Suggestions: Voice Activated TV Remote

[jenedgar]

My father was diagnosed with ALS, a year ago, in his arms and has just reached the point where operating a TV remote is no longer feasible. Does anyone have any personal recommendations/reviews for a voice activated remote? Could you answer the following questions?
1. Once programmed, does it require a button to be pushed to activate voice recognition, and/or before giving a command?
2. Do you know if it can be covered at all by insurance and/or medicare?
3. How well do you think it works?
4. What limitations does it have?

Thanks you in advance for your response, it's much appreciated!

 

[hjlindley]

I have very weak hands, but a Samsung phone and a Samsung TV and I can control it from my touchscreen on the cell phone. Buttons are not my friends.

 

[lgelb]

Covered by insurance, no. But <$50. We had the RCRV06GR, which is available used on azn. As I recall, you can set it to "listen" rather than require a button push, just burns more battery. Specs are on line. Larry never was able to use it much for other reasons, so it's hard for me to say if your dad would like it.

He could also use an iPad w/ Voice Control or any switch, and Airplay to port the screen to his TV (most all the networks are available online now, w/ a cable sub), if he has an Apple TV, or port to an Airplay-compatible laptop/desktop. Let me know if you want more details.

 

[canmark]

I purchased the RCA remote mentioned above. I believe the product is discontinued, so you may have to order it from Amazon or other resellers. Note: Some TV manufacturers (ex-LG) make a voice activated remote control, but it may only work with their brand of TV.

The remote control is a bit tricky to program so that it will work with your tv system and your voice. You will need an able bodied person to help with the programming. Once it is set up you can do things like say “Channel up/down” “Volume up/down” and preprogram certain tv channel favourites.

 

[jenedgar]

Thank you all! I will look into both suggestions. I work with the blind and visually impaired myself so I am familiar with the things that iPad's & iPhones can do for them, and I'm slightly familiar with switches as some of the my students have had multiple disabilities. But beyond my scope of practice I am at a loss. I will contact you if we need more information on using the apple products. They do not have them yet, but I'm a huge fan of apple due to the accessibility features built into their devices. I've also heard of the smart TV's with voice command but when I was looking at the remotes online I thought it looked like you had to press a mic button to make the command, kind of like when using siri on the iPhone. (This is what I assumed.) I will look into it more and talk to someone at a store. Thank you again for your suggestions!