Customizable Head Pointer by Volksswitch

Last crawled date: 3 years, 4 months ago

A head pointer is used by individuals with limited hand or arm control to interact with a physical keyboard or a capacitive, computer/tablet touchscreen.  It can also be used to manipulate objects like turning pages in a book.  Head pointers have two components: a mounting system that is fit to the individual's head and a rod that is attached to the head mount.  The rod can be made of plastic, wood, or metal.  The composition of the rod determines if it can only be used to depress keys on a physical keyboard and manipulate physical objects, or if it can also interact with a computer/tablet touchscreen.
Head pointers have been available for decades.  They can be bulky, heavy, clunky looking, and above all, expensive. In keeping with the guidelines of Volksswitch, we only consider creating an alternative design if that design would result in a significant cost savings and/or greater customization and personalization.  We believe that our customizable head pointer does meet both of those goals.
The head mount can be printed for about $1.25 worth of filament.  Simple elastic is used to hold the mount in place.  A wooden dowel can be used as the pointer if you don't need to interact with a touchscreen.  Alternatively, a capacitive pointer can be constructed from aluminum or stainless steel tubing along with a capacitive tip - both of which can be purchased on line. 
The size of the head mount is customizable to within a millimeter.  As with any 3D-printed device, you have access to a rainbow of filament colors.  Finally, the head mount designer provides accommodations for decorating the head pointer with elements that personalize the head pointer.
The Volksswitch Customizable Head pointer is 3D-printed using flexible filament.  The filament we used was TPU.  We have used PLA to print the pointer mounting bolt, but you could print that piece out of TPU as well. The head mount is printed in pieces and assembled by sliding/pressing together five dovetail joints.  You may find that you can even print the head pointer on a small 3D printer if you print a single piece at a time.
This design was inspired by the "head wand" by Ion Gurguta: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1748089
That design was hard to print and even harder to customize.
For complete information about how to customize this design, go to:https://volksswitch.org/index.php/volks-devices/customizable-head-pointer/