Small device for anki

I’m not familiar with electronics or codings, I just wish someone makes my tiny wish come true…

If there is a small device for Anki, it would help a lot.
I’m using Ankidroid to memorise foreign vocabularies, and often I mispress buttons. Also I like to use Anki when walking outside and sometimes I feel uncomfortable holding smartphone all the way in my hand… If someone can make small device (like a kitchen timer?) that I can press buttons without looking, that would be great.

Something like running Anki on a Smartwatch?

yes, if the buttons are tangible like kitchen timers, that would be better.

I asked the AnkiDroid team how likely it would be to implement full TTS support and reviewing with a controller and a turned off screen. Apparently, it is hard to implement Android apps which work reliably while the screen is turned off, but reviewing from a controller even with a turned on screen might be an alternative for you.

However, people often wish they had some gadget and that learning would be so much cooler. Turns out, that most of the time we are just too much into consumerism and the ideas aren’t that great actually: your device would probably (if it was made DIY) bulky, with a tiny, unreadable screen and would only be usable in very few niche use cases. I’d rather buy a cheap secondary smartphone.

1 Like

O really…

OK I try to attach a physical button made of a rubber band and plastic straws or sth like that o:-)

2020年6月19日(金) 22:15 p4nix via Anki Forums <anki2@discoursemail.com>:

Be realistic, I doubt you could convince anyone to make a device like you envision. If you buy yourself a Raspberry Pi (Zero) or some similar platform, it could be quite possible to make this. However, hacking together a solution with an old, small smartphone, and a case-modded bluetooth controller is the fastest (well, and ugliest) way to get the job done.

So really, four options:

  • pay someone to make it for you (will be very expensive, as this project is not necessarily hard for someone familiar with a little bit of coding and a soldering iron, but costs a lot of time!)
  • get someone to do it for a cheap price by convincingly spreading your idea (very low chance of happening)
  • (learn to) do it yourself (whether in a proper version or a hacked together version is upon you to decide)
  • forget about it. You might not share my view that it is a waste of precious metals, etc. and will not be very practical, but sometimes dreams have to go
1 Like

I put tiny transparent rubber stickers directly on the smartphone screen. They fulfill my minimum requirement… I can touch buttons without looking them… And surprisingly it doesn’t so much interfere operations of other apps. Design is tolerable, at least for me.
I would use these tiny stickers until I can find a friend who’s good at electronics or I become motivated studying electronics.

1 Like

Oh, personally, I see no need for it - but this seems like a clever “life hack” you came up with. Thanks for sharing :slight_smile: I believe there are maybe some smartphone gaming touchscreen buttons which would avoid the use of adhesives. I could only find joysticks however.