Adapted Digital Picture Frame Project

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Have you seen a digital picture frame in a catalog, online, or in a store? This emerging technology will make a terrific book reader, photo browser, partner assisted communication tool, and electronic pencil. The good news is that they are quickly shifting to including a remote control with them. :) That is wonderful, because we now have a wireless device to adapt much more easily than taking the whole unit apart! Truly, there will be units with sound very shortly, but until then, what a terrific way to read your PowerPoint books you made with Flickr, your books from the Accessible Book Collection, or whatever adapted books you can export as folders of JPGs.

I thought that this topic would be a terrific project to work on collaboratively with this Ning community. Let's put our heads together to see if we can help this technology get into learners hands, be inexpensive, and be easy to obtain.

I thought of a few general domains to work on to get us started. They are: directions for adaptation, an idea list of potential applications, and directions for converting books into the right jpg format for use in this and other tools of this type.

The other component is that it would be great if one of the adaptation companies would take this on!

What do you think of this technology? Advantages? Drawbacks? Comparisons to spending a bit more for an XO?

[Wendy Homlish]

Good God man, do you never sleep? LOL Great idea but I cannot help worry for your ADD AT mental health! :) You must wake up in the middle of the night (if you ever sleep) and write this stuff down.

[Jane Ricard]

Hi Sam,

I think it is a great idea, but right now the price on these devices is way too high!!! If they had a recordable sound option I think it would be great. You could adapt the remote with an acrylic holder and an acrylic piece that comes off it with a rubber bumper to enlarge the area to activate the device.

Jane

[Mark Coppin]

I would love to work on such a project. I think that there could be lots of possible applications and plenty of situations you could use them in. I saw one last week that was running video clips. Did not see if it had sound or not. I also work with a guy who would be able to figure out ways to adapt them.
Don't worry Sam, I wake up in the middle of the night with these types of ideas. 99% are really whacked, but the 1% can be really cool.

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

We have to be the ones working hard at helping. True, I think about it a great deal, but although it can be hard work, it is very fun and enjoyable work! Thank goodness for that.

Great points about the price. Yet, watching and working this as early adopters is positive and when we see the 9 inch display with sound at 29.99, with ablenet fixing it and selling it at $60, I think it would be a good buy.

It is time to work on a grant. Mark, let's talk off list about it.

[Wendy Homlish]

Just saw this - small, no sound - put cheap! Probably will be on sale before Christmas, and Linens and Things, etc. always has those 15% OFF coupons.....

http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2793243

[Anne Truger]

This is an awesome idea!! I can't wait to hear more. This is just the kind of thing that I was hoping to learn more about when I joined this ning. Thanks for the incredible brain power! I would love to hear more and would be willing to help where I can.

[Dinell Stuckey]

Sam, I am seeing more and more of these type devices show up everywhere. I love the ideas that you have proposed and also see lots of potential for using these. I agree also that the larger sized ones are still bit expensive. There are smaller ones coming out on the market but I have to admit, I'm not crazy about the size of the cheap ones. Most are only a few inches. Since I work mostly with kids with low-vision, I know this would not work for them. Even for my own 2 children that are ages 8 & 10 and have no disabilities, I would think twice about getting something like this for them. The more I learn about vision and disabilities, the more I'm convinced NOT to get any handheld type games for them either. (I know-I'm a mean old mom!) It just isn't good for their eyes when it is so small. Anyway, off my soapbox now.....here's just a few links to some cheaper digital picture frames under $50. Most of them are not remote control enabled:
http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__TM263
http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/product/sku__MS027
http://shopping.discovery.com/product-66137.html?endecaSID=1166FC25...
http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/811660299.htm?bct=%3Bcidigital-pi...
http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/812043529.htm?bct=%3Bcidigital-pi...

This next one is $122 but is 8" and includes picture, video and sound files!


This next one is only $65 and is 5.6" but it also picture, video and sound files.


The more I look, the more I find.
Happy hunting!

[jimslinux]

WOW! heading back to a local retailer, who had a whole section of these, that they were looking to get rid of. I never realized the hack ability of these little things. The ones they had I don't think had remotes, but a lot of different sizes. I'll drop a line when or if I can still get one. I will most likely need some help in hacking one, but I'm not afraid to take one apart, just ask my wife .

[Samuel Charles Sennott]

Jim, That's great. I think that a bunch of us even having consciousness on this front is what can turn a company like Ablenet or Enabling devices to make it work on a bigger scale. We'll see. I am really geeked up on the 1.5 inch pocket ones. You can see them here: http://alltogether.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/digital-photo-frame-upd...

It will be interesting to see what the holiday season brings with prices.

[Mark Coppin]

Samuel,
Looking at this discussion and considering other adaptations people have made, do you think this ning would be a good place to share this type of info? An example is, we have adapted a Guitar Hero guitar for switch access. We use it with SuperSwitch Ensemble and other music programs. The kids love it. David Neimeijer also created a screen protector program for me that protects students from clicking out of a program using the mouse.
I am sure that other people have solutions that they would like to share, but I was wondering what would be the best forum for that. Any thoughts?

[Paula Walser]

Mark and Samuel - the advantage of capturing this discussion on the Ning is that people like me that only get here once a month or so - we still have the archived discussion to follow! I appreciate reading the thread here - even if I am not contributing to the conversation. I just might have something to add some time.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss your ideas here!

[K Greenhaw]

Here's a copy of what I wrote on your personal blog earlier:

Kathleen G., EnableMart, on

November 15th, 2007 at 1:18 pm Said:

Well I will certainly extend your challenge on to our CEO and President! This is indeed a great new tool combining switches with emerging technology.

Now I’ve noticed there are a lot of digital picture frames/photo galleries out there already, and yes there seems to be little to no switch adapted frames, but I propose this to you as a means of working around this:

First acquire a picture frame software tool like Photo Frame Show, or even something like

Kid Pix® Deluxe 4, then hook up switches like

Mini Click and a switch interface like

IntelliSwitch and you instantly have a computer software-based picture frame
to look through. I know this isn’t a good alternative if you are looking to use
an actual digital picture frame device like an LCD display picture frame,
however you might be able to use something like

Mini Relax with an infrared LCD digital picture frame. Let me know what you
think about these ideas. Thanks!
Any thoughts?