Darrell Huff, a 51-year-old automotive technician from Centreville, Md., wanted his quadriplegic son, Joshua, to be able to make calls on a cell phone. Unfortunately, all cell phones require button pushes, so Huff quickly thought of Bluetooth headsets as a solution.

Darrell Huff modified a BlueAnt V1 so it can be activated with a magnet.

(Credit: BlueAnt)

He was especially intrigued by the BlueAnt V1, which has a unique voice-control interface that lets you make and answer calls with voice alone--there's even a voice-guided tutorial if you need some guidance. (The V1 is the predecessor to BlueAnt's more recent BlueAnt Q1).

But even the BlueAnt V1 wasn't 100 percent hands-free; you still needed to press the button to activate it. So Huff set out to find a way to activate the switch without the need for hands.

"I tried different things," Huff said. "It occurred to me a mercury switch might work, but my research soon showed that mercury is all but banned in the U.S. and I also began to worry about the user's perception... I tried using a roller ball-type tilt switch, but it is difficult to find one small enough and my experiments showed the connection with this type of switch was erratic."

After a lot of trial and error, Huff finally decided to use a magnetic switch.

Darrell's son Joshua demonstrates the modified BlueAnt V1 with the flexible rod magnet.

(Credit: Darrell Huff)

"I opened the headset and replaced the push button switch with a magnetically controlled switch," Huff explained. "The modified version of the headset has a switch that is closed when in the presence of a magnetic field. So when the headset is not near a magnet, the switch is open...If you move the headset near a magnet, then the switch closes--this is like pushing the button."

In case you need to push and hold the button, you would just keep the headset near the magnet for a few more seconds. Huff is careful to note that the switch itself is not magnetized; it just responds to a magnetic field.

Now all Huff had to do was mount a magnet so his son could move his head conveniently to activate the headset. He created one that is on the end of a 29-inch long and flexible rod that can be mounted to a wheelchair. At last, Huff had created a genuinely "hands-free" Bluetooth headset.

Since the introduction of the first iPhone model, AT&T has ...

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

(Credit: Screenshot by Bonnie Cha/CNET)

We know that Sprint has the exclusive on the Palm Pre through 2009 but that never stops the rumor mill from kicking up stories about a Verizon Pre or a GSM version of the smartphone. Both, of course, aren't so much rumors but ...

TouchWiz 2.0 running on the Samsung Jet

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

On Monday, Samsung released its Mobile Widget SDK, giving developers the opportunity to create new widgets for the company's various TouchWiz phones, such as the upcoming Samsung Omnia II for Verizon Wireless.

The SDK is built on ...

IK Multimedia announce the launch of GrooveMaker for iPhone, allows you to create and share non-stop electronic, dance and hip-hop songs on the go, in real-time just like a professional DJ or music producer.

With GrooveMaker, you can create professional full-length tracks and grooves for your music compositions, ambient soundtracks, movie scores and more. You can add, remove, and replace single or multiple loops as you listen, so there’s no stopping to your creative flow.

Features:

• Instantaneous control over 8 stereo loop tracks
• Massive loop library of drums, bass, bass-drums, lines, pads, percussion and effects included
• Play, Mix and Randomize loops on the fly
• Combine studio-quality loops to produce a million possible grooves
• Manipulate loops in real time (pan, volume, mute, solo, group, tempo)
• Arrange grooves easily with drag and drop to create full-length tracks
• Save, preview and recall your mixed tracks
• Upload your tracks as hi-quality WAV file to your Mac/PC (Wi-Fi network required)
• Interactive Help feature allows for quick learning, simply follow the indicated step

IK Multimedia announce the launch of GrooveMaker for iPhone, allows you to create and share non-stop electronic, dance and hip-hop songs on the go, in real-time just like a professional DJ or music producer.

With GrooveMaker, you can create professional full-length tracks and grooves for your music compositions, ambient soundtracks, movie scores and more. You can add, remove, and replace single or multiple loops as you listen, so there’s no stopping to your creative flow.

Features:

• Instantaneous control over 8 stereo loop tracks
• Massive loop library of drums, bass, bass-drums, lines, pads, percussion and effects included
• Play, Mix and Randomize loops on the fly
• Combine studio-quality loops to produce a million possible grooves
• Manipulate loops in real time (pan, volume, mute, solo, group, tempo)
• Arrange grooves easily with drag and drop to create full-length tracks
• Save, preview and recall your mixed tracks
• Upload your tracks as hi-quality WAV file to your Mac/PC (Wi-Fi network required)
• Interactive Help feature allows for quick learning, simply follow the indicated step

Sony Ericsson Satio

(Credit: Kent German/CNET)

It's Sony Ericsson's turn in the FCC spotlight this week as the company's Satio and T715 get the official government approval. Because the Federal Communications Commission has to certify every phone sold in the United States, not to mention test ...

(Credit: VMPoweruser.com)

Just a few days ago, we read about BlackBerry's patent on a hybrid resistive capacitive touch screen. This would give you the best of both worlds--the sensitivity of a capacitive screen for finger input and the flexibility to use a stylus when needed.

Well, it looks ...