helped people recover after "life changing" accidents or surgery - in other words, people who found themselves suddenly lacking (or at least lacking the use of) an arm, a leg or more. They didn't take younger kids - that
Re: (Score:3)
So, in a world where developers were required by law to make their products fully accessible,
Requiring full accessibility would certainly go to far and would simply be impossible in a general fashion, but it wouldn't hurt to much to force them to actually follow proper USB HID standards or publish the protocol their controller use, to at least make building third party controllers a little easier. Currently even something simple as an arcade stick that works on Xbox360 and PS3 is already a mess, both use USB, except hat Microsoft specifically locks out any unlicensed third party gear. PS3 in that r
Re: (Score:2)
Market isn't big enough to make it worth their while. To make the controllers cost effective they would be horrendously expensive for the end-user. Alas that's how business works. TFA notes that he's only sold 800 controllers in the last 30 years,
Re:Why is a third party manufacturer needed? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do you assume that all disabled people are that way because they made some stupid decision? Oftentimes, it's because some other person, like a drunk driver, made a stupid decision, but these people have to pay for it. But there's otherwise nothing wrong with them and there's no reason why they should be removed from the gene pool or made to suffer even more than they already are.
Also, you seriously misunderstand how evolution works. Removing a couple of obvious failures from the system doesn't necessarily produce a better gene pool. The genes for stupid behaviors are complex and varied, if they even exist at all, and many, if not most of us, are probably carriers. Furthermore, the stupid are themselves carriers for good genes. By only explicitly selecting the "good" and getting rid of all the undesirables, we not only fail to solve the problem, but we also destroy good genes as well as genetic diversity.
Social Darwinism doesn't work. Never did, never will.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
You're like (I used this example, because something similar really happened and is well-known):
Hey, that dude went to the back of his motor home to make a coffee *while on the freaking highway*, crashed, and now can't walk.
Nope. Long running urban legend [snopes.com], constantly morphing according whatever the current society or teller wants to bash (in your case, disabled people.)
Consulting opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
TFA: "Quadriplegic gamers now have around a dozen different actions they can work with their mouth."
Damn, I need a quadriplegic gamer consultant to provide training for my wife.
Re:Consulting opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
No problem. I will be happy to drop by and consult with your wife as to how she should best use her mouth.
For a reasonable weekly fee, I'm sure it will only take maybe six months to a year for her to master the techniques I have to teach her.
Re: (Score:2)
No problem. I will be happy to drop by and consult with your wife as to how she should best use her mouth.
For a reasonable weekly fee, I'm sure it will only take maybe six months to a year for her to master the techniques I have to teach her.
I know everyone is thinking this is a sex joke but 'davester666' takes gaming extremely seriously and is also the Korean World Champion of Star-Craft...
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Consulting opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
That's strange, the guys from the Union Park basketball court and I think she's great. She does complain quite a bit about your performance, though.
Re: (Score:2)
why is that I never get mod point when I am drunk, as I had would modded you up damm it !
Re: (Score:1)
No, the majority of them are asian students with tiny little weens from UIC. There are also several hispanic guys and an equal number of black and white guys. Luis, one of the hispanic guys is an award-winning pastry chef and restauranteur. One of the guys is a University of Chicago economist (dick) and another is a harmonica player whose name you would recognize if you were a blues fan. My guess is that given your penchant for racial stereotypes
And this is what I call a Hobby. (Score:5, Insightful)
Really what a great and admirable hobby. This is a gentleman that must sleep well every night.
Re: (Score:2)
Could not agree more. What a brilliant man and engineer!
Re: (Score:2)
That guy must be seen as a heor by his "customers". Hats off!
Re: (Score:2)
No thanks to Microsoft though. The XBOX 360 controllers use some kind of encryption to prevent third parties making their own. Recently some Chinese guys figured out how to bypass it, but until then the only way to make a 360 controller was buy a license from Microsoft.
If you head over to the SRK forums you can see how all the joystick builders have to wire in the PCB from a 360 pad to support it. One chip can do every other console in existence, but a "pad hack" is the only way to connect to a 360. The old
Re: (Score:2)
This is a clear case of unintended consequences. Microsoft doesn't care at all about block the sale of these controllers. What they didn't want was a bunch of cheap knock offs making money from their console.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
No it would be wise. Thing is that it is probably blocked by a bureaucratic hell at Microsoft. If they where really smart they would offer to give this guy the parts to make these controllers. Probably cost them all of a $1000 and be worth millions in good PR.
Re: (Score:1)
I didn't know consoles were marketed to octopi...
damnit ! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
How does he do it? (Score:2)
Re:How does he do it? (Score:5, Informative)
He's not trying to complete on price w/ Microsoft; So there's nothing stopping him from buying an official controller for each one he builds to get the interface hardware. It just becomes part of the BOM cost.
Then he just has to replace the buttons and joysticks with ones that work for his end-users.
Re: (Score:1)
The same way I made a wireless arcade controller, by soldering leads directly onto a genuine controller and then connecting them up to the switches.
Re: (Score:1)
Is his design patented? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Just publish the designs on the web. You don't have to own it to pass it on, you simply have to share it. -- Hiten
Re: (Score:2)
Just publish the designs on the web. You don't have to own it to pass it on, you simply have to share it. -- Hiten
I'm not sure, as IANAL, and stuff. But my understanding is, in the U.S. at least, that if a design is patented, then it can't be legally manufactured by an unauthorized party. Publishing the design on the web or other public forum doesn't change the protection a patent offers. Remember, patents and all they describe are all available to the public already from the USPO itself.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to hate on this guy. I admire his work, and he's just the sort of person patents are intended to ben
Re: (Score:2)
The only thing that would stop someone from making these would be if he enforced this hypothetical patent. It seems very unlikely that he would do so after being dead.
Then there is the other thing - he started making these controllers 30 years ago. Any possible patents would be either expired or otherwise moot.
Re: (Score:2)
Wii U Fleshlight (Score:1)
Still waiting for my Wii Fleshlight
Similar projects and people (Score:2, Informative)
Similar projects and people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83nSodg-HTU
http://benheck.com/03-16-2008/new-single-handed-controller
http://benheck.com/Games/Xbox360/controls/1hand/singlehandcontroller.htm
I think it's great that there are a handful of people focussing on gamers who would otherwise struggle with standard controllers. I only wish the Sonys, Microsofts, and Nintendos of this world would occasionally take the lead in this research, or at the very least contribute to some R&D once in a while.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Yup - Ben Heck could be a "replacement", in the sense that he has the skills and interests to possibly be talked into taking up the mantle.
Interesting.. and frustrating? (Score:3, Interesting)
As a gamer who has a mild neurological condition that limits fine motor control in one of my hands... and have become increasingly annoyed at the complexity of controllers and control schemes (the shoulder buttons on a dualshock controller are particularly hard to reliably control)...
I both salute this man, and I wonder what kinds of games one can actually play with such a controller... the amount of reflexes and reaction time required to play most (90%?) of the games, seems like it would be beyond what you could convey through one of these devices in a useful amount of time..
Re: (Score:3)
I found this guy on youtube, rather amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNjWecipbTA [youtube.com] He plays COD WAW, and is pretty good at the zombie levels. He cannot move and aim at the same time, but he manages to get pretty far.
Re: (Score:1)
I found this guy on youtube, rather amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNjWecipbTA [youtube.com] He plays COD WAW, and is pretty good at the zombie levels. He cannot move and aim at the same time, but he manages to get pretty far.
I sit on my ass in utter awe. And here I was getting annoyed at the driving scenes in L.A. Noire. .... wow.
Re: (Score:2)
As a gamer who has no disability I can, sadly, relate. Some games make flight simulators seem easy to control.
For those weary of the inevitable goatse link.... (Score:4, Informative)
If someone wanted to fill his shoes, it wouldn't be an easy task.
He puts each controller together by hand, using his engineering skills to solder dozens of switches and circuits. Controllers are offered for just over $200 and include a 1-year warranty for repairs.
"If the bottom line is profit, there's no way to make a profit on these," Yankelevitz said.
Yankelevitz said larger companies and game manufacturers have shown no interest in producing the controllers because the market is so small. He's sold just over 800 of the devices through 30 years. Factory construction of the controller would be cost prohibitive, over $1,000 each.
Man builds 30 years of quadriplegic gaming [msn.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Considering how much Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo spend on advertising, you'd think they could offer the same service in-house.
Even if they gave away the modified controllers for free, they'd more than recoup the cost through increased goodwill and word of mouth.
Re: (Score:2)
That's EXACTLY what Nintendo used to do. At least during the NES era.
I wrote about this once before on Slashdot [slashdot.org].
Basically the controller (which worked in very much the same way as what this guy builds [oneswitch.org.uk]) was $120 by itself, or $180 if you purchased it as a complete package with a new NES. Since a new NES was the same price in stores at the time, it essentially made the controller free if you didn't already have a system.
They used to distribute these to children's hospitals too. And I can't find a link to v
Re: (Score:2)
If Mr Yankelevitz's nice designs are not open source, then there should be an alternative design that is.
Have you considered the possibility these controllers may have to be customized for each client or patient? That solutions have to be found for each new generation of controller? That training the user is a problem in itself?
Re: (Score:2)
"Have you considered the possibility these controllers may have to be customized for each client or patient?"
Great job for a makerbot.
Change design.
Print.
Re: (Score:2)
You are all thinking along the right lines in my perspective.
If he could publish some of the plans from the past,
what the thinking was for the specific controller,
and how to formulate the right devices together
it would be a benefit for the 'home brew' hackers that
wants to help.
open source for the project would just be a benefit for
those that are disabled.
Just think, I got a cnc in my basement, another guy
has spare chips, another has got the tubes they need
and everyone could donate to the project. and make g
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
"Why is medicine so Stone Age still?"
Because not enough people donate computing time to Folding@home ( http://folding.stanford.edu/ [stanford.edu] ) instead of leaving those other 1/37 cores run idle.
They also have version that runs on that expensive gaming graphics card you've got.
It's not much, but it helps me sleep better.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We have a thousand companies all trying to win a single race where the winner takes all and the 999 others lose billions.
If they all worked together, we'd have cracked all illnesses by now.
Open Source (Score:2)
Guy's a star and I want to hug him but there are a LOT of people out there who would do this gratis if they knew how.
Re: (Score:2)