[MUSIC]
So hello everyone, welcome to the beautiful Millie Way stage.
It's so nice to see all of you on this nice and sunny day, which is going to be very hot.
So what do you have to do?
Drink water!
Oh, shit.
That's true.
Also use sunscreen and stay in the shade.
Take care of your fellow creatures.
So we are live.
Yes.
All right.
So also to my dear creatures on the internet.
I'm really pleased to announce Mellie Nooks.
Mellie Nooks 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 Mellie Nooks.
Well, good morning CCC.
Today I'd like to talk to you about how open source technology can help compensate certain
handicaps.
I don't like to talk about myself, so let's just get rid of it first.
Who am I?
I'm a 46 year old web dev dropout who turned into an InfoSec consultant.
Got too many interests to be an expert with anything, but I like to play with machines.
And I fell in love with hardware hacking during a Mitch Altman's soldering workshop
during which I soldered the TV Begone.
And that was like 10 years ago.
And 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 out 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 objects and other
gadgets and that makes our life way easier.
Now we can do about anything from a smart watch to a smartphone.
You can spy on your kid or turn on the heating or water the plants.
And these technologies are also very useful to help compensate certain handicaps,
but they have limits when it regards people whose handicap or combination thereof
prevents them from manipulating a smartphone, reading a screen or using vocal command.
And as a patient, it is very frustrating to be shut off from all these possibilities,
especially when they have the potential to improve our quality of life and to become
more independent.
Being 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 wheel because as you all know
here I think there are alternative ways to interact with our technological environment
and 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 forms.
They can be visible, invisible, painful, not painful, temporary, chronical.
And the impact that your handicap has on someone's life mainly depends on available
support, resources and surroundings.
From my own experience, there comes the leak.
I can safely say that being diagnosed with a serious form of endometriosis turned my
life upside down.
And for those who don't know what endometriosis is, like me, it causes, amongst other unpleasant
things, chronic pain and there's no cure yet.
Yet.
So I took a few years of hormone therapy and surgeries but now I'm able to sit, walk, stand
again.
But there were long periods of time where every single move and step was painful and
dangerous.
So precious and it had to be anticipated and optimized.
But I'm okay now.
Define hack my handicap.
Well, as a hacker, I made a mistake to consider my body like a complex yet fascinating machine
that was full of signals and electrical impulses and where the peripheral nervous system was
just another network to debug.
Senses like the sight of hearing or touch could be replaced by cameras, microphones, sensors
and a lot of MCUs since machines didn't need them to function.
And body movement limitation could be expanded 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 technophiles whose handicaps were different
from mine and we're also looking for alternative ways to improve our quality of life.
So we naturally became friends.
The target.
Well, our group is small but the combined list of our illnesses, symptoms and things
we cannot do is as long as my arm.
So I guess we are the targets with the notable 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 data are safe anyway.
So we are represented by this little mascot.
She's called Nian as you can see.
She can do she represents 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 communicate a bit, but it's painful and she can grab things
a little bit.
So that's the objective to make that makes it very difficult to use 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 more knowledge, protective laws, medical equipment than ever.
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.
Their price is outrageously expensive.
So it usually takes at least a year between the request for adaptive equipment and its
actual delivery to the patient.
And that's the best case scenario.
Some patients have to wait years for a diagnosis without which with 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 even then, our profile has to fit a strict protocol that doesn't make any sense where
handicaps are categorized in a sort of spreadsheet and with percentages. And this 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 make it happen, if ever.
Reason that this is not happening yet is money, of course.
Straight legislation, proprietary software, medical certification, because every device
is not used by somebody with a handicap has to be stamped with a CE.
It has to be certified to be used.
And all these things have to be taken into consideration.
But fortunately, there's a hack to bypass all these constraints.
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 patient and their environment.
And another tip is to avoid doing it for commercial purposes if you want to stay out of trouble.
So it would be, don't do this for money.
So long live open source technology.
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 to?
Well, most of us know someone who lives with a handicap.
So that's a good place to start.
And in many cases, it's just sufficient to show patients or to explore the native
accessibility functions of their smartphones, like screen readers, vocal command, magnification,
color 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 possibility of their smartphone.
You can also find a lot of information online, but it's not as efficient as joining the,
for instance, the open source medical supply community, or participate to the hacking health
marathon.
So you can just get your hands on it.
And as a tip, also, even if you really want to help, please do not impose your help
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.
Resources.
Well, nowadays, it's quite easy to find some affordable hardware that's well documented
and open source.
But my favorite tools to play with are the TV Begone.
It will always be my favorite because it was the first.
And it triggered a small revolution in my head because, yeah, soldering it, it taught
me so much.
It gave me countless hours of fun.
And it was also an excellent, and it brought me enough confidence, not a lot, but enough
confidence to start playing with hardware.
And that's, yeah, soldering the TV Begone and playing with the Arduino platform.
And it really opened my world to the open source hardware tools like Arduino, Raspberry Pi.
And there are many shields and clones.
Another tool I like to play with is the Easy 430 Kronos from Texas Instruments, which is
a wearable sports watch development kit that has a microcontroller MSP430 with an integrated
subgiga wireless transceiver.
And it also has a few sensors.
But basically, it can allow you to program custom wireless application.
That's back in 2013.
I think it's not sold anymore, but I have one with me if you want to play later.
And I found it particularly useful to use as a mouse replacement because sometimes I
needed to get a more comfortable position and 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 control my computer from, I couldn't do everything with it, but
I could at least scroll, select, and go back.
So that was, yeah, that's not open source, but it cost like 50 euros.
And there's a platform, a development platform with a graphical interface.
So it's a really good way to start playing with this kind of wireless application.
If you want something that's custom.
One thing I really like too, if anyone participated in making it, it's the radio badge from the
CCC camp from 2015.
That was basically, yeah, that's a full feature SDR, half-duplex transceiver,
software compatible with HAT ARRIVE.
And it can process data standalone or pass the samples to the computer where further
signal processing can take place with new radio, for example.
And also the robotic arm edge.
So it's a kit, a robotic arm kit from OUI kit, which is not open source, but that cost
also like 50 euros.
It's quite affordable, very fun to play with.
It comes with a serial remote, but it's possible to, yeah, it's like Arduino shield, let's
say, modify the Arduino with a shield motor in one, and then you can do about anything
you want with it.
Some people can control it with Bluetooth, for instance.
But I tried to control it with my sport watch.
It didn't work so far, but I'm not giving up.
Work in progress.
So I've been participating to the Hacking Health Marathon since 2019.
That's an event that takes place once again in my hometown.
It's co-organized by the Regional Hospital, the City Hall, and the Polymycotechnique,
which is a kind of federation that gathers 240 local industrial companies, and sharing
on the kits is perfectly legal.
About 20 challenges are selected every year, and each challenge represents a problem, a
problematic suggested by a patient or medical care provider for which no solution has been
found yet.
After that, we get 48 hours to provide a POC or a prototype with the support of many experts
and well equipped FabLab in a fantastic environment and amazing people.
And so far, from the previous participation, I'm glad I had the opportunity to work on
developing a communication model dedicated to people with Loctin syndrome.
Some kind of alternative universal control for someone who couldn't move a lot or two,
and an assistive robotic arm that help people eat on their own.
The impossible interface.
I was participating to the Hacking Health for three years, and last year I took all
my courage, but I suggested a challenge instead of just participating.
And the challenge I offered was to find a solution for people with low arm and finger
mobility, who couldn't use smartphone in the traditional ways, and that could allow an
easier interaction with their connected object as well with non-connected object, such as
the button of a lift or just a light switch.
And this is why it was nicknamed impossible, because you either can't control something
that's connected or you have an arm to press a switch, but there's no app that can press
a lift button.
Our time was limited, so we focused on Hacking the Lift and built a prototype that's basically
a servo motor on rails with an Arduino Uno controlled by the Arduino.
And we made a nice fake finger, so that it really was like a physical finger that could
be controlled with the Arduino, it was through Arduino infrared remote, 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 be able to control it.
19 minutes.
So playing with the lift was very instructive, but the solution had too many limits, and
only adapted lifts could have been used anyway.
So I went back to the original idea of building a universal remote control that could handle
several communication protocols like a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, infrared, LoRa, 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, so I changed the name from the Impossible
interface to Bucu, which fundamentally sounds like little cute in French.
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 to make Bucu
safer, stronger, and smarter.
So don't hesitate to contact me by mail if you have any question at project@albayus.tech.
And yeah, the help I need is not just sending money, because with the money I'm only going
to buy some hardware, and what we really need is technical expertise, because once again
none of us is smarter than all of us.
And for last, this is a picture of what Bucu looks like for now.
It's a five axis robot that's Arduino compatible.
There are actually six servo motors, and the extra one I put it on the top with this fake
finger to show that we could manipulate it like an extra finger if the hook wasn't enough.
And on the right hand side you have one of my beta tester, and it's not on scale, it's
just a prototype, but the idea would be to be able to clip it on a wheelchair tablet,
and then use this, we did the test with the badge from MCH from last year, and use it
as a Bluetooth remote control.
And there's Neoncast on it, so it's good.
Okay, so that's it for today.
Any questions?
Thank you so much, Merlinux, 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.
But maybe you could go a bit more into detail what kind of technical knowledge you need
right now.
Maybe can you say something to that?
Technique, mechatronics, signal treatment, any web developers, I think it would be nice
to build a website, I didn't do it yet, but it's in the pipe, so if someone could take
this out of my hand, that would be lovely.
But yeah, I always say if you want to help, I'd rather have a donation in time, 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 technical expertise.
Hello, thanks for sharing your experience and insights.
My question would be if I someday, or some of us might come into a company that is building
some kind of technologies like personal lifts or whatever, and we want to suggest optimisations,
but do not have ourselves the experience of having some kind of disability, is there some
kind of document of known issues I could just hand over and say, hey, maybe these are the
problems, let's go into it, because the usual problem as we all know is that often in these
rooms where the decisions are made, we have a lot of male-wide 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...
There's no centralised platform where you can, you know, like a weak 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 euros,
but that would be indeed ideal if we had just one platform where we could gather all the
information, work in progress, where do I need help, and there is the website of open
sourcemedicalsupplies.org that is very good and it was born during the first wave of Covid,
and so yeah, there's a whole community out there, we're not alone anymore, and so you
can already find a lot of solutions, alternative solutions, let's say, whether it's about making
water drinkable or making a face mask and some assistive, open source assistive robots.
I'm not the first one to try this, there's lots of co-documentation online, but 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 on one of your first slides, hack my health or something?
Hack my handicap, I put my email right there as the here, take a picture if you want.
Christian?
Yeah, thank you for the talk, and 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 sort
of?
Anything, really, we can, I mean all the 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
Raspberry Pi, servo motors, microcontrollers, yeah, the hardware is hard to get my hands
on, it's affordable now, but I break so much stuff that it costs me a lot of money.
But yeah, but the expertise is really the most precious for me, because this is like
my hobby, this is not my profession, and I'm not that smart on my own, so yeah, any help
really is welcome, but definitely hardware, if you have anything, you know, 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.
Thank you all for your questions.
This was the talk of Mellanox, hack my handicap, please give a warm round of applause for our
awesome speaker.
[Applause]
[Music]