Caleb Kraft is using his skills for good.
If you have limited mobility, or know someone who does, you know how much escape (or hope) can be found in video games. But standard controllers are made for people with two-handed dexterity. It’s especially complicated with small thumbsticks and gyros requiring a high level of precision, which can exclude mobility-limited players from the universe of games.
Thankfully, former Make: editor Caleb Kraft is working the problem, and his latest invention is a major one. Caleb founded The Controller Project, and for years he’s designed and given away 3D-printed mods to adapt standard gamepads. And his latest video went viral for a reason. It’s a sip-and-puff controller designed for quadriplegic gamers. Other sip-and-puff controllers exist, but they’re expensive. Caleb’s is 3D-printable and open source. The project has further to go, but he’s finally made a playable prototype.
The controller is designed to be configurable, so players can adjust sensitivity, analog/digital mode, behaviors like latch and repeat, and macros to enable multiple control inputs with one puff. The tubes are mounted on a joystick that can map to a gamepad thumbstick. A screen enables menu options and displays input status.
Comments are full of people who’d appreciate one. So he’s done a few more videos for clarification:
More info direct from the source:
Right now the cost to build one is roughly $40 in off-the-shelf components. You can find a list of the components (and Amazon affiliate links) and the code here:Â thecontrollerproject.com/sip-puff-gaming-controller.
It is currently in a “usable but untested” state, meaning that it totally works but has not been tested against a gamer. I expect to have some drastic fixes and improvements coming back soon.
There are currently some obvious flaws. The shell I designed actually sucked when it came to wiring and assembly, and even printing now that I think about it. Using a standard thumbstick for mouth movements may prove to be a bad idea as well. We don’t yet know how well these sip/puff sensors will hold up over time. However I strongly feel that we have to test these cheap options because sometimes they work totally fine and we can make a massive difference in cost and availability.
Thecontrollerproject has been a passion project of mine since way back in 2012 or so. I have to commend Dale and Make:, any time I mentioned the project, such as taking a little time to work on something or write about it, Dale would wave it off and say, “Just do whatever you need to do on that, we support you.” That was great.Â
If you’re looking to support the project, you can donate to The Controller Project or even Caleb himself if you want to support his other projects as well.
If you’re interested in your own controller, keep an eye on accessiblegamecontrollers.com and The Controller Project as it develops.
Thank you, Caleb, for the excellent work. It’s clear you’re making a difference.
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