The Azeron Cyborg is a gaming controller. I know what you’re thinking, why are you looking at gaming controllers when you’re talking about accessible tech? Well, the thing about gaming controllers is, in a broad sweeping statement, that they are designed to handle multiple inputs and multiple outputs (mimo) as efficiently as possible, and the Cyborg is no exception to that.
With more buttons than grandmas coat and a joystick for good measure, the Cyborg boasts an incredible amount of hardware to play with, 29 mappable keys with Omron switches and a 360-thumb stick movement mappable to WASD (W,A,S,D on the keyboard) for aiming in-game.
On top of the array of things to keep fidigiters happy, the controller is incredibly customisable; both in its button mapping and the way it fits the hand. Each set of buttons is moveable in three axis; even the joystick can be moved to accommodate the users reach.
Now there are downsides to this, which I will get to shortly but i couldn’t go on to the Cyborgs shortcomings without first mentioning how amazingly well designed the software is for the product. The software is so intuitive and easy to use that i had it set up and working in minutes. The software allows for two profiles to be stored on the mouse and an almost unlimited amount of profiles stored on the pc which can be used while the device is plugged in.
So, onto the downsides… the hand rest isn’t that comfortable I found after a couple of hours it started to make my wrist hurt so i did what all sensible engineers do and I bodged it with a bit of foam on the rest and that seemed to do the trick. The second downside is that at present you can’t currently use the joystick as a mouse outside of games which is an important feature for many patients.
There is hope in the form of some reasonably inexpensive third-party software called REWASD. At approximately £7 for the basics, and £25 for everything this bit of software in my humble opinion is a bit of a steal. It literally allows layers of functionality turning 33 inputs into around 150, give or take a few. REWASD is the perfect companion for your brand new Cyborg; like pairing steak with blue cheese sauce.
What is this all leading too I hear you ask well we now have a device that allows us to remap our whole keyboard to a few easy to reach buttons that we can then place in easy reach of the person using reducing the need for unnecissary movements and strain on part of the user.
Check out the Cyborg at https://www.azeron.eu/ and REWASD at https://www.rewasd.com/. You can even customise your own Cyborg at https://store.azeron.eu/customize/
A final thought if we can use gaming equipment to help with accessibility what other areas of technology have, we not considered yet?
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