Wouldn't it have been much easier for Bauby to learn morse code and then blink out his book that way? Instead of repeatedly cycling through letters over and over again. I imagine the film is true to life, but surely the hospital could have found someone who understands morse code to transcribe his thoughts.
You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need.
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thats what i was thinking EXACTLY- wouldnt be too hard and save 100s of hours or repitition. though it seems that at 1st at least, that it was the speech therapist decision. guess she never thought of this.
life is short. Play.
I thought the same thing while watching the movie. The bandwidth would have been 5 or 10 times what they got with the method used. Strange that nobody ever thought of this!
sharewell no, since you have to blink a hell of a lot to do a simple sentence("· · · — — — · · ·" thats only sos), so you would be tired after even saying one word.
shareHow would it be easier to learn morse code? Most people already know the alphabet, very few know morse code. How exactly would he have learned it?
You'd be adding in learning a whole new language on top of just trying to communicate.
kept thinking the exact same thing. annoying movie.
shareIf he were to blink an entire book in morse code that would put an enormous strain on his eye. If all you can move is your left eye, you obviously want a functional left eye.
And also, why is it a bad movie because they didn't use morse code? This is how it happened in real life, what are they gonna do, change it?
As someone whose brother was in the same situation as Jean-Do, I can tell you: It takes too long for the patient and more importantly the nurses (you'd have to have a battery of at least four to five nurses for 'round the clock care who know the Code) -- to learn Morse Code. Not only that, Morse Code is often most difficult on the most-used letters.
In the end, my brother went from eyeblinking yes/no on the alphabet (A-K, yes/no; if no then LMNOP etc.); to a machine that allowed his minimally mobile thumb and forefinger -- another important requisite for using Morse Code -- using Morse Code (to comminucate with nurses, and also to type occasional stuff on a machine); to a modified Code based on Morse that was easier than Morse, to his various nurses learning the (modified) Code so he could blink out that. Even then you have to check in with the patient's blink: Is that a dot or a dash? It's generally too hard on the patient to prolong and differentiate blinks for Morse Code, so it's difficult for patients to communicate with it that do not have a couple of fingers that still work a bit.
I personally disagree with the out-of-order alphabet used by the nurses in the film. I think it's much easier to divide the alphabet in two (or more) and then ask the patient with half (or quadrant) the letter is in, and then go from there. It's much quicker I think.
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I would have divided it into five sections of five letters, and one of six. Then it would be quicker
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