Recently, growing peripheral company eDimensional unveiled their newest creation, the Access Controller. Made in conjunction with well known hardware modder Ben Heckendorn (or Ben Heck as he's called for short), the Access Controller is meant to be the first fully customizable one handed controller specifically designed for those with disabilities. Recently, Game Positive got the chance to ask a few questions of eDimensional's President and CEO Michael Epstein about both the new product and some of their future plans.

GP: For those who don't know can you describe what the Access Controller is?

Michael Epstein: The Access Controller was the brainchild of the renowned modder and engineering expert Ben Heckendorn. Already well known for his custom controllers, Ben had been asked a number of times by injured soldiers, accident victims and those with other disabilities to design a product that allowed them to experience video gaming. Ben developed an ingenious concept of a modular system built into a single unit that can balance on a knee or a table where each of the control functions is accessible with a single hand. This allows gamers who had significant difficulty using a traditional controller to control all aspects of game control with a single hand. Our job was to take his concept and engineer a viable design that could be produced using traditional mass-production methods to make his custom device accessible to a larger number of people at a lower price point.


GP: And how exactly does it work?

Michael Epstein: So each control function, like analog sticks, D-pads, shoulder buttons, etc. are each built into their own module. There are a total of 6 possible module positions available on the controller and 5 included modules. Each is in a position that allows you to access it with the respective fingers on one hand. The really cool part is that you can swap the modules on the fly, meaning each of the modules can be taken out and repositioned in any of the 6 slots. So you can customize it to suit the type or style of the game. Right now it supports the PC, PS2 and PS3. We hope to release an XBOX version in the future, but that's a whole different beast.

GP: How did eDimensional go about creating the swappable module design?

Michael Epstein: I can't take credit for the concept as it was really Ben who thought of it. But basically he just took apart a generic controller and mapped each of the functions of each control. So the unit itself is kind of the hub and each module contains instructions for how to interpret the function of that module.

GP: Are there any other "official" modules planned for the Access controller? On the same note, Ben Heck has included a manual for advanced users to add their own modules. How simple will that be and if someone makes a great addition will it be "officially"ww added to the controller in the future?

Michael Epstein: We are definitely interested in developing new modules and as you mentioned, Ben will be preparing some documentation on how to "hack" the device yourself. I think if you have some basic experience and expertise in this area, it's not going to be very difficult to create a functioning module, but I'm not going to say it's a no-brainer. I'm really looking forward to seeing what some of our users will come up with. I'd like to see things like a foot switch, but I'm sure there are many possibilities I haven't even thought of.

GP: Do you have any other plans for another peripheral meant for the disabled?

Michael Epstein: Other than working on support for additional platforms, this is our primary product right now. It's taken a huge amount of time and financial investment to pull this off, so we're concentrating on making sure that anyone who could benefit from this product finds out about it.

GP: Ben Heck is well known for his various independent hardware mods, but how did eDimensional end up working with him originally?

Michael Epstein: We first worked with Ben on our AudioFX Pro 5+1 PC gaming headset. I've always been a huge fan of Ben and his work. We were working on a follow-up to our popular AudioFX Force Feedback gaming headset and wanted to really design something unique and that appealed to our hard-core gaming customers and didn't look like all of the other generic headsets out there. I had the idea of getting Ben involved to really bring in a fresh perspective and we gave him complete creative control with the design of this unit. We really enjoyed collaborating with him and during this process we became more aware of some of the other work he was doing, particularly as it related to products for those with disabilities. We thought this was a demographic that was being virtually ignored and wanted to help Ben do something about it.


GP: A portion of the sales are going to the Children's Hospital and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers which are two great organizations. How did you decide to donate to them specifically and do you have any plans to do anything like this in the future?

Michael Epstein: The main reason we chose those 2 organizations is that a great many requests for this product came from children born with a birth defect or are experiencing a traumatic illness and injured soldiers returning from Iraq and other regions. We interviewed a number of organizations and while they are all very worthy, we felt these two had the greatest reach. However that's not to say we won't be contributing to other organizations as well, but these were the initial two that were selected.

GP: Does eDimensional have any other products your working on that may be out soon or can be announced yet?

Michael Epstein: Yes! We're always working on new products, but unfortunately we're not ready to reveal any specifics just yet. However they will be covering a number of different areas and platforms and will follow our typical M.O. of quality products with unique features at compelling price points. We're hoping to have a couple new items available by this holiday season and the Access Controller will also start shipping in a few weeks…finally!

GP: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Michael Epstein: We value all feedback from the gaming community on our products and like to hear any ideas they have for new items. In fact, had we not received such an enthusiastic response to the Access Controller concept from so many gamers around the world, we likely wouldn't have been able to go ahead with it. So feel free to contact me personally if you have anything to say. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me!

GP: Thanks.