Exhibiting open-source assistive technology at Maker Faire: Kansas City 2013
At the end of June I was lucky enough to be able to present some of my work in open-source assistive technology at this year’s Maker Faire: Kansas City! Earlier this year I heard about the “call for makers” through various blogs I follow and I figured I should give it a shot. They accepted my submission and gave me a booth to present at, as well as free admission and parking for the weekend!
At my booth I had a collection of assistive technology prototypes that I’ve been working on for the last few months, including a mockup of the Eyewriter 2.1 eye-tracking system, the openSip+Puff “sip and puff” interface and a MaKeyMaKey set up as a communicative interface.
It was an incredibly hectic weekend, as I was on my feet chatting with visitors for the entire weekend! I was able to meet lots of great people, including a few who were interested in collaborating in the future. All in all it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to participate in more Maker Faires in the future!
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Tour of Hammerspace / CCCKC
During my stay in Kansas City I got to camp out at the local Hammerspace hackerspace and hang out with some very cool people. I took the liberty of taking a tour of the place and snapped a few photos to share what it was like:
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I even made a short video of what it’s like to walk through the space:
Bonus content: laser-cut signage!
I wanted to make my booth look a little bit nicer than just a plain fold-up table, so I bought some blue fabric and created some signage by laser-cutting some foamcore board. Huge thanks to Jeff Nordhues over at Pax Modern for letting me pop up at the last minute and use his super awesome Lasersaur!
