Alligator clips make for accessible gaming

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Thursday, 7 June 2012 10:38am

Two graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who live by the belief that ‘everyone is an inventor’ have come up with an invention kit that will potentially make different technologies accessible to people with a disability.

The invention kit, called MaKey MaKey, is a circuit board that can be attached to different objects through alligator clips, turning anything into a keyboard or touch pad. Posted on crowd funding website Kickstarter, MaKey MaKey can be used to create customised keyboards to surf the web, type or play games.

A video posted on Kickstarter shows how bananas, pencil-drawn controllers and even Play-Doh can be used with MaKey MaKey to play games on a computer. The MaKey MaKey board can be attached to a computer through a USB port and works with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and OS X.

The ability to create a customised keyboard or touch pad provides an alternative way for people to access and navigate a computer. People who have a cognitive or mobility impairment, for example, can use a custom built keyboard using MaKey Makey which can then be adjusted to suit their needs.


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