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Comment by mannykannot | Hacker News Reader

I think morse code could be helpful for someone with locked-in syndrome, like Jean Bauby. In 'dictating' his memoir 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly', it took him an average of two minutes to write each word by blinking at the time when the next letter he wanted was presented to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Bell_and_the_Butter...

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I've told my wife that if I'm ever in a situation where I'm hospitalized and seemingly unable to communicate, to call one of my ham radio friends over, because I'm going to be trying morse code (via blinking, twitching a finger, etc.).

Land mine, has taken my sight …

Did he have full access to his mental faculties otherwise? Why not spend the first 15 minutes asking to be taught a more efficient narrow-bandwidth means of communication, like morse code?

Interestingly, it seems Stephen Hawking used a similar input method, so maybe there's something particularly efficient about it that we don't realize http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-computer.html

Probably because of the last line:

> However although they work well for other people, I still find my cheek operated switch easier and less fatiguing to use.

When comparing how many physical actions are necessary per letter in morse code, vs this [0] example of him using his speech synthesizer, it's a lot more obvious.

[0] https://youtu.be/OTmPw4iy0hk?t=79

Meh, with an eventual VR/AR headset with eye tracking these patients will be able to look at letters they want to type and then blink to type them out that way.

Before you casually dismiss it as a worthless idea, consider that some victims have fewer capabilities than Bauby was left with.

I'd genuinely want to be euthanised in this situation. But that's a whole other debate.

Nobody asked for that opinion here, and it's not relevant to the conversation.

If a person has lost all capability such that they cannot even blink or move their eyes, I’m not sure what else they could do to communicate. Breathing?

I don’t think the idea is worthless, just not worth as much as what others may think.

I believe this already exists - an eye tracking camera that lets you indicate which letter you want next, with some predictive text capability. Can't find the exact video now, though.

The market leading system is made by Tobii Dynavox.

https://www.tobiidynavox.com/about/about-us/how-eye-tracking...

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