tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47747701944468219702024-03-21T14:35:44.433-04:00ALS Assistive Technology Blog by Alisa Brownlee, ATP, CAPSAlisa Brownlee, ATP, CAPS blog offers recent articles and web information on ALS, assistive technology--augmentative alternative communication (AAC), computer access, and other electronic devices that can impact and improve the quality of life for people with ALS.
Email--abrownlee@alsa-national.org.
Any views or opinions presented on this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the ALS Association. Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.comBlogger351125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-43468111586449022862017-10-16T15:03:00.000-04:002017-10-16T15:03:40.349-04:00The eyes have it: how technology allows you to speak when all you can do is blink<img alt="Closeup of an eye" class="maxed responsive-img" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b5a7874ee0b49a025e4633b4298ab4addec1960f/0_374_4252_3466/master/4252.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=e2ee757a5693092263e28f0a30c9f2c9" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: #b82266; color: white; font-family: 'Guardian Egyptian Web', 'Guardian Text Egyptian Web', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;">Developments in eye-gaze technology – which converts minute movements of the eye into spoken words – are opening up undreamed of opportunities for people with motor neurone disease</span><br />
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<span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a class="tone-colour" data-link-name="auto tag link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jules-montague" itemprop="sameAs" rel="author" style="color: #951c55; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Jules Montague</a></span></div>
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<time class="content__dateline-wpd js-wpd" data-timestamp="1508130050000" datetime="2017-10-16T01:00:50-0400" itemprop="datePublished" style="display: inline-block;">Monday 16 October 2017 <span class="content__dateline-time">01.00 EDT</span></time><time class="content__dateline-lm js-lm u-h content__dateline-wpd--modified" data-timestamp="1508165191000" datetime="2017-10-16T10:46:31-0400" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px) !important; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 0.0625rem !important; margin: -0.0625rem !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; width: 0.0625rem !important;">Last modified on Monday 16 October 2017 <span class="content__dateline-time">10.46 EDT</span></time></div>
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Steve, a software engineer, was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a type of <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Motor-neurone-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">motor neurone disease</a>) aged 50. He knew it was progressive and incurable; that he would soon become unable to move and, in his case, speak. He is using eye-gaze technology to tell me this (and later to turn off the sound of Bonnie Tyler); cameras pick up light reflection from his eye as he scans a screen. Movements of his pupils are translated into movements of a cursor through infrared technology and the cursor chooses letters or symbols. A speech-generating device transforms these written words into spoken ones – and, in turn, sentences and stories form.</div>
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Eye-gaze devices allow some people with limited speech or hand movements to communicate, use environmental controls, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32573909" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">compose music</a>, and <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.drakemusic.org/blog/dougbott/eyegaze-composing-with-e-scape/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">paint</a>. That includes patients with ALS – up to 80% have communication difficulties. Other conditions that can benefit from these devices include cerebral palsy, strokes, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. It’s a far cry from Elle editor-in-chief Jean-Dominique Bauby, locked-in by a stroke in 1995, painstakingly blinking through letters on an alphabet board. His memoir, written at one word every two minutes, later became a film, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGPhtOMOCcg" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">The Diving Bell and the Butterfly</a>. Although some still use low-tech options (not everyone can meet the physical or cognitive requirements for eye-gaze systems; occasionally, locked-in patients can blink but cannot move their eyes), speech-to-text and text-to-speech functionality on smartphones and tablets has revolutionised communication.</div>
<figure class="element element-image img--landscape fig--narrow-caption fig--has-shares " data-component="image" data-media-id="f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5" id="img-2" itemprop="associatedMedia image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 1rem 0px 0.75rem; position: relative;"><figcaption class="caption caption--img caption caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; font-family: 'Guardian Text Sans Web', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; padding-top: 0.5rem;"><img class="gallery-lightbox__img js-gallery-lightbox-img" sizes="(min-width: 1300px) 1920px, (min-width: 1140px) 1225px, (min-width: 980px) 1065px, (min-width: 740px) 965px, (min-width: 660px) 725px, (min-width: 480px) 645px, 465px" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=700&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=0bb157a3c30434c00d8fce81df6c0ec3" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=1920&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=4e4162021b97e02ec6e4617cbe3bb4c0 1920x, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=1225&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=331b23f68310f361abad4a515160dc42 1225x, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=1065&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=52ea199fbc45de5a8ebe96dffcfe965d 1065x, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=965&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=5820db2cc0ef3a4f2ae8c737a36f2a1d 965x, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=725&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=a44065cf85b536ae556332ae113a8126 725x, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=645&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=9b3a722062885ca0d4a5d794771d6ecc 645x, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f0307bd37c4fac0d01523afa6f4e2587bf037be5/0_5_1002_601/master/1002.jpg?w=465&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=006099cd2cbf46836f49ad15e386f692 465x" /></figcaption><figcaption class="caption caption--img caption caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; font-family: 'Guardian Text Sans Web', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; padding-top: 0.5rem;"><br /></figcaption><figcaption class="caption caption--img caption caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; font-family: 'Guardian Text Sans Web', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; padding-top: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-size: 0.75rem;"> </span><span style="font-size: 0.75rem;">A person using an eye-gaze device. Photograph: mndassociation.org</span></figcaption></figure><div style="margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding: 0px;">
Eye-gaze technology has also evolved rapidly with <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://alsworldwide.org/care-and-support/article/optikey" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">open source and lower-cost options,</a> solid NHS funding, and improved accessibility – <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.eyegaze.com/users/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">some users are as young as 13 months</a>. Recent prototypes have implanted similar technology into <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/smartphone-based-gaze-gesture-communication-people-motor-disabilities-2/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">smartphones</a> and <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.myeyespeak.com/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">glasses</a>. But in practice, even some <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://cs.stanford.edu/~merrie/papers/AACrobat.pdf" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">newer systems allow for only eight words per minute</a>. Technical hitches during my visit mean that Steve reaches 3 wpm at times – our average speech rate in free-flowing conversation is 190 wpm. “Eye gaze allows me to do anything from Skype my wife to playing games,” he says, “but the downside is that sometimes I can’t really join in with conversa</div>
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Yet Steve still sounds like Steve. He preserved his speech before it disappeared through voice banking, recording around 1,500 phrases. Now his communication device generates an infinite number of sentences from those sounds, his identity in some way preserved. Prices start at around £100 for voice-banking services; some charities offer equipment loans and financial support.</div>
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In the Netherlands, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.ru.nl/english/people/desain-p/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">Peter Desain</a>, chair of artificial intelligence at Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, is researching brain computer interfaces (BCI), a technique where brain signals are analysed and used to control external devices. <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/18554" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">BCI recently enabled three paralysed patients</a>elsewhere to type with their thoughts through brain implants. That system, still in early development, is slow (2-8 wpm), expensive, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/12/health/als-brain-implant-communication/index.html" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">and can take months to learn</a>.</div>
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But Desain’s NoiseTag method, developed at Radboud University Nijmegen, does not require surgery. Instead, users wear a headset fitted with electrodes that record brain activity. They look at a screen with a matrix of flashing characters, each tagged with a specific code. Focusing on a given character causes its signature to appear in brainwaves recorded by the headset; the corresponding character is typed, and then a device “speaks” a completed sentence. The system exploits machine learning and predicts a user’s response for each pattern; this means that limited, if any, calibration is needed – one letter can be typed every one or two seconds with 95% accuracy. Twenty patients with ALS are trialling the technology, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.mindaffect.nl/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">with a spin-off aiming to scale up numbers</a> over the next year and extend the method to the <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/06/what-is-the-internet-of-things-google" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">internet of things (IoT)</a>.</div>
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Recently, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=343078196094625&amp;set=a.122932358109211.1073741828.100011773423902&amp;type=3&amp;theater" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">Facebook has announced it is stepping into the BCI ring</a>, ready to decode neural activity within two years using a yet-to-be-developed non-invasive technique at the mysterious Building 8 in Menlo Park, California. Mark Zuckerberg believes we will soon be typing using only our thoughts at five times the speed currently managed on smartphones. In addition, Elon Musk has just founded the $100m company <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.neuralink.com/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">NeuraLink</a> and says we will all be benefiting from its BCI technology within a decade. <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604254/with-neuralink-elon-musk-promises-human-to-human-telepathy-dont-believe-it/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">Others express healthy scepticism</a>; bandwidth and biocompatibility remain significant challenges, let alone surgical risks and our still-evolving understanding of neuroscientific princip</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">In the US, Darpa (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2017-07-10" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-align: center; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">has also invested $65m in neural implants</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">to restore speech, hearing, vision and memory in those with brain trauma and neurodegenerative disease. One group is working to wirelessly record signals from up to 1m neurons at once (currently, BCI reads around 100 neurons) by implanting tens of thousands of microdevices called neurograins across the brain. This “cortical intranet” will read out and write in information – brain enhancement might follow. Neuroprostheses have already shown promise in</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3141091/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-align: center; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">improving memory in rats</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">and</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/health/research/brain-implant-improves-thinking-in-monkeys.html" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-align: center; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">decision-making in monkeys</a><span style="text-align: center;">; humans are another matter, of course. Perhaps that is why Kernel, a $100m start-up that aims to build “the world’s first neuroprosthesis to enhance human intelligence”, has quickly shifted focus.</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603771/the-entrepreneur-with-the-100-million-plan-to-link-brains-to-computers/" style="-webkit-transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-align: center; text-decoration: none !important; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out;">Founder Bryan Johnson says invasive BCI “is really interesting, but not an entry point” into a commercially viable business</a><span style="text-align: center;">.</span></div>
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Meanwhile, Facebook has sought to dampen concerns around privacy and brain hacking: “This isn’t about decoding random thoughts. This is about decoding the words you’ve already decided to share by sending them to the speech centre of your brain. Think of it like this: you take many photos and choose to share only some of them. Similarly, you have many thoughts and choose to share only some of them.” Of course, photos not meant for sharing don’t always stay unshared …</div>
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“I already have a [prototype] BCI,” Steve tells. “My death wish is when I don’t even respond with BCI.” His words bring to mind something written by Bauby, mourning the loss of true conversation: “Sweet Florence refuses to speak to me unless I first breathe noisily into the receiver that Sandrine holds glued to my ear. ‘Are you there, Jean-Do?’ she asks anxiously over the air. And I have to admit that at times I do not know any more.”</div>
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For many like Steve, communication technology is not about sophisticated brain enhancement; it is simply about existence.</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-23104585066212863122017-09-27T16:12:00.001-04:002017-09-27T16:12:45.043-04:00Brainternet: one step closer to mind controlling the internet<h1 class="story-title entry-title" itemprop="name headline" style="-webkit-backface-visibility: hidden; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: 'Droid Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 41.599998474121094px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A team of South African scientists have managed to hook up a human brain to the internet in real time for the first time. Dubbed Brainternet, it is a significant first step toward a plethora of brain-controlled IoT applications.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The researchers used a tiny </span><a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Raspberry Pi</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> computer paired with an EEG, a device that receives electrical information from electrodes placed on a person’s head. The device sent information instantly to a website, where any person or device was able to access it in real time.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Brainternet team is led by </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-pantanowitz/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Adam Pantanowitz</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, electrical engineer, researcher and lecturer at Wits University in Johannesburg.</span></div>
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WHAT IS BRAINTERNET?</h2>
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<img alt="brainternet" class="size-medium wp-image-26687" height="375" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" src="http://sociable.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Adam-Pantanowitz-375x375.jpg" srcset="http://sociable.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Adam-Pantanowitz-375x375.jpg 375x, http://sociable.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Adam-Pantanowitz.jpg 426x" style="-webkit-backface-visibility: hidden; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="375" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-size: 0.8em; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Adam Pantanowitz</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In a </span><a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2017/2017-09/can-you-read-my-mind.html" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">press release</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, Pantanowitz explained:</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Brainternet is a new frontier in brain-computer interface systems […] Brainternet seeks to simplify a person’s understanding of their own brain and the brains of others; it does this through continuous monitoring of brain activity as well as enabling some interactivity.”</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In other words, while the Brainternet discovery is still limited to a mere display of brain activity, other researchers around the globe are working on turning EEG electrical signals into actionable commands that computers and other internet-enabled devices can understand and follow, called brain-computer interfaces (BCI).</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With BCIs, typing would </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-computer-interface-allows-speediest-typing-to-date/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">become way faster</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, medical conditions </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3497935/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">would not be as disabling</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, and Elon Musk’s </span><a href="https://www.neuralink.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NeuraLink</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> and Bryan Johnson’s </span><a href="https://kernel.co/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kernel</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">are among the most ambitious projects in this front.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 1em;">Pairing a BCI with a Brainternet-like device is the step forward that will begin erasing the boundaries between the human brain and machines, allowing us to envision a very near future where our knowledge and physical reach can expand as we have instant access to the internet.</span><span style="font-size: 1em;"> </span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LSdN--axYbA" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As mobile internet becomes more widespread and with the proliferation of companies working in interfaces for human interaction like Google Glass, Oculus Rift and other virtual and augmented technologies, it is not a stretch to envision that a tight integration of thoughts and machines will be common within our lifetimes.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wikipedia, news, social media and all kinds of online content are getting closer to becoming seamlessly integrated with the human brain’s electrical activity. Met someone you like? Find them on Instagram or Facebook right away. Met a Silicon Valley entrepreneur or talent? Connecting to </span><a href="https://www.lifograph.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lifograph</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">would give you all the relevant info you need to decide whether they are good fit for your company or not—in a matter of seconds. </span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Furthermore, as we </span><a href="http://sociable.co/technology/what-comes-after%E2%80%A6ternet-of-things/%20%E2%80%8E" style="border: 0px; color: #82af41; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">move on from the IoT to the Tactile Internet</span></a><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, the flow of real-time information from your brain to internet-connected devices could get your coffee brewing with a thought from bed, or enable a surgeon to control a robotic arm and save a child in Africa. </span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The possibilities are as endless, as are the profound changes BCI and Brainternet-like technologies imply for our tech-dependent existence.</span></div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-91393382296710139072017-09-27T15:34:00.000-04:002017-09-27T15:34:47.420-04:00LipSync Helps Paralyzed People Use Computers and Mobile Devices<h2 style="border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: Lato, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16px; margin: 4px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The Neil Squire Society and the Google Foundation developed the mouth-controlled joystick</h2>
<span class="byline" style="border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: Lato, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By <span class="author-name" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://theinstitute.ieee.org/author/davis-amanda" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AMANDA DAVIS</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, Georgia, serif; font-size: 12.001199722290039px;"> </span><span class="dtstamp" style="border: 0px; color: grey; font-family: Lato, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.001199722290039px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">14 September 2017</span><br />
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<figcaption class="hi-cap" style="color: grey; font-family: lato, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; line-height: 12px; margin-bottom: 0em; padding: 2px 0px;">Photo: Neil Squire Society</figcaption><figcaption style="color: black; font-family: Lato; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 2px 0px;">A wheelchair-mounted LipSync device lets this woman use her computer with the help of sip-and-puff technology.</figcaption></div>
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For people who are paralyzed or have mobility issues due to injury or illnesses, using a mouse, keyboard, or touchscreen can be difficult, if not impossible. And computer interfaces designed for them can be prohibitively expensive.</div>
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Giving people with disabilities better access to the world around them is the aim of the <a href="https://www.neilsquire.ca/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Neil Squire Society</a>, a nonprofit in Burnaby, B.C., Canada. The organization is named after a man who became paralyzed in the early 1980s from injuries he suffered in a car accident. To help him communicate, Squire’s cousin, an engineer, connected an Apple 2E computer to a Morse code transmitter that Squire could control using “sip and puff” technology, which sends electrical signals by sipping and puffing on a tube. The device became known as the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joust</em>.</div>
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Last year the society teamed up with the <a href="https://www.google.org/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Google Foundation</a> to build a more advanced version of Joust: the <a href="https://www.neilsquire.ca/research-development/projects-activities/lipsync/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LipSync</a>, a joystick that allows a person to control a computer cursor with minimal head and neck movements. A hollow mouthpiece is attached to a sensor on the joystick that requires only slight pressure to move a cursor on a computer screen. Users can “click” the left and right mouse buttons by inhaling or exhaling into the mouthpiece.</div>
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“While similar solutions exist for desktop computers, they can cost up to US $1,500 and do not work well on mobile devices,” says Chad Leaman, the society’s director of innovation. He’s also the founder of its Makers Making Change initiative, which connects tinkerers with people who have disabilities and need <a href="http://theinstitute.ieee.org/static/special-report-assistive-tech" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">assistive technologies</a>.</div>
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“What makes the LipSync unique is that we are releasing it open-source, so it can be built for about $300 worth of parts by anyone who wants to volunteer their time to put the unit together.”</div>
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Leaman gave a presentation about Makers Making Change at this year’s <a href="http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/2017/sessions/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CSUN (California State University, Northridge) Assistive Technology Conference</a>, which <a href="http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-topics/consumer-electronics/three-lifechanging-innovations-for-people-with-disabilities" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Institute</em> attended</a>. Recently the Makers Making Change group <a href="http://www.makersmakingchange.com/open-source-repository/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">released a number of other low-tech assistive technologies</a> that can be made with a 3D printer, including tools to help people with limited use of their hands hold pens, turn keys in locks, and open bottles.</div>
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<figcaption class="hi-cap" style="color: grey; font-family: lato, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; line-height: 12px; margin-bottom: 0em; padding: 2px 0px;">Photo: Neil Squire Society</figcaption><figcaption style="color: black; font-family: Lato; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 2px 0px;">Chad Leaman [center] helped IEEE students build LipSync devices at a make-a-thon at the University of Calgary. </figcaption></div>
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HACKING FOR GOOD</h3>
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Makers Making Change has held hackathons throughout the year in which students and other makers help build the LipSyncs. The organization sends engineers to the events to guide the participants through the building process. They provide instructions as well as 3D printers and soldering irons as needed. The LipSyncs are then donated to rehabilitation centers, disability organizations, or directly to those in need.</div>
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At the society’s first hackathon, held in January in Vancouver, volunteers built a system that could help a paralyzed man alert his wife, who is hard of hearing, if he’s in distress. The LipSync connected with a vibrating alarm outfitted with flashing lights that could alert her even if she’s sleeping.</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">The society recently held a make-a-thon in partnership with</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> </span><a href="http://kadimadynamics.com/researchgroups/tom/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">TOM:Alberta</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">and the University of Calgary. The participants, including a team of IEEE student members, built more than 20 LipSyncs during the weekend. Events also were held in June in Philadelphia and Seattle as part of the</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> </span><a href="http://www.weekofmaking.org/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">National Week of Making</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">.</span><br /><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
“This year alone, with the help of the maker community, we’ve built 150 LipSync devices,” Leaman says. “Our goal is to build 1,500 more over the next year and a half. We need engineers and students across Canada and the United States to help bring the device into their communities.”</div>
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For more information on how to make LipSyncs or other open-source assistive technologies, visit the <a href="http://www.makersmakingchange.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #00587a; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Makers Making Change website</a>.</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-58309887882863877612017-09-22T13:54:00.000-04:002017-09-22T13:54:04.744-04:00Here’s How The Trend Of Assistive Tech Is Rapidly Changing<header class="entry__header bn-entry-header" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-beacon="{"p":{"mlid":"entry_header"}}" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="headline js-headline" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span class="timestamp__date--published" style="box-sizing: inherit;">09/21/2017 07:22 am ET</span> <span class="timestamp__date--modified" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Updated</strong> 1 day ago</span></div>
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<figcaption class="image__caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;">The Kenguru Wheelchair Car is just one of many advancements in Assistive Technology</figcaption></div>
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While Obamacare hangs in the balance and late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel <a class="bn-clickable" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-beacon="{"p":{"lnid":"stirs the pot in a big way","mpid":1,"plid":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/20/does-jimmy-kimmel-really-understand-the-gop-health-care-bill/"}}" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/20/does-jimmy-kimmel-really-understand-the-gop-health-care-bill/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">stirs the pot in a big way</a>, technology is stepping in to potentially fill the gap in healthcare via inspiring and innovative ways. The rising trend of what is called Assistive Technology is fascinating to track. Everything from exoskeletons synced with apps that help with rehabiltation after stroke to Verily’s (formerly Google’s life sciences arm) tremor spoon already on the market for use by people with Parkinson’s disease, we are witnessing devices that were completely unheard of even just a few decades ago. An umbrella term that includes adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities, Assistive Technology advances are those that will change the future of health and well-being. </div>
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Indeed, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. Another 360 million people globally suffer from hearing loss. Over 70 million people use a wheelchair. Thus, there are a staggering number of people who need or could benefit from assistive products to maintain or improve certain physical functions. From hearing aids to memory aids, assistive devices are in<a class="bn-clickable" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-beacon="{"p":{"lnid":"high-demand.","mpid":2,"plid":"http://www.thetechedvocate.org/assistive-technology-students-disabilities/"}}" href="http://www.thetechedvocate.org/assistive-technology-students-disabilities/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> high-demand.</a></div>
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However, the news is that certain strides in this arena are actually being developed by companies outside of the U.S. For example, Laevo BV, an exoskeleton company based in The Netherlands, is the manufacturer of the like-named Laevo and actually introduced the first product in 2015. The Laevo is designed to prevent, reduce or relieve work-related back pain. The made-to-measure device, an exoskeleton-of-sorts once worn, is designed for various activities including repetitive heavy lifting and bending. The Laevo is customized but has interchangeable structure sets allowing various individuals on, for example, a construction team, to utilize the same device. </div>
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While some construction workers, for example, may never suffer a crippling injury, their bodies can and typically do deteriorate after years of work. With tenuous healthcare situation, many are starting to research such devices to maximize the care of one’s being. “The design of the Laevo respects the human body and lets the user stay in control of the movements, “ explains Laevo founder Boudewijn Wisse. Already sold in 15 countries around the world and is now making its debut in America.</div>
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<figcaption class="image__caption" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 8px;">Laevo In Action</figcaption></div>
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Another offering in assistive devices is being developed out of Israel. Open Sesame is a touch-free smartphone app that is the first of its kind and is designed for quadriplegics and people with disabilities. The app uses the standard front-facing camera of any Android device, to track users’ head-movements and provide them with a means of using mobile devices completely touch-free. Complemented by voice commands, and compatibility with any Android application, the companies Open Sesame technology provides private and independent use of a smartphone or tablet. This offering is poised to hit the U.S. market soon as the product becomes more customizable no matter what the state is of one’s physical condition.</div>
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However, some <a class="bn-clickable" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-beacon="{"p":{"lnid":"critics have cautioned","mpid":3,"plid":"http://natri.uky.edu/resources/reports/awry.html"}}" href="http://natri.uky.edu/resources/reports/awry.html" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">critics have cautioned </a>that such assistive devices prevent greater work toward independence thereby hindering an individual to reach one’s own true potential. Other experts have said that the supportive products might be matched inappropriately to the needs of the user or be too complex, thereby exacerbating an already challenging physical or mental state. </div>
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While such concerns will continue to be researched, this particular area of technology has no signs of slowing down soon. Indeed, this particular area of technology may face many challenges but also, potentially, many triumphs as it continues to develop.</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-88030639305973256142017-09-11T15:30:00.001-04:002017-09-11T15:30:27.059-04:00How Microsoft's technological and social impacts have changed the world<div class="container" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Colfax-Regular, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.380000114440918px; margin: 0px auto 10px; max-width: 1280px; min-height: 170px; padding: 0px 10px; position: relative; width: 631px;">
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Jason L Ward is a <a href="http://www.windowscentral.com/author/jason-ward" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85098); text-decoration: none;">columnist at Windows Central</a>. He provides unique big picture analysis of the complex world of Microsoft. Jason takes the small clues and gives you an insightful big picture perspective through storytelling that you won't find <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">anywhere</em> else. Seriously, this dude thinks outside the box. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jltechword" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85098); text-decoration: none;">@JLTechWord</a>. He's doing the "write" thing!</div>
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Two main goals stand out as primary objectives for many companies: a desire for profitability, and the goal to have an impact on the world. Microsoft is no exception.</div>
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Microsoft's story is founded on the goal of having a world impact. Under the leadership of its first CEO Bill Gates, and on to his successor, <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-company-without-fear" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Steve Ballmer, to its current leader Satya Nadella</a>, Microsoft has been an integral part of social change and world affairs.</div>
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Nadella defines Microsoft as the <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsofts-chris-pratley-mike-tholfsen-and-chris-yu-give-their-take-redmonds-cultural-shift" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">"do more" company</a>. Its mission as a platform provider is to equip individuals and businesses with the tools to "do more." Microsoft equipped these entities to achieve their goals and has been a global force that has profoundly affected communities, other companies, and individuals.</div>
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A computer on every desk and in every home</h2>
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Four decades ago, Microsoft Founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen set the ambitious goal of putting a PC on every desk and in every home. Forty years later that goal has been largely realized. <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/resistance-futile-windows-10-aggressive-push-personal-computing" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Over a billion PCs</a> are now in use in businesses and homes around the world.</div>
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Ironically, in those early days of computing naysayers mocked the idea of personal home computers. The large enterprise-focused devices that defined what computers were, and what they were useful for, were not something doubters could reconcile as useful tools in homes. This negative perception didn't hinder Microsoft's objective to define personal computing, however.</div>
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In a pivotal deal with IBM in 1980, Microsoft created the PC-DOS operating system for a fee of $80,000. Recognizing that other PC makers might attempt to copy it, Microsoft retained the OS's copyrights. Eventually, Microsoft's MS-DOS became the foundation of the Windows OS that propelled the company's personal computing vision around the world. Through partnerships with PC makers, Windows became the dominant PC OS in businesses and homes around the globe. Microsoft grew from a company that employed <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3357701/Bill-Gatess-dream-A-computer-in-every-home.html" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">just 30 people</a> to a multibillion global force that <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/facts-about-microsoft/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;" title="">employs 124,000 individuals</a> and affects business, social and global change.</div>
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PC power to the people</h2>
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With user-friendly tools like Windows, Office and MS Paint, Microsoft was successful with making computing, something that was remote and foreign to most people, a personal and easy experience. Consumers and businesses also benefitted from the fact that Microsoft's platform became the dev box and target of a massive community of developers who ultimately supplied Windows with 16 million programs.</div>
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Microsoft not only put a PC in every home and on every desk but was crucial to defining the relationships between OEMs, platform providers, developers, businesses and consumers that are the foundations of the present age of personal computing. Microsoft mainstreamed personal computing to the extent that PCs are now available in a <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/how-windows-2-1s-are-setting-stage-surface-phone" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">range of forms</a>and price points. Third-world countries, where there is no or limited electricity, are even provided with durable wind-up PCs.</div>
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PCs and Windows have become the fundamental tools that have helped authors write best sellers, artists create masterpieces, musicians craft music, social service and volunteer organizations monitor resources, manufacturers optimize production, banks power ATMs and much more. Their integration in almost every part of our lives has changed our world.</div>
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Though the PC market declined after the smartphone's advent, the existence of these <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/smartphones-are-dead-part-i" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">"modern mobile PCs"</a>, is a testimony of Microsoft's impact on the world and personal computing. Especially since Microsoft's $150 million contribution to Apple in 1997 saved the Cupertino company, enabling it to exist long enough to introduce the world-changing iPhone in 2007.</div>
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Business and government the Redmond way</h2>
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Many of the world's businesses, which drive local and global economies and have intricate relationships with and impact on local and global communities, run on a Microsoft-based IT infrastructure. From Windows Server to Intune device management, to Azure cloud services, to <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/surface" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Surface</a>deployment, Office 365 and more, Microsoft is the platform that many large and small businesses around the world run on.</div>
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The global scope and the impact of these relationships cannot be overstated. Multibillion-dollar companies rely on the integrity and reliability of Microsoft's tools daily. We have <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/wannacry-ransomware-attack-windows" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">witnessed the impact</a> and costs to businesses when these systems are compromised.</div>
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Businesses are not the only high-profile consumers of Microsoft tools. Governments, from local municipalities to agencies like the <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/us-department-defense-thinks-its-employees-should-use-windows-10-home" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Department of Defense</a> to various <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-unveils-new-version-windows-10-built-chinese-government" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">governments around the world, such as China</a>, rely on Windows and other Microsoft services for smooth operations and security.</div>
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It is a testimony to the powerful role Microsoft plays in global affairs that its tools are relied upon by governments around the world.</div>
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Head of the class</h2>
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Despite Google's success in the U.S., Microsoft in Education is still the dominant force in school systems around the world.</div>
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To bolster its efforts, Microsoft purchased and integrated the popular game Minecraft into its education strategy. It also created Windows 10 S, which runs only Store apps and is bringing affordable Windows 10 S PCs to elementary and secondary school systems, and the Windows 10 S <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/surface-laptop" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Surface Laptop</a> to college students. With various management tools like Intune for Education Microsoft has improved administrators abilities to manage and deploy hardware.</div>
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Microsoft's goal with its education efforts is to <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/kid-coders-tech-giants-teach-kids-coding-leaving-us-old-fogies-behind" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">familiarize the next generation of decision-makers and employees with the Microsoft tools</a>that it has established as the drivers of businesses and governments around the world.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Kelson-Regular, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: -1px;">A seat at the table</span></div>
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Microsoft's position of global influence gives its leadership a voice on matters of moral consequence and humanitarian concern. The company notably <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/silicon-valley-president-trump-white-supremacists-and-ideology-hate" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">exercised that voice in its stance against the Trump administration</a>in relation to its handling of the events in Charlottesville, Va., where an anti-protester was murdered and others were injured during a white supremacist rally.</div>
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<img alt="" class="image-large aligncenter" height="451" src="https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/larger/public/field/image/2017/09/trump%20bezos%20cook%20nadella%20gettyimages-697900136_-_h_2017.jpg?itok=TWHe5fzy" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 591px;" width="800" /></div>
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More recently, Microsoft President Brad Smith, who recently left the Digital Advisory Committee due to the aforementioned concerns, <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-speaks-out-against-trump-administrations-decision-rescind-daca" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">expressed Microsoft's opposition</a> to the Trump administrations ending of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.</div>
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This program currently protects 800,000 U.S. immigrants that were brought to the country as children from deportation. Smith expressed the following of the 39 "Dreamers," (as they are called), that Microsoft employs:</div>
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In short, if Dreamers who are our employees are in court, we will be by their side.</div>
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Microsoft's resources have also been employed to provide <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/hurricane-harvey-relief-do-your-part-help-those-need" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">relief to victims of Hurricane Harvey</a>. The massive wealth Bill Gates reaped from the company he cofounded has been used to provide education support, health care efforts and other philanthropic global work via the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a>.</div>
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Looking forward</h2>
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Microsoft is a company built on a dream that has been largely accomplished. Though it <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-needs-cool-factor-help-it-connect-consumers" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">has had many misses</a>, including smartphones, Zune, and Microsoft Bob, the company is looking forward. <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/how-surface-changed-microsoft-forever" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Surface</a>introduced a new PC category, <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-arm-microsofts-ultimate-mobile-device-vision-comes-view" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Windows 10 on ARM</a> opens the door to <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/microsofts-successful-pc-strategy-headed-our-pockets" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">potential telephony-enabled PCs</a>, and Windows Mixed Reality and HoloLens position the company to <a href="https://www.windowscentral.com/hololens-everyone-microsoft-democratizing-hololens-tech" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">democratize augmented and virtual reality</a> for a future of holographic computing.</div>
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<img alt="" class="image-large aligncenter" height="379" src="https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/larger/public/field/image/2017/09/microsoft.jpg?itok=KYO3ratN" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 591px;" width="800" /></div>
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Microsoft's influence raises some concerns as well. It's AI-driven camera technology that can recognize, people, places, things, and activities and can act proactively has a profound capacity for abuse by the same governments and entities that currently employ Microsoft services for less nefarious purposes.</div>
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Additionally, visionaries like Gates, Tesla's Elon Musk and physicist Stephen Hawking have concerns about <a href="http://observer.com/2015/08/stephen-hawking-elon-musk-and-bill-gates-warn-about-artificial-intelligence/" style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 172, 242); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;">rouge AI</a> and quantum computing.</div>
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What the future holds is uncertain, but one thing is clear: Microsoft has changed the world, and its impact will leave enduring effects long into the future.</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-57021970199949024172017-08-31T14:49:00.001-04:002017-08-31T14:49:22.322-04:00Self-Driving Wheelchairs Debut in Hospitals and AirportsVia https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/selfdriving-wheelchairs-debut-in-hospitals-and-airports<div>
<br /><figure class="xlrg" style="display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 26px; width: 620px;"><img alt="Users sit in two WHILL NEXT wheelchairs in the Haneda Airport in Japan" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/Mjk0MjE4NA.jpeg" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /><figcaption class="hi-cap" style="color: #565656; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 18px;">Photo: Panasonic</figcaption></figure><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><br />
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Autonomous vehicles can add a new member to their ranks—the self-driving wheelchair. This summer, two robotic wheelchairs made headlines: one at a Singaporean hospital and another at a Japanese airport.</div>
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The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, or <a href="https://smart.mit.edu/" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">SMART</a>, developed the former, first deployed in Singapore’s Changi General Hospital in September 2016, where it successfully navigated the hospital’s hallways. It is the latest in a string of autonomous vehicles made by SMART, including a <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2013/smart-driverless-golf-cart-provides-a-glimpse-into-a-future-of-autonomous-vehicles" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">golf cart</a>, <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/startup-nutonomy-driverless-taxi-service-singapore-0324" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">electric taxi</a> and, most recently, a <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/driverless-scooters-1107" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">scooter</a> that zipped more than 100 MIT visitors around on tours in 2016.</div>
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The SMART self-driving wheelchair has been in development for about a year and a half, since January 2016, says <a href="https://www.csail.mit.edu/user/876" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">Daniela Rus</a>, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a principal investigator in the SMART <a href="https://smart.mit.edu/research/fm/about-fm" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">Future Urban Mobility</a> research group. Today, SMART has two wheelchairs in Singapore and two wheelchairs at MIT being tested in a variety of settings, says Rus.</div>
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The robot’s computer uses data from three lidars to make a map. A localization algorithm then determines where it is in the map. The chair’s six wheels lend stability, and the chair is designed to make tight turns and fit through normal-sized doorframes. “When we visited several retirement communities, we realized that the quality of life is dependent on mobility. We want to make it really easy for people to move around,” said Rus in a recent MIT <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/featured-video-self-driving-wheelchair-0726" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">statement</a>.</div>
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A second autonomous wheelchair recently premiered at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, designed by Panasonic and <a href="http://whill.us/" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">Whill, Inc</a>., creator of the <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/will-the-whill-hitech-wheelchair-sell" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">Model A Whill wheelchair</a>, a sleek, hi-tech wheelchair now on the market in Japan and the United States.</div>
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According to a <a href="http://news.panasonic.com/global/press/data/2017/08/en170808-6/en170808-6.html" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">recent press release</a>, Panasonic is planning to conduct technical trials of the WHILL NEXT this year. Like the SMART wheelchair, the WHILL NEXT uses sensors to detect nearby obstacles. It also employs automation technology developed for Panasonic’s autonomous (and adorable) hospital delivery robot, <a href="http://news.panasonic.com/global/topics/2015/44009.html" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">HOSPI</a>. The wheelchair identifies its position, selects routes, and moves to a chosen destination based on a user’s input into a smartphone app. It can even be hailed with the app – the Uber of wheelchairs.</div>
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The WHILL NEXT is also able to sync up with nearby wheelchairs to travel in a column, which is useful for a family or a group, the company notes. Best of all, each wheelchair automatically returns to its home base, reducing the need for airport staff to collect the chairs.</div>
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Beyond use in hospitals and airports, the SMART team says they envision a connected autonomous mobility system, where a user could use a scooter or wheelchair indoors at an office, zip outside and pick up a golf cart to cross the parking lot, and slip into an autonomous car to drive home. Recent studies with the scooter suggest the control algorithms work indoors as well as out, according to a <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2016/driverless-scooters-1107" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">press release last year</a>. “The autonomous wheelchair could be very useful in any pedestrian environmen—including hospitals and airports —and we are exploring all these possibilities,” Rus tells <em>IEEE Spectrum</em>.</div>
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Yet the field faces the <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/will-the-whill-hitech-wheelchair-sell" style="color: black; outline: 0px;">challenge of commercialization</a>. Not all hi-tech wheelchairs have sold well, such as Dean Kamen’s stair-climbing iBot, whose $25,000 price tag was one reason the device was discontinued in 2009. But hopefully the next generation of wheelchairs won’t be as expensive, says Rus. “The system consists of an off-the-shelf wheelchair augmented with an autonomy package. We hope the price point of the autonomy package can come down to make the system affordable.”</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-31417680177481235992017-08-31T10:27:00.000-04:002017-08-31T10:27:49.741-04:00High-Speed ‘Brain Modem’ Could Restore Vision, Speech, and Movement <img alt="" class="" data-pin-url="https://www.seeker.com/tech/high-speed-brain-modem-could-restore-vision-speech-and-movement?utm_content=High-Speed+%E2%80%98Brain+Modem%E2%80%99+Could+Restore+Vision%2C+Speech%2C+and+Movement+&utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social-media&media=https%3A%2F%2Fassets3.thrillist.com%2Fv1%2Fimage%2F2697445%2Fsize%2Ftmg-gift_guide_variable.jpg&description=Paradromics%2C+a+California-based+startup%2C+is+designing+a+high-speed+brain-computer+interface+that+might+have+broad+implications+in+the+fie..." src="https://assets3.thrillist.com/v1/image/2697445/size/tmg-gift_guide_variable.jpg" /><br />
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Paradromics, a California-based startup, is designing a high-speed brain-computer interface that might have broad implications in the field of prosthetics. </div>
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BY <a class="author-meta-info__bio-link u-color--tech" href="https://www.seeker.com/community/greg_walters/" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">GREG WALTERS </a></div>
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AUGUST 28, 2017</div>
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Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, the fictional helmsman of Star Trek: The Next Generation portrayed by the actor LeVar Burton, was born blind, but could see using a 24th-century visor that transmitted images directly into his brain. </div>
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Now, real-life science looks set to outpace Star Trek technology by about 300 years. </div>
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A California-based startup called Paradromics is developing a new technique for connecting the brain to computers with the goal of transmitting data at over one gigabit per second, effectively creating a high-speed neural broadband interface. </div>
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In the near-term, the company is focused on using this “cortical modem” to restore speech functionality among people who have lost the ability to talk — for example, patients with Lou Gehrig’s disease, such as <a href="https://www.seeker.com/stephen-hawking-humanity-doomsday-existential-threats-space-exploratio-2096163759.html" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">astrophysicist Stephen Hawking</a>. </div>
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But if they are successful, the device will become a general <a href="https://www.seeker.com/videos/neural-lace-promises-to-connect-our-brains-to-the-internet" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">brain-computer interfac</a>e with broad implications for <a href="https://www.seeker.com/tech/prosthetic-third-thumb-aims-to-extend-wearers-body-functionality" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">the field of prosthetics</a>. High-definition cameras could be used to restore vision to the blind. Prosthetic arms could become far more deft, sending life-like sensations of touch from robotic fingertips to the brain. </div>
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“When you can connect a brain to a computer, you can connect a brain to anything that talks to a computer,” said Matt Angle, CEO of Paradromics. “Medical science can’t easily regrow your eye. But the quality of your life could be significantly enhanced by substituting for that connectivity with a brain-computer interface.” </div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://www.seeker.com/health/mind/how-the-brain-constructs-meaning-from-changes-in-the-pitch-of-a-persons-voice" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; font-weight: normal; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">RELATED: How the Brain Constructs Meaning From Changes in the Pitch of a Person’s Voice</a></strong></div>
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In July, Paradromics earned a big vote of confidence by winning an $18 million grant from <a href="https://www.seeker.com/orbital-atk-suing-darpa-satellite-servicing-technology-2254816823.html" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency</a>, or DARPA, the US Defense Department’s emerging technology research facility, to develop a human-implant version of the device. Now, the company hopes to be ready for clinical trials in humans by 2021. </div>
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To be sure, recent advances have already allowed paralyzed patients to move prosthetic limbs using neural implants, and even experience a degree of sensation. Meanwhile, California-based Second Sight has even restored some degree of lost vision in people with an eye disease called retina pigmentosa using retinal implants, although so far the images are reported to be blocky and grayscale. </div>
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A significant outstanding problem in the field has been how to send much more information to and from <a href="https://www.seeker.com/health/how-the-brain-turns-an-itch-into-a-scratch" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">the brain</a>, much more quickly — in short, how to dramatically increase bandwidth. </div>
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Current state-of-the-art technology, embodied in a system known as the Utah Array, utilizes 128 electrodes in the brain at once. The Utah Array was enough to allow Nathan Copeland, a young man who lost all feeling from his chest down after a car accident in 2004, to use a robotic arm to give then-President Barack Obama a historic fist-bump in October 2016 — and even feel the president’s hand against his own. </div>
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“That is unbelievable,” Obama said at the time. “Nathan is moving this hand with his brain.” </div>
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But while the Utah Array deploys dozens of electrodes, Paradromics wants to expand the number of individual channels to hundreds of thousands. </div>
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“If that’s what you could do with 100 channels, imagine what you could do with 100,000 channels, or a million channels,” said Angle. </div>
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Toward that end, the company is developing the Neural Input-Output Bus, or NIOB (pronounced “niy-OH-bee”). The unit aims to be, effectively, a brain modem, capable of both reading and stimulating the brain. </div>
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The NIOB incorporates an expandable modular design, with each centimeter-wide chip placed on the brain holding about 50,000 ultra-thin microwires. Every microwire connects with 3-5 individual neurons. Microwires, in lower numbers, have been used by researchers to monitor <a href="https://www.seeker.com/health/gut-bacteria-can-influence-brain-activity-new-research-finds" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">brain activity</a> for decades, but Paradromics is working to scale up the technology. </div>
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The NIOB functions by interacting with the electrical activity of neurons, which Angle compared to electric eels firing in the sea. Each time a neuron fires, it releases an electrical pulse into its surroundings that can be recorded by the microwires. It will be able to both read neural traffic as well as drive it, meaning data from the brain will be able to travel out to computers, and computer data will be able to arrive directly into the brain at the level of individual neurons. </div>
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In fact, Paradromics is just one of several recipients of a total $65 million in grant money from the Defense Department’s DARPA recently awarded for work towards superior brain-computer interface technology — although the other recipients are big research institutions, like Brown University and Columbia University. Paradromics is notable for being the only startup. </div>
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To achieve the kind of definition and signal strength Paradromics is targeting, the microwires must penetrate a few millimeters into the brain to within a tenth-of-a-millimeter of the neurons they are recording. </div>
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That means implanting the NIOB will require dangerous surgery — and could never function as <a href="https://www.seeker.com/health/mind/making-music-using-only-your-brain-is-easy-with-the-encephalophone" style="-webkit-transition-duration: 0.1s; -webkit-transition-property: color; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; box-sizing: inherit; color: #fc4951; cursor: pointer; line-height: 26px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.1s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out;" target="_blank">a cap worn on top of the head</a>. </div>
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In other words, getting a brain modem installed isn’t going to be a casual decision for anyone, anytime soon, Angle said. </div>
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“You need to open up the skull and put the device on top of the brain,” Angle said. “Brain surgery is invasive. Putting things in the brain is not trivial. It’s not like getting a tattoo. It’s for the people who need it.” </div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-45398249197457947232017-06-20T14:22:00.001-04:002017-06-20T14:22:39.386-04:00THE BEST WHEELCHAIR TECH ACCESSORIES OF 2017 <h1 class="page-title" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 2.25rem; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 50px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">
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From the high-tech to the low-tech, 2017 has revealed innovative wheelchair accessories and assistive technologies that help wheelchair users gain independence. We’ve rounded up the top 8 tech accessories recommended for tech-savvy quadriplegics and wheelchair users that add functionality to a power chair and look pretty cool.</div>
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<a href="http://www.gettecla.com/pages/tecla-e" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);">1. TECLA-E</a></h3>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img alt="tecla-e" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/TECLA_BTS_ProductShots-18_grande.jpg?v=1497369460" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%;" /></span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">tecla-e is a cloud-connected assistive device giving people with upper-body mobility impairments the ability to fully access smart devices and technology that can be used anywhere you go. Users can send and receive emails and text messages, browse the web, watch videos, launch and use apps, read books, change the TV channel or turn the heat up, make (or hang up) phone calls at any time using accessibility switches they are familiar with like buttons, joysticks, and sip-and-puff controllers or their wheelchair driving controls.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">tecla-e is for anyone who cannot easily use a smartphone, tablet computer or household technology independently. This includes those with limited upper-body mobility resulting from spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, ALS, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, brain injuries, or stroke.</span></div>
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<a href="https://gettecla.com/collections/mounting/products/tecla-phone-mount" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);">2. PHONE MOUNT</a></h3>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img alt="tecla-e phone mount" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/phone-mount-2_2048x2048_72ce7f83-38bb-4fb0-ac0d-10037c026bce_grande.png?v=1497369328" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%;" /> </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Tecla Phone Mount is the solution for mounting your handset on your bed, wheelchair, working table or wherever else you may need it in order to access a smartphone hands-free. If you have limited upper-body mobility, and want to keep you iPhone or Android in place while controlling your powerchair or mobility aid, the Tecla Phone Mount will keep your phone secure. The mounting plate comes with an industrial-grade Dual-Lock fastener and it is recommended to attach the fastener to a hard case or shell, rather than your phone. There is also a holster that is designed to fit the <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=Otterbox+Defender+Series" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">OtterBox Defender Holster</a>, which is one of the most durable cases on the market.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.quadstick.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">3. QUADSTICK</a></h3>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The QuadStick is a mouth operated game controller for Quadriplegics and is available in two models, the original QuadStick and the QuadStick FPS. <a href="http://www.quadstick.com/our-story/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">The goals of the QuadStick</a> are to "provide an inexpensive, self contained tool that allows the disabled gamer to play video games at a high level and participate as an equal in the social communities that form around them."</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The device appears to the game console as a PS3 compatible Gamepad, Mouse, Keyboard and Flash drive. The QuadStick is compatible with the PS3, Android, and many PC games that use a joystick, mouse or keyboard.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Flexible Mounting Arm Kit comes with a flexible arm with Super Clamp and ball and socket RAM Mount adapter. The mount works well for tables as well as the tubing on a wheelchair.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.quokkabag.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">4. QUOKKABAG</a></h3>
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<img alt="Quokka" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/Quokka-bag-web_grande.jpg?v=1497371973" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Quokka is an innovative practical carrying bag designed for people in wheelchairs. Where putting your bag on your lap is uncomfortable, and hanging it on the back of a wheelchair is not safe, the Quokka uses an easy snap and click system with an adapter that attaches to the side of the wheelchair. It also features a magnetic snaps and ringed zippers for easy open and closing. Its style and functionality make Quokka the most innovative wheelchair bag of 2017.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.wheelchairs.com/lightingpkg.htm" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">5. POWER CHAIR HEADLIGHTS</a></h3>
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<img alt="Powerchair Headlights" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/night_321d3362-4967-4bbc-8add-5e0be0a7b3e5_grande.png?v=1497377849" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">21st Century Scientific Lighting Packages feature a 24 volt 20 watt 1900lm CREE headlamp with a weather-sealed aluminum housing. Each package has a switch box that can be mounted on round tubing and cables that will support one or two headlamps and taillights. Not only do headlights make it easier for power chair users to see their path when travelling at night, but make it easier for others to see them too. These particular headlights are nearly as bright as the headlights of a car, making users feel safe travelling independently after the sun goes down.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.kinovarobotics.com/assistive-robotics/products/robot-arms/?gclid=CjwKEAjw9_jJBRCXycSarr3csWcSJABthk071wzACSGAM71F_tId0dmLsRPKISZ5GEnzKloAcAdKFhoC_pfw_wcB%20" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">6. ROBOTIC ARM</a></h3>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img alt="JACO Robotic Assistant Arm" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/jce39n01q2031123_grande.png?v=1497372230" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%;" /> </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">JACO is an assistive robotic arm with a three-fingered hand that helps people with disabilities independently perform many activities of daily living through the use of the technology. The arm has been designed to accomplish many tasks of daily life such as drinking from a glass, eating a hot meal, opening doors, pushing buttons (e.g. elevators), picking up objects and more. Kinova Robotics has won multiple awards for JACO, including Startup Canada Global Entrepreneurship Award in 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="http://www.fleximug.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank" title="Fleximug">7. FLEXIMUG </a></span> </h3>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><img alt="Fleximug" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/fleximug-with-wheelchair-hero-1000px_grande.jpg?v=1497372317" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%;" />The Fleximug provides hands-free drinking, designed for quadriplegics resulting from multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke, and spinal injuries as well as wheelchair users seeking assistive solutions for daily activities. Its purpose is to provide independence to wheelchair users who rely on a caregiver or family member to eat and drink. Fleximug's patented air vent makes it easy to use and is suitable for individuals who can move their head freely to one side, and who have good lip control and suction.</span></div>
<h3 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.25; margin: 30px auto 18px 0px; max-width: 600px; text-transform: uppercase;">
<a href="https://www.symmetric-designs.com/adalap" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94); box-sizing: inherit; color: #009ee2; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.46, 0.45, 0.94);" target="_blank">8. ADA LAP WHEELCHAIR TRAY AND ACCESSORY SYSTEM</a></h3>
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<img alt="ADA wheelchair lap tray" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/0391/files/Screen_Shot_2017-06-20_at_12.18.37_PM_grande.png?v=1497975545" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; float: none; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The ADA Lap Wheelchair Tray and Accessory System is designed to assist wheelchair users in daily tasks and activities. The products offers the highest convenience and ease of use than any wheelchair tray and multi-accessory mount on the market.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">No nuts or bolts are required to setup the base unit, making it easy to setup. The base is sturdy, adjustable and convenient for access to a variety of wheelchair accessories, including the Lap Wheelchair Tray. The system offers several attachments to the base unit that serve different purposes such as a fishing rod for fishing, a camera mount for taking photos and an umbrella to keep dry hands-free, making it highly functional for all your needs.</span></div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-84490078565367424982017-06-05T17:26:00.000-04:002017-06-05T17:26:15.169-04:00General-Purpose Brain-Computer Interface Brings Thought Control to Any PC<div class="l-article-topper l-article-topper--standard" data-topper-layout="standard" data-topper-type="standard" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: NeueHaas, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 20px 0px 25px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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New system could make it easier for paralyzed people to communicate via computer keyboard.</h2>
<ul class="article-topper__meta-info" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 600px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li class="article-topper__meta-item" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; max-width: 600px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">by <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/profile/emerging-technology-from-the-arxiv/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Emerging Technology from the arXiv</a></li>
<li class="article-topper__meta-item" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; max-width: 600px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">May 30, 2017</li>
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For people who are paralyzed, a brain-computer interface is sometimes the only feasible way to communicate. The idea is that sensors monitor brain waves and the nerve signals that control facial expressions. Predefined signals can then be used to control the computer.</div>
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For example, the pattern of nerve signals associated with a left smirk might cause the cursor to move to the left, while a right smirk might cause it to move right; the brain waves associated with concentration might be associated with a double click, and so on. In this way, an otherwise paralyzed user can control a computer.</div>
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But there are significant problems with this kind of approach. The first is that these systems are highly susceptible to noise, so they often make mistakes. The second is that they are awkward and clunky to use, so communication is painfully slow. Typing speeds can be as low as about one character per minute. A way of significantly speeding up brain-control interfaces would be hugely useful.</div>
<figure class="l-article-img l-article-img--text-col" data-widget-layout="text-col" data-widget-type="imageset" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; max-width: 600px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 600px;"><source media="(min-width: 1024px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=600&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=1200&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 850px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=1024&cx=0&cy=0&cw=765&ch=566 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=2048&cx=0&cy=0&cw=765&ch=566 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 550px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=850&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=1700&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 401px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=550&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=1100&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=401&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=802&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img class="article-img article-img--text-col" src="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=600&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=600&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 1x, https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/minddesktop-hierarchy.jpg?sw=1200&cx=0&cy=0&cw=770&ch=566 2x" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 600px;" /><div class="article-enlarge" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Enter Ori Ossmy and pals at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, who have created a general-purpose brain-computer interface called MindDesktop that allows a user to control most aspects of a windows PC with typing speeds as fast as 20 seconds per character. That’s an order of magnitude better than some other systems.</div>
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First some background. In recent years, various companies have begun to sell off-the-shelf brain-monitoring devices that measure signals produced by the brain and the nerve-firing patterns associated with facial movement. Anybody can buy these devices for a few hundred dollars.</div>
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One of the better known is the Emotiv EPOC+ neuro headset and 14-channel EEG, which links to any computer via Wi-Fi. The device costs $800 (although a the company make a cheaper, lower-spec model that sells for $300).</div>
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Using this or other brain-measuring devices to control a computer is hard, however, not least because many interfaces are clunky and slow. So Ossmy and co have built a system that takes the signals detected by the Emotiv headset and exploits them in an interface that’s relatively easy to use.</div>
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Out of the box, the Emotiv headset can spot the nerve signals associated with various facial expressions. But it can also be trained to spot the brain-wave patterns associated with thinking about, say, a favorite flower or song or pet. </div>
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Each of these thoughts can then be used to trigger a different action in the software. Indeed, the entire system is designed to work with just three inputs. It can be adapted to any form of input, provided it can distinguish three different ones.</div>
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The interface has some unique approaches. For example, users can select an item anywhere on the screen using a “hierarchical pointing device.” This divides the entire screen into four quarters. Users select the quarter that contains the item of interest, and this quarter is itself divided into four smaller quarters, one of which the user selects, and so on. This division continues until one quarter is filled with the item of interest, which the user can click on by selecting it.</div>
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This allows the user to open or close any application. An onscreen keyboard, predictive text, and other shortcuts speed up the process of communication.</div>
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The Israeli team put the software through its paces by asking 17 healthy adults to use it on a standard PC laptop and then measuring how long they took to perform certain tasks, such as opening a folder, playing a video, and searching the Internet for a topic.</div>
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The results show a clear learning progression. In just three learning sessions, all the users finished their tasks more quickly and were capable of sending a simple e-mail.</div>
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Interestingly, the researchers identified long hair as a potential problem, because it causes more signal errors; this made the tasks more difficult for women than for men. “The results indicate that users can quickly learn how to activate the new interface and efficiently use it to operate a PC,” say Ossmy and co.</div>
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However, there is much work to be done to make these systems comparable with other forms of communication, such as texting and ordinary typing. Better sensors will clearly help, but the user interface itself will always be critical.</div>
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Ref: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.07490" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">arxiv.org/abs/1705.07490</a> : MindDesktop: A General Purpose Brain Computer Interface</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-73164765142333413882017-05-24T11:23:00.000-04:002017-05-24T11:23:21.350-04:00The incredible ways people with disabilities customize their tech to thrive<header class="article-header" style="color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><figure class="article-image" style="margin: 0px 0px 50px; position: relative;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="lead-image" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><div class="microcontent-wrapper" style="clear: left; margin-left: 40px; position: relative;">
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<img alt="Meera Phillips types a message to friends on her iPad using text-to-speech technology." class="microcontent" data-fragment="lead-image" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/ya7Ru6nwlciblToGvNkzKUelhIA=/950x534/filters:quality(90)/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479136%2F9e7e1a7d-66ba-437c-b56a-8e9a78a5eb65.jpg" data-micro="1" data-url="null" src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/ya7Ru6nwlciblToGvNkzKUelhIA=/950x534/filters:quality(90)/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479136%2F9e7e1a7d-66ba-437c-b56a-8e9a78a5eb65.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></div>
<figcaption class="image-caption" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.2s; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); bottom: -1px; color: #dddddd; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2rem; left: 40px; line-height: 1.5em; max-height: 100%; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.5em 1em; position: absolute; right: 0px; transition: max-height 0.2s;">Meera Phillips types a message to friends on her iPad using text-to-speech technology.</figcaption><div class="image-credit" style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.2s; color: #777777; float: right; font-size: 0.9rem; font-style: italic; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 12px; max-width: 525px; text-transform: uppercase; transition: margin 0.2s; width: auto;">
IMAGE: COURTESY OF APPLE</div>
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<span class="byline " style="color: #636466; display: inline; font-family: ProximaNovaBold; font-size: 1.1rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="http://mashable.com/author/katie-dupere/" style="color: #636466; text-decoration: none;"></a><span class="author_name">BY <a href="http://mashable.com/author/katie-dupere/" style="color: #636466; text-decoration: none;">KATIE DUPERE</a></span><time datetime="Wed, 17 May 2017 04:01:00 +0000" style="color: #97999c; display: block; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular;">MAY 17, 2017</time></span></div>
</header><section class="article-content blueprint" style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.2s; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 1em; max-width: 525px; transition: margin 0.2s; width: auto;"><div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
There's something undeniably special in the way Meera Phillips looks at you when you speak. It's as if your words are the only words that will ever matter, whether you're talking about something silly or something serious. </div>
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The 15-year-old knows the value of hearing what people say. That's because she's used to not being heard.</div>
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Meera is nonverbal, living with a rare condition called <a href="https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/166/schizencephaly" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">schizencephaly</a> that impacts her ability to speak. But with the help of her iPad and text-to-speech technology, she can make her thoughts and opinions known — and she sure does. From her love of Katy Perry to her passion for soccer, Meera will let you know exactly what's on her mind. All it takes is a few taps of her tablet, and with a specialized app stringing letters into words, and words into phrases, her thoughts are played out loud.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Meera's relationship with tech is just one of seven stories featured in a powerful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHFlHpPjgk7307LVoFKonAqq616WCzif7" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">video series</a> created by Apple to spotlight the company's dedication to accessible technology. The videos were released in celebration of <a href="http://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a> on May 18, a day emphasizing the importance of accessible tech and design.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.5rem;">"We see accessibility as a basic human right," says Sarah Herrlinger, senior manager for global accessibility policy and initiatives at Apple. "We want more and more people out there to not only see the work we're doing, but realize the importance of accessibility in general."</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
The videos showcase users with a wide range of disability identities and experiences — from Carlos Vasquez, a blind metal drummer, to Shane Rakowski, a music teacher with hearing loss. </div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="now-people-know-i" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: none; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 1em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description=""Now people know I have a lot to say. They know I am smart. They know me. They see me now as Meera."" data-fragment="now-people-know-i" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.920000076293945px; margin: 0px;">"Now people know I have a lot to say. They know I am smart. They know me. They see me now as Meera."</span></blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
And then there's spunky Meera, who likes to gossip and giggle with her friends on the side of the soccer field and mostly uses her iPad and a text-to-speech app to do so. Her natural voice can only force out short words like "no" and "yes." While Meera knows sign language, the majority of her friends don't.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Though she now has tech that works for her, it took Meera a long time to find a way to express herself. In fact, until 10 years ago, getting access to any assistive technology wasn't even possible.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Meera was born in India, living on the streets of New Delhi until she was adopted by her moms at age 5. She was nonverbal and homeless from birth, meaning she had no education and few ways of communicating. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
But through accessible technology, along with education and sign-language learning, Meera has gained multiple ways to communicate.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"Now people know I have a lot to say," says Meera, who now lives in Atlanta with her moms and younger brother, Tucker. "They know I am smart. They know me. They see me now as Meera — their friend, their student, their neighbor. They know I have opinions and good ideas."</div>
<figure class="image" style="display: table; margin: 0px 0px 50px; position: relative;"><div style="padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m!1954" style="color: #00aeef;"></a></div>
<div class="microcontent-wrapper" style="clear: left; margin-left: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description="" data-fragment="m!1954" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/TKfQ4m-EYlcAjRRff03V0Pu3f4E=/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479200%2F742b8f2a-cf5f-4361-87df-fe1645d67eb6.png" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="lightbox-expand for-lightbox" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 525px;"><img alt="A still from Meera's Apple video." class="" data-caption="A still from Meera's Apple video." data-credit-name="Courtesy of Apple" data-credit-provider="custom type" data-fragment="m!1954" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/TKfQ4m-EYlcAjRRff03V0Pu3f4E=/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479200%2F742b8f2a-cf5f-4361-87df-fe1645d67eb6.png" data-micro="1" src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/eIg0GFd0KgwtD4lomu9tE2bX-Xc=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479200%2F742b8f2a-cf5f-4361-87df-fe1645d67eb6.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 525px;" title="A still from Meera's Apple video." /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="image-caption" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.2s; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); bottom: -1px; color: #dddddd; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2rem; left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; max-height: 100%; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.5em 1em; position: absolute; right: 0px; transition: max-height 0.2s;"><div style="padding: 0px;">
A still from Meera's Apple video.</div>
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<div style="padding: 0px;">
IMAGE: COURTESY OF APPLE</div>
</div>
</figure><div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Accessibility features come standard with each Apple product, meeting a user's needs right out of the box. That's unparalleled in the mainstream tech industry, making the company a favorite of people with disabilities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"There's not just one feature that encompasses 'accessibility,'" Herrlinger says. "There’s really a depth and breadth to what 'accessibility' means."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
When I ask Meera via video chat how it feels to be able to communicate through her iPad, she taps out an answer on her tablet's keyboard, letter by letter. When she's finished, she plays it through a robotic voice: "It makes me feel happy and smart."</div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="theres-really-a-depth" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: none; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 1em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description=""There’s really a depth and breadth to what 'accessibility' means."" data-fragment="theres-really-a-depth" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.920000076293945px; margin: 0px;">"There’s really a depth and breadth to what 'accessibility' means."</span></blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"You are smart," says Meera's mother, Carolyn Phillips, after hearing her answer. And she is. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Once, for example, Carolyn entered the house to hear the family's Amazon Echo inexplicably blaring Taylor Swift's newest album. Carolyn knew Meera, the only person home at the time, couldn't speak to the Echo to activate Alexa. Convinced the speaker was on the fritz, Carolyn turned off Taylor's tunes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
But a couple of minutes later, Swift's songs were booming yet again. Carolyn then realized Meera had hacked the system, connecting the Echo to her iPad to have it follow her commands. By making the two pieces of tech "talk" to each other, she could play Taylor Swift at top volume whenever she wanted.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
The features built into each Apple device, Herrlinger says, allow people with disabilities to customize their devices to suit their own needs — even if one of those needs is blasting "Blank Space."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Middle school music teacher Shane Rakowski, for example, uses her iPhone to control her <a href="https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/hearing/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">hearing aids</a>, with the ability to toggle between a standard mode and a music mode. The music mode helps amplify low notes Rakowski can't hear otherwise, while the standard mode helps her to instruct her students. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.5rem;">Rakowski discovered her hearing loss four years ago while teaching a music class in Williamsburg, Virginia. One of her students was hitting the low notes on a marimba — but Rakowski didn't hear any sound.</span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Suddenly, things started to click. It had always been hard for her to understand the low voices of men, and she always spoke with a loud voice, even in one-on-one conversations. Now these low notes — notes her students could hear clearly — registered only as silence.</div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="the-kids-call-them" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: none; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 1em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description=""The kids call them my bionic ears. They say I can hear everything now."" data-fragment="the-kids-call-them" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.920000076293945px; margin: 0px;">"The kids call them my bionic ears. They say I can hear everything now."</span></blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Rakowski, whose musical passion and profession rely on the ability to hear, started using hearing aids a little over a year ago. She switched to an iPhone from another phone company because of Apple's accessible technology. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"There's definitely a difference in the way I'm teaching after getting hearing aids," she says. "The students say I'm not as loud as I used to be. I can hear a student's question without asking the whole class to quiet down. I can hear kids talking in the back of the classroom, doing things they aren't quiet supposed to be doing. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"The kids call them my bionic ears. They say I can hear everything now."</div>
<figure class="image" style="display: table; margin: 0px 0px 50px; position: relative;"><div style="padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m!08f9" style="color: #00aeef;"></a></div>
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<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description="" data-fragment="m!08f9" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/sWEH6qzjiU_RL4vydWKUNSfND38=/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479198%2F71ff1033-8ead-4762-b394-55e9b929f346.jpg" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
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<span class="lightbox-expand for-lightbox" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 525px;"><img alt="Rakowski shows off her sleek hearing aids." class="" data-caption="Rakowski shows off her sleek hearing aids." data-credit-name="Courtesy of Apple" data-credit-provider="custom type" data-fragment="m!08f9" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/sWEH6qzjiU_RL4vydWKUNSfND38=/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479198%2F71ff1033-8ead-4762-b394-55e9b929f346.jpg" data-micro="1" src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/TwkRe6st9aXyEbJEA05UXBfyoH4=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479198%2F71ff1033-8ead-4762-b394-55e9b929f346.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 525px;" title="Rakowski shows off her sleek hearing aids." /></span></div>
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<figcaption class="image-caption" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.2s; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); bottom: -1px; color: #dddddd; font-family: ProximaNovaRegular, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2rem; left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; max-height: 100%; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.5em 1em; position: absolute; right: 0px; transition: max-height 0.2s;"><div style="padding: 0px;">
Rakowski shows off her sleek hearing aids.</div>
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IMAGE: COURTESY OF APPLE</div>
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Carlos Vasquez, a blind metal drummer and professional gamer from Houston, Texas, needs something incredibly different from technology than Rakowski. Yet, he uses the same products she does; he just tailors them differently to fit his needs. </div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="a-lot-of-times" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: none; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 1em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description=""A lot of times when people think of accessibility, they think things need to be 'dumbed down.' That's not true."" data-fragment="a-lot-of-times" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.920000076293945px; margin: 0px;">"A lot of times when people think of accessibility, they think things need to be 'dumbed down.' That's not true."</span></blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
While Rakowski relies on visuals to control the volume of sounds coming through her hearing aids, Vasquez relies completely on sound to navigate his Apple devices. His device speaks aloud what would normally be seen, with Vasquez using taps of his finger and his voice to select options and perform tasks. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"You basically have this device that, out of the box, is accessible to someone who is blind," he says. "You turn on this feature, and you can use it like anyone else. A lot of times when people think of accessibility, they think things need to be 'dumbed down.' That's not true. It's just a different way of doing the same thing."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Vasquez was born with cataracts, which were partially removed when he was very young. After the surgery, he had crystal clear, 20/20 vision. But the cataracts weren't removed completely, and before his teens, Vasquez developed glaucoma.</div>
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At 10, his vision started to fade. By 28, he was completely blind.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 1.5rem;">Now, Vasquez says he's adapted to blindness with the help of tech, using his iPhone to assist him in everyday tasks, like making phone calls or using social media.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="with-over-a-billion" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: none; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 1em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description=""With over a billion people on the planet with a disability, that’s a billion reasons for accessible design."" data-fragment="with-over-a-billion" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.920000076293945px; margin: 0px;">"With over a billion people on the planet with a disability, that’s a billion reasons for accessible design."</span></blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"Technology doesn't change your life," he says. "What changes your life are the things you do for yourself — and then technology can come in and enhance what you are already doing."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
For Vasquez, that means using tech to assist him in handling social media and public relations for his metal band, Distartica. By using <a href="https://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/vision/" style="color: #00aeef; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">VoiceOver</a>, one of Apple's most well-known accessibility features, Vasquez has access to the same functions as a sighted person.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Apple says this universal, customizable accessibility is the driving force behind its innovations for people with disabilities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"With over a billion people on the planet with a disability," Herrlinger says, "that's a billion reasons for accessible design."</div>
<figure class="image" style="display: table; margin: 0px 0px 50px; position: relative;"><div style="padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m!cb74" style="color: #00aeef;"></a></div>
<div class="microcontent-wrapper" style="clear: left; margin-left: 0px; position: relative;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description="" data-fragment="m!cb74" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/u-qFOnXZgT3cPjTHoMq7OGFWoRA=/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479125%2F2664ea6b-2072-4224-8f20-54cf488f06a1.jpg" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="lightbox-expand for-lightbox" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; position: relative; width: 525px;"><img class="" data-credit-name="Courtesy of apple" data-credit-provider="custom type" data-fragment="m!cb74" data-image="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/u-qFOnXZgT3cPjTHoMq7OGFWoRA=/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479125%2F2664ea6b-2072-4224-8f20-54cf488f06a1.jpg" data-micro="1" src="http://i.amz.mshcdn.com/Wn6YI5MDkLmYLY46ZAZx6GvhEvo=/fit-in/1200x9600/https%3A%2F%2Fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fcard%2Fimage%2F479125%2F2664ea6b-2072-4224-8f20-54cf488f06a1.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 525px;" /></span></div>
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IMAGE: COURTESY OF APPLE</div>
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</figure><div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
When I ask Meera if she has anything else to add before we stop video chatting, she keeps coming up with something else to say. She's a true chatterbox — a captivating teen with stories to tell. But sometimes, even with accessible tech, it still isn't easy to be heard. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
Typing your thoughts letter by letter, even with the aid of text prediction, is tedious work. It allows Meera to be deliberate with her thoughts, but also causes people who are used to quick conversations to lose interest. Meera often struggles to hook people in, failing to keep them around long enough for a discussion.</div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="before-i-had-the" style="color: #00aeef;"></a><blockquote class="microcontent-wrapper pullquote" style="border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px !important; clear: left; color: #777777; float: none; height: auto; margin: 15px 15px 1em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 12px; position: relative; width: 400px;">
<div class="microcontent-shares" data-description=""Before I had the iPhone and iPad, people treated me like I had a disability. They talked about me, not to me." " data-fragment="before-i-had-the" data-url="" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.25s ease; background-color: #f6f5f1; height: 0px; left: -47px; opacity: 0; padding: 5px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.25s ease; width: 30px;">
<a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-facebook facebook" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #3b579d; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-twitter twitter" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #2daae1; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-google_plus google_plus" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #f02f16; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a><a class="social-share microcontent-share-badge network-badge network-badge-pinterest pinterest" href="http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease; color: #bf1e25; display: inline-block; font-size: 3rem; height: 30px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px !important; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -9900px; transition: color 0.3s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 30px;"></a></div>
<span class="microcontent" style="color: #222222; font-family: MuseoSlabRegular, serif; font-size: 2.8rem; line-height: 31.920000076293945px; margin: 0px;">"Before I had the iPhone and iPad, people treated me like I had a disability. They talked about me, not to me." </span></blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
To prevent this, Meera has pre-written statements plugged into her speech-to-text app to help her introduce herself. She plays some for me with the simple tap of a button. One describes her harrowing time as a toddler on the streets of New Delhi. Another explains all the things she likes to do, like playing soccer and listening to music, in hopes of finding friends with common interests. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
The tactic isn't flawless, however. People of all ages still walk away from Meera out of impatience or frustration. But even though Meera has to type out every letter, word, and phrase, she says being able to assert her voice is worth it. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
"Before I had the iPhone and iPad, people treated me like I had a disability," Meera says. "They talked <em>about</em> me, not <em>to</em> me. They didn't really know me."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.75em;">
She smiles. It's the type of grin that travels up to her eyes, leaving them gleaming.</div>
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"Now," she adds, "I can tell them who I really am."</div>
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</section>Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-16009297683983775292017-05-10T10:53:00.000-04:002017-05-10T10:53:18.213-04:00How a Smart Home Empowers People with Disabilities<div style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #232323; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.01rem; margin-bottom: 1.125em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
Via http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-smart-home-empowers-people-disabilities-n756731</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.01rem;">Todd Stabelfeldt couldn't wait to marry his tall, beautiful, blonde wife Karen four years ago. But he was adamant that he didn't want her taking care of him. </span></div>
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"A spouse should be your spouse. Your lover and your friend. Not a free caregiver," said Stabelfeldt, 38. </div>
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Stabelfeldt is a complete quadriplegic with no movement below his shoulders, but he takes every opportunity he can to find independence — including in his marriage to Karen, 48. </div>
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<span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-play" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #969696; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 3px; text-rendering: auto;"></span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Smart Homes Are Game Changer for People With Disabilities</span> <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">3:59</span></div>
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"With being a husband and a dad, you just want to be able to provide and do what you can," said Stabelfeldt, who has two step sons, three dogs and one cat (he likes to remind his family that he'd rather they get rid of the latter). "Even though in certain areas, at least physically speaking, you can't really move much," he said. </div>
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Stabelfeldt's cousin accidentally shot him in the jaw when he was eight years old, severing his spinal cord. </div>
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"It's funny after 30 years, you still want to cry when you talk about getting shot," he said with a sigh. </div>
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But he doesn't spend time feeling sorry for himself. In fact, he spends most of his time running his IT consulting business from his home office, helping his wife around the house when she's not at work, and building his charity, the TSF Foundation, to help other people in wheelchairs. </div>
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And it's all thanks to new smart home and assistive technology like Apple's "HomeKit." </div>
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A Smarter Home </h3>
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While advances in personal technology continue at a rapid pace, at times their designers seem to forget about the population that could perhaps benefit from it the most. Stabelfeldt says just the ability to charge a phone with a wheelchair didn't even exist until a few years ago. </div>
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But features like Apple's "Home" app allow Stabelfeldt to control a variety of smart accessories in his house — from door locks and window shades, to lights and his garage door. The best part for Stabelfeldt? He can command Apple's intelligent digital assistant Siri to work it all. </div>
<figure class="img_full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #232323; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.125em;"><a class="js-lightbox lightbox_link" href="https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_19/1992941/smarthome_2_cdad72483a7bbab258063b9f54decabc.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #4372b8; cursor: zoom-in; display: block; position: relative; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="img-responsive img_inline" src="https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_19/1992941/smarthome_2_cdad72483a7bbab258063b9f54decabc.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 391px;" title="" /></a><div class="js-caption_wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;">
<figcaption class="img-caption img-caption_default no-margin-bottom" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #595959; font-size: 0.79012em; line-height: 1.42383; margin-bottom: 0px !important; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0.47461em;"><span class="img-caption_txt" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 3px;">Todd Stabelfeldt is a quadriplegic with no movement below his shoulders, but he takes every opportunity he can to find independence — including in his marriage to Karen, 48.</span> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-camera" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #969696; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 3px; text-rendering: auto;"></span>Chiara Sottile</figcaption></div>
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"I use voice recognition on my iPhone, pretty much every day all day," he said, noting he sends more than 100 texts a day and averages a phone call every six minutes. </div>
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Using external switches and voice command, Stabelfeldt can navigate his phone and control his smart home from his wheelchair. </div>
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Apple's "Switch Control" allows Stabelfeldt and people with limited mobility to navigate sequentially through items on a device's screen using Bluetooth-enabled switch hardware — controllable by the mouth, for example. "Between Siri and Switch Control, I can use my phone just as good as anyone with 10 working fingers and hands," he said. </div>
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A Game Changer </h3>
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"We put a lot of time and effort into making sure our products are as accessible as possible for all users," said Apple's Sarah Herrlinger. She has worked at Apple for nearly 14 years and is their Senior Manager of accessibility policy and initiatives. </div>
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"For some people, doing something like turning on your lights or opening a blind or changing your thermostat might be seen as a convenience, but for others, that represents empowerment, and independence, and dignity," she told NBC News. </div>
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Stabelfeldt calls this technology a game changer: "I never thought I'd have the opportunity to be in love. To be married. To have children. To have dogs." </div>
<figure class="img_full" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: #232323; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.125em;"><a class="js-lightbox lightbox_link" href="https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_19/1992946/smarthome_4_e3901fe67eb1baae68cfaf3a5b11239d.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #4372b8; cursor: zoom-in; display: block; position: relative; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="img-responsive img_inline" src="https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_19/1992946/smarthome_4_e3901fe67eb1baae68cfaf3a5b11239d.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 391px;" title="" /></a><div class="js-caption_wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit;">
<figcaption class="img-caption img-caption_default no-margin-bottom" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #595959; font-size: 0.79012em; line-height: 1.42383; margin-bottom: 0px !important; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0.47461em;"><span class="img-caption_txt" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 3px;">"You can be who you want to be. This technology just allows you to be you in your story. And that's pretty awesome," said quadriplegic Todd Stabelfeldt. </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-camera" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #969696; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 3px; text-rendering: auto;"></span>Chiara Sottile</figcaption></div>
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Todd can use his iPhone to select different accessories in various rooms in his very smart home, which he calls the "Quadthedral" in his typical wry humor. He can even create customized "scenes" to trigger a sequence of connected devices to perform a task in tandem. </div>
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"Hey Siri, arriving home," said Stabelfeldt, on a recent trip home from a ferry ride. "Home sweet automated home," cooed the familiar voice of Siri — perched next to the wheelchair's control screen. And with that, he can disarm his home's security alarm, open the garage door, and turn on lights. </div>
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Stabelfeldt monitors his home security, can let a delivery person in or out, or open the door on demand. </div>
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"When I'm cooking, I don't have to stop and do those functions. He can facilitate and do those," said wife Karen. "Technology has completely changed how Todd can operate and where he can function." </div>
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"You can be an employer or an employee. You can be who you want to be and this technology just allows you to be you in your story. And that's pretty awesome," said Stabelfeldt. </div>
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An Independent Love </h3>
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But it makes a difference in what might be considered small gestures, too. </div>
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Before he could navigate his iPhone with voice control and Siri, it was Stabelfeldt's caregiver who used to receive his calls and text messages — even affectionate messages from Karen. The caregiver would then relay them to Todd. </div>
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"We weren't in this romance just with us. We were sharing our romance with other people," he recalled. </div>
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Now, the Stabelfeldts relish how they can take care of each other, with help from technology. </div>
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<figcaption class="img-caption img-caption_default no-margin-bottom" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #595959; font-size: 0.79012em; line-height: 1.42383; margin-bottom: 0px !important; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0.47461em;"><span class="img-caption_txt" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 3px;">Todd and Karen Stabelfeldt</span> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-camera" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #969696; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1; margin-right: 3px; text-rendering: auto;"></span>Chiara Sottile</figcaption></div>
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"[It] makes my heart swell, you know... there's just a certain sweetness that comes with being cared for," said Karen, leaning in towards her husband. "We appreciate each others' strengths. You know, we don't both have to be strong in the same area." </div>
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Stabelfeldt says he is optimistic that the technology will continue to improve, adding more and more accessories to the devices he can connect into his smart home setup. He says he wishes all his smart accessories could be controlled with one app, since they can't all currently fall under the umbrella of Apple's Home app. </div>
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"HomeKit and Switch Control and Siri have given me a lot of value and a lot of opportunities to demonstrate that I'm a quality man and I'm a man of integrity," Todd Stabelfeldt. "To get up every day and go to work: Everybody's valuable, everybody has worth, everybody should have the opportunity to demonstrate it."</div>
Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-70840655243087410852017-05-10T10:49:00.000-04:002017-05-10T10:49:21.637-04:00Augmented Ability: Assistive Tech Gets Smart<aside class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto-300, arial, sans-serif; overflow: auto; padding: 5px 0px 10px;"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.2; list-style: none; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px;">
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<span class="by-reviewer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Via http://www.pcmag.com/article/353544/augmented-ability-assistive-tech-gets-smart</span></span></div>
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<span class="by-reviewer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important;">BY </span><span class="reviewer hcard" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; float: none !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important;"><a class="url fn" href="http://www.pcmag.com/author-bio/michelle-donahue" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">MICHELLE DONAHUE</a></span></div>
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From Braille smartwatches to GPS-enabled shoes, intuitive, connected technology is changing the game for people with disabilities.<a class="facebookShare" data-shares="0" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; height: 30px; left: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; position: absolute; right: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: -9999px; top: 0px; width: 30px;" title="Share this Story on Facebook">F</a></div>
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When I walked into an Arlington, VA coffee shop to meet Candice Jordan, I felt the usual anxious vigilance I get when I'm looking for a person I've never met. People are usually great at producing obvious body-language signals that indicate they're also waiting for a stranger, but Candice wouldn't be looking for me: She'd be listening. She did display a few great cues, thankfully. A patient, doe-eyed Labrador retriever named Austria rested by her side, and a clutch of electronic gadgets were spread before her on the table.</div>
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Candice also had a Google Glass headset perched on the bridge her nose. It was this that I'd really come to talk to her about. After we exchanged pleasantries, she gave me a quick rundown on her recent life—one in which smart assistive technology is playing an increasingly important role. AI-enabled eyesight services, smart hearing aids, and other intuitive, connected technology is changing the game for people with disabilities.</div>
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Vision Quest</h2>
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Candice lost her sight entirely in college in 1998, at the age of 21, waking up blind one morning after months of declining vision because of worsening, inoperable cataracts. She worked with her university to complete her degree in psychology and then obtained a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling; she's been working for the District of Columbia government's Rehabilitation Services Administration since 2007. <o:p style="box-sizing: border-box;"></o:p></div>
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So why <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/352856/fast-forward-thad-starner-talks-google-glass-helping-dogs" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google Glass</a>? Candice uses them with <a href="https://aira.io/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Aira</a>, a new service she subscribes to<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto-700, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.17rem; line-height: 2rem;">:</span> It connects her with a human agent who uses video feed from the headset or a phone's camera to describe her environment for her and help navigate her through it. The agent also has access to a dashboard of data about her preferences, multiple maps, and information about her physical location. Aira can tell her as much or as little as she wants to know about her surroundings.</div>
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Suman Kanuganti, CEO and founder of Aira, said his concept arose from a time he was on a phone-camera video call with a visually impaired friend. He asked his friend to hold his phone camera up, facing outward from his head, and then proceeded to describe what he saw in the friend's kitchen to him. On subsequent calls, they performed the exercise outdoors using a Google Glass headset Kanuganti had acquired.</div>
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"I was walking with him as I sat in San Diego, and I realized, I can pull up maps and other information for him while he's moving," Kanuganti said. "He said, Suman, what we're doing is for fun, but there are millions of blind people for whom a service like this would be life-changing."</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10pt;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Candice Jordan navigates around an outdoor mall with the help of Aira (photo: Michelle Z. Donahue)</em></span></div>
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Candice handed me her Google Glass and phone and told me to have at it. I really wasn't sure where to start, but the agent she connected with that day, Patrick, took the lead.</div>
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He described the store, telling me where I could find the ordering counter and a shelf of mugs and providing some details about what was on the walls and who was immediately nearby. We then made our way to the exit (the door swung outward, Patrick noted). Then we were in a bright courtyard ringed by shops, where Patrick told us it was 49 degrees and sunny.</div>
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As Austria nosed into the vestibule of a Thai restaurant, Patrick mentioned we could also opt for sushi, grilled chicken, Lebanese, shoes, or discount designer clothes. Candice asked what other stores were around; when he mentioned a housewares outlet, she asked him to direct us there so she could look for a stovetop griddle.</div>
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Armed again with her headset and phone, Candice followed the ensuing left-right- straight-ahead directions, avoiding obstacles with Austria's help and alerts from Patrick. She stepped gingerly down into a curb cut when Patrick told her it was there; as we waited at a crosswalk, he had her scan left and right so he could look for oncoming vehicles. All clear.</div>
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In the store, she switched to using her phone's camera when the Wi-Fi connection fizzled, causing Patrick's video feed to freeze. The highlight of our day, Candice said, was the moment when a store clerk stopped by and asked if she needed any help.</div>
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"I love being able to say, 'No, I've got it, thanks!' when people ask me that now," Candice said. "Before, any time I needed anything in a store, I'd have to find customer service, wait for them to bring someone to help me, then have them go through my list. And because you need help, so often you have to be nice, and kind of market yourself, and educate them. Well, if it's Saturday at 7 a.m. and it's the only time I have to go to the grocery store, who wants to do all that? Now I don't need to."</div>
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Tech Enablement</h2>
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According to a 2010 report from the <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/miscellaneous/cb12-134.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">U.S. Census, </a>more than 56 million people, or nearly 20 percent of the nation's population, are living with a physical or cognitive impairment of some kind. Aira is just one example of an emerging segment of smart technology that's being designed specifically with this population in mind. The ability to connect to myriad streams of data, whether through a new piece of hardware or software and apps for devices, is playing heavily into how these products and applications are being developed, with the goal of helping people lead more independent, inclusive, and fulfilling lives.</div>
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The array of available solutions is dizzying. <a href="http://www.lechal.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lechal</a>, which started as a navigation aid for the visually impaired, has developed GPS-connected shoes with haptics feedback: They buzz to help you navigate as you walk. New Jersey-based <a href="https://www.oticon.com/support/how-to/ifttt" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span lang="IT" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Oticon</span></a> makes a set of smart hearing aids that can be programmed to prompt other devices in your home to perform a cascade of tasks according to your proximity or time of day—automatically closing the garage door, locking the house, and turning the thermostat down when you leave for work, for example.</div>
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In Europe, <a href="https://www.speechcode.eu/%23!/product/feature" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SpeechCode</a> created a system to produce highly detailed QR codes that can be included on packaging, signage, or any other printed material. When scanned by the user via an app (which helps locate and center the code), the text from the package or sign encoded in the code is translated to an audio file available in 40 different languages. And <a href="https://dimple.io/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dimple</a>, a programmable stick-on button for Android devices, uses near-field communication (NFC) to launch apps, phone settings, and even control other smart home appliances at a touch.</div>
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Myriad other devices exist to help individuals adapt to their particular disability. As illustration, a single adaptive-tech loan program at <a href="http://www.easterseals.com/ma/our-programs/assistive-technology/loan-programs.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Easter Seals of Massachusetts' Assistive Technology </a>Regional Center holds 1,200 devices for people to borrow and test out. High-tech options include <i style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">eyegaze</i> devices (these help you to access a computer or communication aid by controlling a mouse with your eyes), text-to-speech machines, and smartwatch-like wristbands that relay mobile phone messages. The overall concept is to enable people with disabilities to automate aspects of their lives that are otherwise cumbersome, as well as to make information more easily accessible.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10pt;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Easter Seals of Massachussetts' Assistive Technology Regional Center</em></span></div>
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"This idea of having connected devices in your home, a smart home, really is a boon to people with all kinds of disabilities," said Henry Claypool, executive vice president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, and director of policy for University of California San Francisco's Community Living Policy Center. "Greater independence, a better quality of life, and integration and inclusion—those are hallmarks of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Connected devices have tremendous potential to enable people to live as part of a community, instead of having to move to a more restricted environment where everything is brought to them."</div>
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It's a robust topic of academic research and development, as well. At the Rochester Institute of Technology, Professor <a href="http://huenerfauth.ist.rit.edu/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Matt Huenerfauth</a> is working on developing tools such as an American Sign Language (ASL) trainer using a Microsoft Xbox Kinect camera. The system uses animations of common ASL gestures to "spellcheck" a learner's signs: the user can copy the animation's movements, and because the program can "see" the user's movements via the Kinect camera, the software can flag or help the user correct errors in their signing. Huenerfauth is also investigating how speech-recognition technology could be used to produce captions automatically for one-on-one or small-group meetings between deaf and hearing participants.</div>
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And at the Georgia Tech Institute for People and Technology, Executive Director <a href="http://ipat.gatech.edu/ipat-executive-director-beth-mynatt-discusses-disruptive-technologies-and-trends-ict4d-nethope" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Beth Mynatt recently spoke</a> of research underway that uses sensing of the brain's motor cortex to recognize the formation of individual words and phrases and translate them into machine-generated speech or text. This idea, too, emerged out of work with ASL. While researching how to read and translate brain signals, the team realized that the signal generated by a person physically signing an ASL letter or word was the same as when he or she thought about signing the letter.</div>
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But as promising and as useful as recent innovations have been, they need to be more reliable, easier to use, and there for the long haul.</div>
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"It's tough to get individuals with disabilities to be the primary or initial adopters of some of these technologies, because if it fails, there are real consequences," said Eric Oddleifson, assistant vice president of Assistive Technology and Employment Services at Easter Seals of Massachusetts. "Many times, people will opt for something they know will work rather than try something new that may not work in the long term."</div>
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Informing Design, Connecting Solutions</h2>
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One obstacle to adoption is the piecemeal nature of current solutions. There are lots of gadgets and apps out there that can communicate with your phone to relay information, or keep track of personal preferences, or automate your home. So maybe you have haptic shoes, if-this-then-that hearing aids, a smart thermostat, an Amazon Echo, and a dozen Wi-Fi-enabled LED light bulbs. And each one of them has its own app. At what point does managing all these solutions become more of an obstacle than the problem they're meant to solve? Intelligent platforms that can integrate a mix of products and user interfaces into a single, easily accessible ecosystem are still largely lacking.</div>
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Scott Moody is CEO of K4Connect, which has developed a smart-device ecosystem platform for people living with disabilities, called the <a href="https://www.k4connect.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">K4Community</a>, which can be used with nearly any connected device on the market across a variety of communications protocols.</div>
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"Products are often designed for one demographic—say, millennials—and then an often-feeble attempt is made to adapt them," he told me. "Each device and application is developed to solve a specific issue, but it can get to the point where one needs to have tens of apps or devices just to move around their living room. All these applications and devices need to work together—not just your home-automation products but your health, wellness, content, and communication devices, as well."</div>
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To Moody's point about product design, often the needs of the disabled aren't considered up front at all, even if the technology could, at its core, solve a key need.</div>
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<a class="inline-image full-width" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit;"><img alt="Smart Assistive Tech" border="0" class="center" src="https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/541579-kr-liu-director-of-advocacy-and-accessibility-at-doppler-labs-photo-courtesy-of-kr-liu.jpg?thumb=y&width=740&height=494" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10pt;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">KR Liu (photo: courtesy KR Liu)</em></span></div>
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"Generally, a couple of big companies have been doing better about being pioneers in trying to make their products more accessible," said KR Liu, the head of sales and marketing strategy for Doppler Labs. "It's just in the last few years that the tech industry has started to think about how it can be more inclusive, not only within companies but in design for consumers."</div>
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Lui suffers from severe hearing loss herself; she needs to use high-powered hearing aids instead of her company's sound-enhancing <a href="https://hereplus.me/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Here One earbuds</a>. These wireless headphones can use GPS and location information to automatically shift volume and filter settings, depending on whether the user is indoors, outdoors, at a concert or in a library. Though it was initially conceived of as a "music curation" tool for users to customize live-music events, Liu's presence on the team from very early on in the design process helped shape the earbuds into a product that could address multiple needs.</div>
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"I was involved in helping them navigate what it would take to have our technology reach a consumer like myself," Liu said. When the Here One earbuds were unveiled, the company received thousands of inquiries about whether the product could be used as assistive hearing devices.</div>
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"There are consumers who need a little help in loud restaurants or an open office but don't need a $5,000 hearing aid," she said, some of whom may also have been drawn by the idea of having a listening booster without the stigma of a full-blown hearing aid.</div>
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<a class="inline-image full-width" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit;"><img alt="Smart Assistive Tech" border="0" class="center" src="https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/541583-here-one-photo-courtesy-doppler-labs.jpg?thumb=y&width=740&height=493" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10pt;">Hear One earbuds (photo courtesy Doppler Labs)</span></em></div>
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"You'll get better, focused products by having someone with a disability involved in the design process," Oddleifson said. "We have many clients who are involved with Harvard and MIT in creating new kinds of assistive technology, and their involvement is a crucial step. Wouldn't it be nice if the big companies all had a person on their team, maybe with a disability, who could inform some of those design decisions?"</div>
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That idea was a key tenet in the development process of a <a href="https://dotincorp.com/shop/product/dot-watch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Braille smartwatch</a>, and eventually, a Braille tablet, by the South Korean company Dot. One of Dot's front-office workers is a blind individual who is active in the local vision-impaired community. He also served as Dot's first line of testing for prototype tweaks, said Alex Lee, a company representative.</div>
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"We go straight to him when there's something new," Lee said. "We say, 'What do you think about this function? How would you change this?'" He has also brought friends and others from his mostly online community into Dot's offices for beta testing and periodic chats with the engineers.</div>
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Backed by a successful crowdfunding campaign and with the first units shipped in April, the low-profile Dot watch features four Braille characters, which are driven by magnetically controlled pins. Connected via Bluetooth to a user's phone, the watch face can scroll through text messages, e-mails, and other short missives. And, of course, it tells time—but without the need for Siri to shout it out in a quiet room.</div>
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<a class="inline-image full-width" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit;"><img alt="Smart Assistive Tech" border="0" class="center" src="https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/541582-the-dot-watch-next-to-a-phone-displaying-the-dot-app-on-a-white-background.jpg?thumb=y&width=740&height=430" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></a></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 8pt;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10pt;">The Dot watch next to a phone displaying the Dot app.</span></em></span></div>
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Its appearance as an accessory was also important, Lee said, because the company felt adaptive devices shouldn't reflexively be clunky. Aira's Kanuganti agreed, saying his company was in the process of developing a headset where style doesn't take a backseat. He noted that the Aira service is agnostic, though, intended to work with any hardware the user chooses to use.</div>
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"Think about how much these phone companies worry about the design of their handsets, but how often it's actually just sitting in your pocket," Kanuganti said. "But glasses—they're on your face, and they'd better be cool." Think Tom Ford frames but packing a quality camera, antennas, GPS, and proximity and altimeter sensors.</div>
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Taking a Walk</h2>
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Eventually, Aira may be able to do even more for Candice that won't require her to talk to agents. "Aira" is a portmanteau of the term AI (artificial intelligence) and the name of the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra, and the company eventually intends to use artificial intelligence to generate and communicate information to its subscribers based on their most common habits, routes, and routines. The goal is to draw upon <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/04/using-artificial-intelligence-to-help-blind-people-see-facebook/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #e20309; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">image recognition technologies</a>, information from previous conversations with agents, street and satellite maps, GPS, and physical location to augment and occasionally replace what a human agent relays to the Aira user.</div>
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"We're looking to leverage existing systems to do the work," Kanuganti said. "You categorize individual tasks, then push your training system to automate those things."</div>
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For now, though, Candice is still chatting with Patrick and the other agents. And beyond what she describes as the "absolute freedom" that Aira has afforded her over the previous six months, she wasn't expecting for it to restore one aspect of making her way through the world: just enjoying a walk, with no particular purpose or destination.</div>
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When she met Kanuganti last fall on the National Mall in Washington to try Aira, the agent she connected with guided her from a subway entrance to one of the Smithsonian museums. And instead of just receiving directions, she asked what the agent could see: orange and red leaves falling from the trees. A trash can to her left. A person walking toward her with a stroller and a baby dressed in pink.</div>
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"For the very first time, in I don't know how long, I felt like I was talking a walk in the city that I live in and love," Candice said. "It was a <i style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">walk.</i> Not just the task of getting safely from point A to point B. I wanted to scream with happiness."</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-28284198736460495612017-03-22T15:46:00.000-04:002017-03-22T15:46:14.921-04:00Elderly And Disabled Assistive Technology Market To Surpass $26 Billion By 2024<div style="-webkit-margin-after: 0px; -webkit-margin-before: 0px; -webkit-padding-start: 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17.600000381469727px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. 70 million people need a wheelchair. Another 360 million people globally have moderate to profound hearing loss. Globally, more than 1 billion people need one or more assistive products.</div>
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The global elderly and disabled assistive devices market was valued at $14 billion in 2015 and is expected to surpass $26 billion by 2024, according to Coherent Market Insights. It is a sizable market with an incredibly diverse set of needs. Many products have to be customized which is why 3D printing is an ideal way to study and solve some of it.</div>
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Photo from MatterHackers Envision the Future Design Challeng</div>
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<a href="http://www.matterhackers.com/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">MatterHackers</a>, one of the largest 3D printing retailers in the U.S., wants to put a big dent in those numbers by encouraging inspiring, low-cost or free, assistive device models that people can 3D print or build from some other material. Officially, the “Envision The Future Design Challenge” is to create educational tactile models and assistive devices for the blind and visually impaired.</div>
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WHO defines assistive technology as any product that helps maintain or improve an individual function. Hearing aids, wheelchairs, eyeglasses, prostheses, pill organizers, and memory aids are all examples of assistive devices or products. You do not have to go far in 3D printing circles to find solutions or at least potential ideas to solve these sorts of problems or issues -- and I have written about many of them -- from custom insoles (orthotics) to hearing aids to haptic feedback in a glove (one of my very first posts over 5 years ago).</div>
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With an aging global population and a rise in noncommunicable diseases, more than 2 billion people will need at least 1 assistive product by 2050, with many older people needing 2 or more, according to a WHO assistive device fact sheet.</div>
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With an aging global population and a rise in noncommunicable diseases, more than 2 billion people will need at least 1 assistive product by 2050, with many older people needing 2 or more, according to a WHO assistive device fact sheet.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the more famous assistive device designs, not part of the MatterHackers design challenge, comes from the e-NABLE Community: </span>the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEx5lmbCKtY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">“Iron Man” video</a> tells the story of Robert Downey Jr. giving an Ironman prosthetic hand to a child. Awesome video. That design was developed by the UCF Armory (University of Central Florida), led by Albert Manero, the Limbitless Arm was e-NABLE’s first myoelectric design. The Limbitless Arm is licensed under the Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial license. Success stories like these inspire more people to realize how accessible 3D technology is making incremental and exponential improvements possible -- that you might have an idea that could change the world for you or someone else.</div>
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Given that so many people have a need for assistive devices and products across a wide range; 3D printing is one of the best ways to approach the problems. If you look at an organization like Enabling The Future, that crowdsources the making of 3D printable prosthetic hands, a design challenge can provide new ideas and solutions that might not otherwise make it to market. Plus, it spreads the word and inspires more people, design-minded people, to consider how they might approach this massive market need and opportunity.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Briefly, because everyone wants to know about prizes when there's a challenge like the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Envision The Future Design Challenge, </em>there are</span> two categories: Youth (under 18) and Adults (18 and over). Each category will have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners with prizes sponsored by LulzBot and MatterHackers. Youth grand prize is a Lulzbot Mini 3D Printer (don’t let the name fool you; it is a decent size printer). Adult grand prize is a Lulzbot TAZ 6 (larger print area than the Mini). Both grand prize categories also come with a MatterControl Touch T10 - 10.6" Standalone 3D Printer Controller – basically a tablet you can use to run a printer without needing a full computer. The challenge runs from March 20<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, </span>2017 through May 8, 2017 and the full details are <a href="http://www.matterhackers.com/envisionthefuture" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/assistive-technology/en/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">WHO fact sheet on Assistive Technology</a></div>
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Coherent Market Insights produced the Elderly and Disabled Assistive Devices - Evolving from Luxury to Necessity report; a summary is available <a href="https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/elderly-and-disabled-assistive-devices-market-82" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-52838947064532748922017-03-16T15:56:00.000-04:002017-03-16T15:56:20.910-04:00The Entrepreneur with the $100 Million Plan to Link Brains to Computers<div class="l-article-topper l-article-topper--vertical" data-topper-layout="vertical" data-topper-type="standard" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; align-items: stretch; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 15px 0px 30px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a class="entry__term" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/topic/rewriting-life/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rewriting Life</a></h1>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Via MIT Tech Review</span></h2>
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https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603771/the-entrepreneur-with-the-100-million-plan-to-link-brains-to-computers/</div>
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Tech big shots are charging into neuroscience, but do they even have a clue?</div>
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<span class="dropcap" data-accent-style="background-color" style="background-color: black; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: block; float: left; font-family: NeueHaas, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1; margin: 6px 13px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 23px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 80px;">E</span>ntrepreneur Bryan Johnson says he wanted to become very rich in order to do something great for humankind.</div>
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Last year Johnson, founder of the online payments company Braintree, starting making news when he threw $100 million behind Kernel, a startup he founded to enhance human intelligence by developing brain implants capable of linking people’s thoughts to computers.</div>
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Johnson isn’t alone in believing that “neurotechnology” could be the next big thing. To many in Silicon Valley, the brain looks like an unconquered frontier whose importance dwarfs any achievement made in computing or the Web.</div>
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According to neuroscientists, several figures from the tech sector are currently scouring labs across the U.S. for technology that might fuse human and artificial intelligence. In addition to Johnson, Elon Musk has been teasing a project called “neural lace,” which he said at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrGPuUQsDjo" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a 2016 conference</a> will lead to “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/739006012749799424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">symbiosis with machines</a>.” And Mark Zuckerberg declared in a 2015 Q&A that people will one day be able to share “full sensory and emotional experiences,” not just photos. Facebook has been hiring neuroscientists for an undisclosed project at Building 8, its secretive hardware division.</div>
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As these people see it, computing keeps achieving new heights, but our ability to interface with silicon is stuck in the keyboard era. Even when speaking to a computer program like Alexa or Siri, you can convey at most about <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/105474698565893?journalCode=pres#.WMgE2zvyuUk" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">40 bits per second of information</a> and only for short bursts. Compare that to data transfer records of a trillion bits per second along a fiber-optic cable.</div>
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“Ridiculously slow,” Musk complained.</div>
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But it turns out that connecting to the brain isn’t so easy. Six months after launching Kernel amid a media blitz, Johnson says he’s dropped his initial plans for a “memory implant,” switched scientific advisors, hired a new team, and decided to instead invest in developing a more general-purpose technology for recording and stimulating the brain using electrodes.</div>
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Johnson says the switch-up is part of trying something new. “If you look at the key contributing technologies of society, the ones with the most impact, like rockets, the Internet, biology—there was a transition point from academia to the private sector, and for the most part neuroscience hasn’t made that jump,” says Johnson. “The most critical element is timing, when is the right time to pursue this.”</div>
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After making a fortune selling Braintree to eBay <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303796404579098953724101442" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">for $800 million</a> in 2013, Johnson, now 39, reportedly sought the advice of nearly 200 people on how to invest his new wealth. He settled on neurotechnology and, last August, he announced he’d create Kernel and build the first neural prosthetic for human intelligence enhancement.</div>
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But Johnson’s business plan was extremely vague; one scientist called it “metaphysical.” Kernel’s website was plastered with book-jacket-like endorsements from scientific celebrities including J. Craig Venter and Tim O’Reilly, extolling his “great” and “serious” commitment to understanding human intelligence, not to mention the impressive $100 million he later promised to invest in Kernel.</div>
<figure class="l-article-img l-article-img--3col" data-widget-layout="3col" data-widget-type="imageset" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: right; color: #222222; float: right; font-family: NeueHaas, sans-serif; margin: 6px 0px 20px; max-width: 400px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 361.5px;"><picture style="box-sizing: border-box;"><source media="(min-width: 1024px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=280&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=560&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 850px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=1024&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=2048&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 550px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=850&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=1700&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 401px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=550&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=1100&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=401&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 1x,https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=802&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 2x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img class="article-img article-img--3col" src="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=280&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519" srcset="https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=280&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 1x, https://d267cvn3rvuq91.cloudfront.net/i/images/bryanjohnson2.jpg?sw=560&cx=0&cy=0&cw=1025&ch=1519 2x" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 341.5px;" /></picture><figcaption class="article-cap article-cap--3col" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">Bryan Johnson</figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: MillerText, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.63; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: -6px; max-width: 600px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The reality is that interfacing with the brain is tough: electronics irritate its tissue and stop working after a while, and no one will get brain surgery just in order to send an e-mail. What’s more, even if you can communicate with the brain, you might not know what it is saying.</div>
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“Billionaires entering the broader neurotechnology field are very optimistic and may overlook details of the problem, which is we are far away from meaningfully understanding the brain,” says Konrad Kording, a Northwestern University neuroscientist who has advised Johnson. “But neurotechnology allows you to work on the most interesting questions in the universe while potentially making money, and so that is exciting.”</div>
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Johnson’s persona is part buttoned-down Mormon missionary (he once was one), part hard-driving door-to-door credit-processing salesman (he was that too), but now, with his new wealth, he’s also taken on the mantle of a technology prophet. At a 2016 startup conference in Silicon Valley, he <a href="https://youtu.be/_Df4vQMCa3o?t=182" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">showed up</a> with his hair unbrushed, wearing a T-shirt with holes in it, and gave a wide-ranging lecture on human tool use from prehistory into the present, arguing that now “our very existence is programmable” through biology and machine interfaces.</div>
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Kernel’s original technology was a memory prosthesis, developed by Theodore Berger of the University of Southern California, who until recently was also the company’s chief scientific officer. Berger’s technology (see “<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/513681/memory-implants/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">10 Breakthrough Technologies: Memory Implants</a>”) is a way of recording memories of rats and monkeys, storing these patterns on a computer chip, and re-delivering them to the hippocampus. One version of the setup, Berger says, has been tested in a handful of human patients undergoing brain surgery for other reasons.</div>
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But a mere six months after starting Kernel, Berger is no longer part of the company, and memory implants are no longer part of Kernel’s near-term plans. Johnson and Berger both confirmed the separation.</div>
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Berger’s vision, according to several people, was too complex, too speculative, and too far from becoming a medical reality, while Johnson hoped to see a return on his investment sometime soon. “They have a new direction, but we’re still talking,” says Berger. “The basic reason is it was going to take too long. It’s one thing to think about this and quite another to do it.”</div>
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Johnson says he concluded that Berger’s work “is really interesting, but not an entry point” into a commercially viable business.</div>
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By last November, Johnson was already exploring a pivot for his company, meeting with Christian Wentz, head of a small Cambridge startup, Kendall Research Systems, that sells <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/426670/startup-makes-wireless-router-for-the-brain/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">equipment</a> for recording in the neurons of mice and other animals. The company spun out of the laboratory of Edward Boyden, a professor at MIT who invents new ways of analyzing brain tissue. </div>
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In February, Johnson acquired Wentz’s company (for an undisclosed sum) and with it brought in a new team, including Wentz and Adam Marblestone, a noted theorist of both the limitations and possibilities of brain interfaces, who will become chief scientific officer. Both are former Boyden lab members, as are two other Kernel scientists, Caroline Moore-Kochlacs and Jake Bernstein.</div>
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Johnson says Kernel will now develop a “generalized human electrophysiology platform”—that is, a flexible way of measuring the electrical impulses from many neurons at once, and stimulating them, too. The eventual objective is to use such electronics to treat major diseases, like depression or Alzheimer’s. “It’s for clinical use,” he says. “We are a for-profit company.” </div>
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Wentz says as part of the acquisition he and Johnson agreed that much more R&D on brain interfaces will probably be needed. “We have a very sober view of what can and can’t be done,” Wentz says. “We are not naïve.” He calls Kernel’s effort a “15-year endeavor,” although he adds that “we want to do in that period what has been done in the last 100 years.”</div>
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With the pivot, Johnson is effectively jumping on an opportunity created by the <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/513011/why-obamas-brain-mapping-project-matters/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Brain Initiative</a>, an Obama-era project which plowed money into new schemes for recording neurons. That influx of cash has spurred the formation of several other startups, including Paradromics and Cortera, also developing novel hardware for collecting brain signals. As part of the government brain project, the defense R&D agency DARPA says it is close to announcing $60 million in contracts under <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600686/government-seeks-high-fidelity-brain-computer-interface/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">a program to create a “high-fidelity” brain interface</a> able to simultaneously record from one million neurons (the current record is about 200) and stimulate 100,000 at a time.</div>
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“It’s time for neuroscience to graduate from academia to a general neuroscience platform,” says Johnson. With such a technology “a whole range of new applications—a lot of white space—would open up.”</div>
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Johnson declined to describe the specifics of Kernel’s technological approach to connecting with the brain, as did Boyden and Wentz. However, the team members have been working on well-identified problems. Wentz has been involved with developing electronics for high-speed reading of data emitted by wireless implants. Already, the flow of information that can be collected from a mouse’s brain in real time outruns what a laptop computer can handle. The team also needs a way to interface with the human brain. Boyden’s lab has worked on several concepts to do so, including needle-shaped probes with tiny electrodes etched onto their surface. Another idea is to record neural activity by threading tiny optical fibers through the brain’s capillaries, an idea roughly similar to Musk’s neural lace.</div>
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More sophisticated means of reading and writing to the brain are seen as potential ways to treat psychiatric disorders. Under a concept that Boyden calls “<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/420884/brain-coprocessors/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">brain coprocessors</a>,” it may be possible to create closed-loop systems that detect certain brain signals—say, those associated with depression—and shock the brain to reverse them. Some surgeons and doctors funded by <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/527561/military-funds-brain-computer-interfaces-to-control-feelings/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">another DARPA program</a> are in the early stages of determining whether serious mental conditions can be treated in this way (see “<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542176/a-shocking-way-to-fix-the-brain/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f90e1e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">A Shocking Way to Fix the Brain</a>”).</div>
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Boyden says Johnson’s $100 million makes a big difference to how he and his students view the entrepreneur’s goals. “A lot of neurotechnology has come and gone. But one thing is that it’s very expensive,” he says. “The inventing is expensive, the clinical work is expensive. It’s not easy. And here is someone putting money into the game.”</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-15273299979143273162017-03-15T12:51:00.000-04:002017-03-15T12:51:14.084-04:00Technology to Improve Seniors’ Lives<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Arial, Verdana, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: inherit; margin-top: 1.6em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
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Two concurrent trends—the shifting demographics toward an aging population and the emergence of dramatic new technologies—are converging to create an intensified focus on improving the quality of life for seniors.</div>
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“Outthink Aging,” a report from <a href="http://www.ibm.com/able/aging" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">IBM</a> and the <a href="https://www.cta.tech/CTA-Foundation.aspx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Consumer Technology Association Foundation</a> released in September 2016, outlines the challenges of meeting the needs of the aging population and addresses the potential for leveraging new technologies for seniors that will extend their independence while also helping them to better manage everyday activities and connect more meaningfully with loved ones.</div>
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The demographic trends driving this need are <a href="http://ageandability.com/2016/09/06/rethinking-how-technology-can-improve-the-quality-of-life-of-our-aging-population/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">global in nature</a> and will intensify in the coming decades. By 2050, according to United Nations statistics cited in the report, more than one out of five people will be age 60 and older.</div>
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“Technology does not replace the human element, but it’s a tool that will enable the growing aging demographic and caregivers to better our lives as we age,” says Steve Ewell, executive director of the CTA Foundation.</div>
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The Consumer Technology Association, which represents more than 2,000 technology companies, launched the foundation in 2012 to focus on how technology can help older adults and people with disabilities. Its partnership with IBM, announced in January 2016, is a major step forward in fulfilling that mission. “New partnerships between industry, non-profits, academia, government, and the general public will form to accomplish these goals,” Ewell reports.</div>
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Independence with Technology</h2>
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Research from <a href="http://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/archives/info-2014/age-friendly-communities.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">AARP</a> and others confirms that the vast majority of elders want to remain independent for as long as possible, and for many, this translates into a desire to remain in their homes. “Technology can be used to help people essentially augment their ability to age in place,” says Susann Keohane, Global Research Leader, Strategic Initiative on Aging at IBM.</div>
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From a caregiving perspective, technology allows caregivers to stay on top of their parent’s needs—for instance, with connected devices and ambient sensors that can help provide valuable information on how well someone is going about their day by monitoring changes in the environment around them.</div>
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“This is not meant as a replacement for human care,” Keohane stresses, “but as a means of providing more insightful information that will allow someone to better care for their loved one or their elder client.”</div>
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Technology also has the ability to identify signs that a transition to another type of living environment is warranted. “A lot of these major transitions that occur in life happen from an emotional standpoint—i.e., ‘Mom, I’m worried about you, you’re alone, what if something happens?” Keohane observes. “Technology allows you to get a more analytic view.”</div>
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Addressing Senior Concerns</h2>
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“Outthink Aging” defines four essential aspects reflecting the core desires of an aging population as they relate to living an independent life:</div>
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<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Connection: staying connected with family, friends and the community</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Security: protection against theft and financial fraud, while also having personal safety in the home</li>
<li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dignity and independence: which includes striking a balance between the desire for privacy and the need for support</li>
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As a means of addressing those four issues, one area that’s getting attention is the Internet of Things—or IoT—which is a collective term to describe devices that are able to send and receive data. As an example, Ewell cites devices in the home that can be used to control lighting, the thermostat, and security through phone, voice control or another type of interaction.</div>
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“One of the exciting things about these technologies is that the are not necessarily being designed to address aging specifically; they’re general consumer technologies that happen to have features that can create greater independence for someone who’s older or has a disability,” Ewell explains.</div>
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One benefit of cognitive technology is the ability to help individuals stay secure, Ewell explains. “For instance, if someone wakes up in the middle of the night and they are worried—‘Did I close the garage door or lock the front door?’—these devices can control or confirm that it’s taken care of.”</div>
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Such technology also can be helpful for caregivers who need affirmation that everything is all right in the loved one’s home. However, Ewell cautions, “It needs to be done with the right degree of privacy, so that it’s really a benefit to the older adult and not just a matter of keeping watch.”</div>
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Combined with cognitive computing, IoT also can be useful in an assisted living setting. To gain more insights into this, IBM and the Avamere Family of Companies recently announced a <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/51672.wss" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">six-month research study</a> that will apply the power of IBM cognitive computing to improving eldercare at Avamere’s senior living and health centers. By analyzing data streaming from sensors, Avamere hopes to identify risks and gain insights with the goal of minimizing hospital readmission rates.</div>
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An Intriguing Future</h2>
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As part of its continuing partnership, the CTA Foundation and IBM have undertaken a new joint initiative: <a href="https://www.cta.tech/News/Press-Releases/2017/January/CTA-Foundation,-IBM,-Local-Motors-Collaborate-on-H.aspx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">self-driving transportation</a>. Joining them in this endeavor is a third partner, Local Motors, which launched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K564rXrlZbc" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #329abf; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.7em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Olli</a> in 2016 as the world’s first cognitive self-driving vehicle powered by IBM Watson technology. The partners are working together to crowd-source new cognitive technology solutions to support this initiative.</div>
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Concerns about driverless safety and accessibility are already being addressed. “Many of the vehicles developed today have a wide array of built-in sensors that enable the vehicles to be aware of challenges from other vehicles on the road,” Ewell reports. “These advanced sensors, and the fast reaction times of the vehicles, allow self-driving vehicles to be more likely to identify and avoid potential issues than human drivers.”</div>
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For an elderly population, Ewell observes that there may be opportunities to change the driver role into one of a concierge or assistant who can help with passengers’ specific needs.</div>
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This is just one of many intriguing technologies that have potential for improving older people’s lives. As Keohane observes, the challenges of aging come primarily from a loss of ability over time. “Those of us who are working on these issues have an accessibility background. We know how to make technology work for people who have disabilities. In the case of elders whose abilities are changing, we can help them with technology that meets them where they’re at in life.”</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-85037553901402156042017-03-15T12:26:00.001-04:002017-03-15T12:26:28.473-04:00Meet the Aussie inventor whose watch reduces Parkinson’s tremors<br />
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Haiyan Zhang and Emma Lawton of 'Simon Reeve's Big Life Fix' pose with the Emma Watch. (SBS) </div>
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Haiyan Zhang talks about how she created the Emma Watch as part of 'Simon Reeve’s Big Life Fix'. </div>
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<span class="field-label" style="border: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By</span> <div class="field-value field-label-inline" style="border: 0px; display: inline !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Jenna Martin</div>
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<span class="content-created" style="border: 0px; color: #1b2024; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">13 MAR 2017 - 2:35 PM</span> UPDATED 14 MAR 2017 - 1:23 PM</div>
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In SBS’s <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Simon Reeve’s Big Life Fix</em>, designers and inventors work together to create ingenious solutions to everyday problems. The first episode features Australian inventor Haiyan Zhang, who changes the life of a young woman living with Parkinson’s disease with the Emma Watch.</div>
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We talked to Zhang about how she created the watch, the thrill of creating technology that actually helps people and what it’s like to be a woman and minority working in science…</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You’re currently a Director at Microsoft Research, Cambridge. Can you tell me a little more about what this involves? </strong></div>
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I lead a team inventing technologies for new kinds of play experiences called “Connected Play”. We’re exploring how to create magical experiences between kids, their toys and the digital world.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">You’re originally from Australia. How did you wind up at Cambridge? </strong></div>
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I left Melbourne in 2000, after finishing uni and working for a year as a software engineer. At first it was just to see the world and explore what was out there – 17 years later I’m still exploring. I’ve lived in Canada, Italy, San Francisco and have called the UK home for the last 9 years.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As a kid, were you always inventing things? Was it always your plan to go into the sciences? </strong></div>
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I did my undergraduate degree at Monash University studying Computer Science and it was just something I fell into as I’d always been into technology and computers. I worked as a software engineer for a few years and then wanted to expand my horizons into design and thinking about what products we <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">should</em> be creating. I did a Masters degree in Design in Italy, which covered everything from designing products and services to tinkering with electronics.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Is it difficult being a woman in the world of computer science? Are there moments when you feel like you don’t get the same opportunities and respect as your male colleagues?</strong></div>
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I’ve faced challenges both as a woman and an ethnic minority in the working world, I’ve also found those challenges shift slightly across continents. It’s not easy but in a 20-year career I’ve figured out how to just get on with things.</div>
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I remember in my high school years in Melbourne there was always an emphasis on the equality of genders in the workplace and it instilled in me a sense that I would be able to achieve anything and there would be no glass ceilings. I continue to operate with that mindset and I work very hard to draw attention to situations where that is not the case.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How do we encourage more women into a career in sciences? Is it about grants? Scholarships? </strong></div>
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It’s a combination of all those things. We need to encourage girls from a very young age that they can do anything and pursue any career. Discrimination and moments where someone is put off studying science comes in many forms and at different points when someone is growing up. We as a society, as parents, as siblings, really need to nurture the mindset that girls can do anything.</div>
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<div alt="haiyan zhang big life fix" class="media-element file-body-content" data-picture="" height="700" src="http://www.sbs.com.au/guide/sites/sbs.com.au.guide/files/styles/body_image/public/big_life_fix4_c_studio_lambert_all3media_international.jpg?itok=G7uo9aDF&mtime=1489376038" style="background-image: url(http://www.sbs.com.au/global/profiles/sbsdistribution/themes/global/images/bg-stripes.png); border: 1px solid rgb(216, 220, 220); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 40px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 700px;" title="Inventor Haiyan Zhang in 'Simon Reeve's Big Life Fix'." width="700">
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<img alt="haiyan zhang big life fix" src="http://www.sbs.com.au/guide/sites/sbs.com.au.guide/files/styles/body_image/public/big_life_fix4_c_studio_lambert_all3media_international.jpg?itok=G7uo9aDF&mtime=1489376038" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: auto;" title="Inventor Haiyan Zhang in 'Simon Reeve's Big Life Fix'." /></div>
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Inventor Haiyan Zhang in 'Simon Reeve's Big Life Fix'. </div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tell me about the Emma Watch. Can you explain in the most basic terms exactly how it works?</strong></div>
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The Emma Watch sends vibration signals through her wrist and the signals disrupt and dampen the errant tremor signaling going to her hands.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When you begin creating a product like that was it more research based or a case of trial and error? </strong></div>
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It was a combination of design and engineering. I did a great deal of research reading academic papers and medical journals on the topic. At the same time, I spoke with Emma and others with Parkinson’s to gain some insight into what specific challenges they faced and what ‘workaround’ solutions already existed, things like scissors that are easier to grip, a lid for your drinking glass with a straw so you don’t spill your wine.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What was the key to unlocking the science behind the watch? </strong></div>
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I’d filled my head with a number of research papers, looking at ways to stimulate the brain in order to disrupt the tremor signals, and Emma and I visited Parkinson’s UK to look at the products out there that people were using to actually support them in their day-to-day lives.</div>
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One thing lying at the end of the table was a little digital metronome, the kind that musicians use to keep time. I asked what it was for and was told that some people with Parkinson’s suffer from freezing gait which is when their legs freeze mid-stride and they can’t seem to control them to move. In these moments the person will take out the metronome and turn it on and somehow the ticking sound will distract their brain into gaining control of their legs again. This was really a fascinating insight into what’s happening when someone’s brain is misfiring as a result of Parkinson’s and got me to start thinking about distraction or brain hacking as an approach.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The look on your face when it actually works - when Emma writes her name - is just amazing…</strong></div>
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It’s really wonderful to see Emma use the device. I was totally blown away and continue to be awestruck every time I see her using it. I thought it would help but didn’t think it would work so well. It’s not often I get to see the impact of my work on a person and have that change the person’s life. It’s a really amazing opportunity… I feel very privileged.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What will happen with the product now? Are you planning to develop it further?</strong></div>
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I’m talking with a neurology research team in London to do some trials with more patients, in order to validate the effects of the device and to scope out what range of people it might help. I don’t want to venture into unknown territory, but we have hopes it might treat other neurological conditions.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What’s next for you? </strong></div>
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Shepherding further research on the Emma Watch. I also have a day job where we’re inventing some cool new technology that I’m trying to get out on to store shelves.</div>
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In general, just trying to make things in the world and have those things make a difference.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Simon Reeves Big Life Fix </em>airs Mondays at 8.30pm on SBS. </strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Missed the first episode? </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-size: 13.008px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Watch it right here:</strong></div>
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<img alt="Simon Reeve's Big Life Fix S1 Ep1" src="http://videocdn.sbs.com.au/u/video/SBS/managed/images/2017/03/09/886150723515_03090303_image150350_full.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-height: 396px; max-width: 704px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 698px;" title="Simon Reeve's Big Life Fix S1 Ep1" /></div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-17862224555454098992017-03-15T12:04:00.003-04:002017-03-15T12:04:47.354-04:00How to ensure future brain technologies will help and not harm society<br />
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We need a more informed public debate on neuroscience</div>
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Murali Doraiswamy, Professor, Duke University Health System</div>
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Hermann Garden, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development</div>
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David Winickoff, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development</div>
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Wednesday 1 March 2017</div>
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Thomas Edison, one of the great minds of the second industrial revolution, once said that “the chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.” Understanding the human brain – how it works, and how it is afflicted by diseases and disorders – is an important frontier in science and society today.</div>
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Advances in neuroscience and technology increasingly impact intellectual wellbeing, education, business, and social norms. Recent findings confirm the plasticity of the brain over the individual’s life. Imaging technologies and brain stimulation technologies are opening up totally new approaches in treating disease and potentially augmenting cognitive capacity. Unravelling the brain’s many secrets will have profound societal implications that require a closer “contract” between science and society.</div>
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Convergence across physical science, engineering, biological science, social science and humanities has boosted innovation in brain science and technological innovation. It offers large potential for a systems biology approach to unify heterogeneous data from “omics” tools, imaging technologies such as fMRI, and behavioural science. </div>
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Citizen science – the convergence between science and society – already proved successful in <a href="http://www.eyewire.org/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 224, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #005c9c; line-height: 1.125; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s ease-out;">EyeWire</a> where people competed to map the 1,000-neuron connectome of the mouse retina. Also, the use of nanoparticles as coating of implanted abiotic devices offers great potential to improve the immunologic acceptance of invasive diagnostics. Brain-inspired neuromorphic engineering aims to develop novel computer systems with brain-like characteristics, including low energy consumption, adequate fault tolerance, self-learning capabilities, and some sort of intelligence. Here, the convergence of nanotechnology with neuroscience could help building neuro-inspired computer chips; brain-machine interfaces and robots with artificial intelligence systems.</div>
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Future opportunities for cognitive enhancement for improved attentiveness, memory, decision making, and control through, for example, non-invasive brain stimulation and neural implants have raised, and shall continue to raise, profound ethical, legal, and social questions. What is societally acceptable and desirable, both now and in the future? </div>
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At <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.053" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.15s ease-out; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 224, 232); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #005c9c; line-height: 1.125; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.15s ease-out;">a recent OECD workshop</a>, we identified five possible systemic changes that could help speed up neurotechnology developments to meet pressing health challenges and societal needs.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.125;">1. Responsible research</span></div>
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There is growing interest in discussing and unpacking the ethical and societal aspects of brain science as the technologies and applications are developed. Much can be learned from other experiences in disruptive innovation. The international Human Genome Project (1990-2003), for example, was one of the earlier large-scale initiatives in which social scientists worked in parallel with the natural sciences in order to consider the ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) of their work. </div>
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The deliberation of ELSI and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in nanotechnologies is another example of how societies, in some jurisdictions, have approached R&D activities, and the role of the public in shaping, or at least informing, their trajectory. RRI knits together activities that previously seemed sporadic. According to Jack Stilgoe, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, the aim of responsible innovation is to connect the practice of research and innovation in the present to the futures that it promises. </div>
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Frameworks, such as ELSI and RRI should more actively engage patients and patient organisations early in the development cycle, and in a meaningful way. This could be achieved through continuous public platforms and policy discussion instead of traditional one-off public engagement and the deliberation of scientific advances and ELSI through culture and art. </div>
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Research funders – public agencies, private investors, foundations, as well as universities themselves – are particularly well positioned to shape trajectories of technology and society. Through their funding power, they have unique capacity to help place scientific work within social, ethical, and regulatory contexts. </div>
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It is an opportune time for funders to: 1) strengthen the array of approaches and mechanisms for building a robust and meaningful neurotechnology landscape that meaningfully engages human values and is informed by it; 2) discuss options to foster open and responsible innovation; and 3) better understand the opportunities and challenges for building joint initiatives in research and product development.</div>
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Society and industry would benefit from earlier, and more inclusive, discussions about the ethical, legal and social implications of how neurotechnologies are being developed and their entry onto the market. For example, the impact of neuromodulatory devices that promise to enhance cognition, alter mood, or improve physical performance on human dignity, privacy, and equitable access could be considered earlier in the research and development process.</div>
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Given the significant investment risks and high failure rates of clinical trials in central nervous systems disorders, companies could adopt more open innovation approaches in which public and private stakeholders actively collaborate, share assets including intellectual property, and invest together.</div>
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Popular media is full of colourful brain images used to illustrate stories about neuroscience. Unproven health claims, including those which give rise to so-called ‘neuro-hype’ and ‘neuro-myths’. Misinformation is a strong possibility where scientific work potentially carries major social implications (for example, work on mental illness, competency, intelligence, etc). </div>
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It has the potential to result in public mistrust and to undermine the formation of markets. There is a need for evidence-based policies and guidelines to help the responsible development and use of neurotechnology in medical practice and in over-the-counter products. Policymakers and regulators could lead the development of a clear path to translate neurotechnology discoveries into human health advantages that are commercially viable and sustainable.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.125;">5. Access and equity</span></div>
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Policymakers should discuss the socio-economic questions raised by neurotechnology. Rising disparities in access to often high-priced medical innovation require tailored solutions for poorer countries. The development of public-private partnerships and simplification of technology help access to innovation in resource-limited countries.</div>
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In addition to helping people with neurological and psychiatric disorders, the biggest cause of disability worldwide, neurotechnologies will shape every aspect of society in the future. A roadmap for guiding responsible research and innovation in neurotechnology may be transformative.</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-27355110216634112512017-03-14T11:27:00.001-04:002017-03-14T11:27:37.390-04:00Penn State Start-up giving voice to the voiceless in Centre County (PA) <h1 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 2.4em; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">
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Mary Elizabeth McCulloch, founder and CEO of Project Vive, and Trip Miller, CFO, demonstrate how their product, the Voz Box, works. The Voz Box uses small movements from the knee, wrist or finger of the user to construct full sentences." class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" height="402" src="http://d14e0irai0gcaa.cloudfront.net/www.lockhaven.com/images/2017/03/13212548/als-prize-4-life.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; height: 450px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: auto;" width="599" /></h1>
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PHOTO BY ALS Association and Prize4Life Mary Elizabeth McCulloch, founder and CEO of Project Vive, and Trip Miller, CFO, demonstrate how their product, the Voz Box, works. The Voz Box uses small movements from the knee, wrist or finger of the user to construct full sentences.</div>
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BELLEFONTE — Those who cannot speak can have their voice heard through biomedical speech devices, and one project in Centre County is making the option more affordable.</div>
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Project Vive, pronounced <span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">“vee-vay,”</span> which is Spanish for <span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">“to live,”</span> is one of the first startup businesses to graduate from Happy Valley LaunchBox and was created by a recent Penn State and Happy Valley LaunchBox graduate, Mary Elizabeth McCulloch, of Milesburg.</div>
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<span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">“Our mission is to make communication devices accessible to those who need them,”</span>McCulloch said when she gave a presentation on her project at a recent meeting of the Centre County Board of Commissioners. <span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">“We’re really interested in creating something that’s low cost, that you can actually buy without going through insurance claims.”</span></div>
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McCulloch is a 2016 Penn State biomedical engineering graduate and was in the first class of the Happy Valley LaunchBox startup business incubator located in downtown State College. She said at the Feb. 28 meeting that thanks to a crowdsourcing campaign, enough money — $13,600 to be exact — has been raised to fund 13 devices to help people overcome non-verbal communication barriers.</div>
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These communication barriers are often a result of cerebral palsy or other related disabilities. More than 3.4 million people in the world have a form of cerebral palsy that causes complex communication needs, McCulloch said.</div>
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After McCulloch graduated from Bald Eagle Area High School in 2010, she said she decided to do an exchange year. For that exchange year, she went to Ecuador and worked in a special needs orphanage with children and adults who had cerebral palsy, and could not speak.</div>
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<span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">“There was no assistive technology, no devices,”</span> McCulloch said.<span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">” We had some devices that were donated from the United States through different organizations, [but] they came with no instructions of how they worked; what happens when they break. I had a really sad story with a little number clicker device that if you typed the 1, it would say “</span>hello,<span class="quotations" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d0d0d; font-style: italic;">” and within a month of a boy using it — and he started to get really good at it — it broke.”</span></div>
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That experience led her on the path of biomedical engineering, and it was during her time at Penn State that she started working on the idea of a low-cost speech-generating device.</div>
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One thing makes Project Vive’s assistive technologies stand out from the competition is that they are much easier to use, McCulloch said. Some assistive technologies today use touch screens or keyboards with large icons, which makes them difficult to use for people who have limited control of their muscles, and they can require a lot of training to use. </div>
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All of the devices use movement to speech technology that uses a customizable menu-based system so that words and phrases can be pre-programmed, McCulloch said. The one device that Project Vive has created, the Voz Box, is connected to a glove that the user wears and is controlled by small movements from the knee, wrist or finger to construct full sentences, versus a keyboard, and uses a Bluetooth-linked speaker to amplify words. Other devices offered by Project Vive include eyeglasses for eye control, which allows the user to blink to convey what they want to communicate, a wearable elbow sensor that acts as a selection method for what the user wants to communicate when they raise their elbow, and a knee movement sensor that works when the user kicks or presses with their foot.</div>
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The cost is another big factor in what sets Project Vive’s assistive technologies apart. Other devices, such as ones that use LCD screens, can cost in the ballpark of $5,000, and eye-tracking devices can cost around $15,000, McCulloch said. The products Project Vive will offer will cost under $500.</div>
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According to Commissioner Mark Higgins, Project Vive is the type of startup business that the county would like to see flourish in one of its business incubators, such as the upcoming Bellefonte SpringBoard incubator. </div>
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Although the products are not on the market yet, McCulloch said she hopes they will be in six months.</div>
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For more information about Project Vive, visit www.projectvive.com.</div>
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</section>Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-74509664745089423192017-03-14T11:14:00.001-04:002017-03-14T11:14:43.249-04:00myTube – New educational website about tube feeding and MND launches<div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: none; padding: 0px; width: auto;">
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<img alt="myTube Website Screenshot" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-31797" data-id="31797" height="284" sizes="(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px" src="https://www.mndassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/mytube-website-screenshot.jpg" srcset="https://www.mndassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/mytube-website-screenshot.jpg 460x, https://www.mndassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/mytube-website-screenshot-300x185.jpg 300x" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; display: inline-block; font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 5px; vertical-align: middle;" title="myTube Website Screenshot" vspace="10" width="460" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">A new website has launched aimed at supporting people who are thinking about getting a feeding tube fitted and people who would like advice about using one. </strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><a href="http://mytube.mymnd.org.uk/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f8810b; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">myTube</a></strong> has been made in collaboration with people living with MND who wanted a way to ‘meet’ people and see their feeding tubes in use. Hearing their experiences can help you to make your own choice about whether to have a feeding tube fitted or not.</div>
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The website also gives an insight into what life can be like living with a tube through personal stories and videos. The videos are supported by brief sections of text and a list of carefully selected resources from trusted organisations, such as our own range of <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><a href="https://www.mndassociation.org/life-with-mnd/publications-pabmnd/information-sheet-range/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #f8810b; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">information sheets</a></strong>.</div>
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Cathy Soreny (filmmaker and nurse) explains about the new project from SITraN came about:</div>
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Dr Chris McDermott’s research team at SITraN in Sheffield led a UK wide research study called ProGas to find out more about the pros and cons of feeding tubes in MND. The study involved clinical teams and researchers around the UK. One element of this study was interviewing people about how they felt about feeding tubes – first when they were deciding whether to have a tube or not, and then after they had had it fitted.</div>
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Many useful ideas and themes came to light, and the SITraN team wanted to make sure that this information could be turned into easy to access advice for anyone thinking about a feeding tube.</div>
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Chris approached my team and I to tackle this, as we had made the myNIV website a couple of years ago, where people could learn more about using non-invasive ventilation machines. For myTube we again worked with a group of people who were living with MND and their carers, so their ideas and voice would be at the heart of everything we did.</div>
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The whole project was a collaboration between these people, filmmakers, web designers and clinicians. myTube has been funded equally by the MND Association (the local South Yorkshire branch and National Office) and Sheffield-based Westfield Health Charitable Trust.</div>
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We are extremely proud of how this project has come together over the past year and much credit is due to the wonderful group of patients and carers who contributed so much – ideas, insight, honesty, creativity and humour! We would like to thank them all for making myTube a success – Marlene and Trevor Leigh, Terry and Rose Hobbs, Jason & Liz Liversidge, Michael Hickman, Dave Booker and Brian Jackson</div>
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VISIT THE WEBSITE AT http://mytube.mymnd.org.uk<br />
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-49084123270331886712017-03-13T13:22:00.000-04:002017-03-13T13:22:49.868-04:00'Voice banks' step in to keep chronically ill patients from falling silent<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Poynter Serif RE', Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">For thousands of Minnesotans with neurodegenerative diseases, losing one's ability to speak is one of the most devastating consequences.</span><br />
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Every so often, Robert White breaks into song and serenades his 13-year-old son Kieran with a tender Irish lullaby, “That Little Boy of Mine,” taught to him by his father.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px;">But the deep-throated voice that used to fill his family’s living room in West St. Paul now quivers and shakes. There are times when White, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a terminal disease that impairs his motor skills, can barely finish the chorus before his voice dips to a hoarsened whisper.</span></div>
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For White, and thousands of other Minnesotans afflicted with neurodegenerative diseases, losing one’s ability to speak is one of the most devastating consequences.</div>
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Now, however, researchers have found a way to preserve the unique essence of a human voice — in all its idiosyncratic nuance and power — for people with incurable and often debilitating illnesses.</div>
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Using new voice database technology, University of Minnesota speech pathologists can record people saying hundreds of sentences and phrases, break them down into phonetic units, and then reconstruct a personalized voice that can be used on a speech-generating device. The end result of this process, known as “voice banking,” is a voice that is nearly identical to the person’s original, healthy voice.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;">While the technology is still new, many people feel they are in a race against time to store their original voices before they become unrecognizable to their families and friends. Even the simple act of saying “I love you” can be too much of a strain for people in the later stages of ALS or other neurodegenerative illnesses.</span></div>
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Logan Eickhoff, background, was tearful as she watched her mother, Wendy, record sentences that will form a voice repository for when ALS takes Wendy’s speech away.</div>
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“This is about preserving a person’s essential dignity, rather than having to depend on a canned synthetic voice that many find dehumanizing,” said Dr. H. Timothy Bunnell, director of the speech-language laboratory in Wilmington, Del., that pioneered the voice-banking technology about a decade ago.</div>
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But the process of preserving a voice is an emotional one for families. It comes with the recognition that a loved one is dying, and that even a carefully reconstructed voice — built over a period of weeks or months — will never be an exact match to a person’s original speech. Even the most sophisticated audio technology cannot recapture the spontaneous emotion of someone who bursts into laughter, or the gentle timbre of a parent’s voice as they sing to a child, researchers say.</div>
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‘It’s bittersweet’</div>
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On a recent morning, Wendy Eickhoff, 49, struggled to contain her emotions as she began the arduous process of recording more than 1,600 preselected sentences at a speech laboratory tucked in a brick building on the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;">Last October, Eickhoff was diagnosed with a rare form of ALS known as bulbar onset, which first attacks the muscles that move the tongue, mouth and vocal cords. It was a particularly brutal diagnosis for Eickhoff, a self-described “talker” who works as a technology relationship manager at Wells Fargo. Slurred speech and weakened tongue muscles were among her first symptoms.</span></div>
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“It was devastating because I have always relished talking,” she said.</div>
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As Eickhoff rattled off sentences in a soundproof room, including lines from the “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “The Wizard of Oz,” her daughter Logan, 21, watched intensely through a window in an adjoining room. With a tinge of sadness, Logan expressed hope that voice banking would preserve the unique character of her mother’s speech, from her high-pitched laugh to the gentle way she called out “Good morning sunshine!” to her daughter each morning.</div>
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At one point, Logan broke down in tears after a speech pathologist calmly informed her that her mother’s recorded voice would survive her death and would always be available to the family.</div>
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“It’s difficult, really difficult,” said Logan, who is pursuing a degree in linguistics. “I don’t want to have to acknowledge that in the potentially near future that my mom won’t be able to speak. But I also feel lucky, because this means that even after she’s gone, I’ll be able to hear her voice. It’s bittersweet.”</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;">Those who have been through the process speak of it in glowing terms.</span></div>
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When Robert White finished recording the last of 1,610 sentences last month, after five grueling sessions, he threw up his hands in victory and handed out assorted chocolates to the speech-language pathologists and young students who helped him through the process.</div>
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“There is a real sense of accomplishment when you get to the end,” said his wife, Argerie White. “I mean, how wonderful would it be, if Bob ever loses his voice, that we can still hear him sing?”</div>
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Sophisticated technology</div>
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Until recently, people like the Whites and the Eickhoffs relied on interactive whiteboards or robotic synthesizers, similar to that used by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, to communicate with the world after illnesses had taken their speech. But voice-banking technology has become so sophisticated that it can now cull through thousands of phonetic syllables and sort them in a way that replicates the pattern of a person’s speech. The recording process emphasizes the repetition of vowels, because the medley of “ohs” and “ahs” are largely what make a person’s voice distinctive, researchers say.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;">While the technology is still being tested and enhanced, that has not dissuaded the regional chapter of the ALS Association from encouraging people with the disease to take advantage of the technology while their voices are still strong. The voice-banking service is now available at university speech clinics throughout the Upper Midwest, from Fargo to Duluth. The cost of creating a voice can run from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000, depending on the provider. In Minnesota and the Dakotas, the cost for those with ALS is covered by the regional ALS Association.</span></div>
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“It’s crazy-amazing how well this works,” said Rebecca Lulai, a clinical supervisor and speech-language pathologist at the University of Minnesota.</div>
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Pete Klinkhammer, who remembers the exact minute he was diagnosed with ALS (11:47 a.m. on June 14, 2013), was among the first to test voice-banking in Minnesota and is now an outspoken proponent. Klinkhammer, 54, a gregarious former social worker from Albertville and bulky ex-college football player, has a bellowing laugh and a penchant for off-color jokes and puns. The technology enables him to keep speaking through an iPad, often late in the evening, when his throat muscles cramp and his voice starts to slur.</div>
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During a recent visit with his 28-year-old daughter Chelsea, Klinkhammer pulled out his iPad and began tapping out a few of his favorite puns as his daughter watched with amusement.</div>
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“A guy just threw milk at me. How dairy!” he wrote, throwing his head back in laughter. The words “I love you, Chelsea,” came out of a small speaker attached to his iPad with virtually the same inflection as his regular voice.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;">“That is definitely your voice, Dad,” gushed Chelsea, hugging him.</span></div>
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“This illness can come to define you because it takes away so many outward physical aspects of your being,” Klinkhammer said. “But voice banking epitomizes the idea that this illness can’t take everything away, because it can’t take away your voice.”</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: small; letter-spacing: normal;">Via http://www.startribune.com/new-technology-helps-minnesotans-with-neurological-disorders-preserve-their-voices/415954614/</span></div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-36215928348214113162017-03-08T14:41:00.002-05:002017-03-08T14:41:56.272-05:00Older adults buddy up with Amazon’s Alexa<div id="topper" style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 40.0625px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 601px;">
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By <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/topics/journalists/elizabeth-o-brien" rel="author" style="background-position: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #648c94; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Elizabeth O'Brien</a></div>
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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/older-adults-buddy-up-with-amazons-alexa-2016-03-18<br />
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<cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;">Amazon</cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></cite><cite style="background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; bottom: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 10px; text-shadow: rgb(44, 47, 52) 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">When Willie Kate Friar wakes in the middle of the night, the octogenarian doesn’t have to turn on the lights or crane her neck to find out the time. She simply asks her digital assistant, who responds in a life-like voice.</span></cite></div>
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“I’ve found Alexa is like a companion,” Friar said of Amazon Echo’s new voice-controlled assistant, a black cylinder called Alexa.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">A Panama-based retiree who writes and lectures on cruise boats, Friar is recuperating from a recent fall and asks Alexa to play music during her physical therapy sessions. “The music lifts my spirits,” she said.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: opensans, sans-serif;">Widely introduced last summer, Amazon’s </span><span class="quote bgQuote up" data-bgformat="" data-channel="/quotes/zigman/63011/composite" style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: inline-block; font-family: opensans, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="qt-chip trackable" data-fancyid="XNASStockAMZN" data-track-mod="MW_story_quote" href="http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/amzn?mod=MW_story_quote" style="background-position: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3aa150; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AMZN, <span class="bgPercentChange" style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">+0.47%</span></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: opensans, sans-serif;"> new wireless speaker has won praise from tech gurus for its invisible technology that responds to spoken commands and questions. Voice commands can prompt Alexa to do everything from playing music to adding items to an Amazon shopping list to answering questions and giving weather, traffic and news updates. (Think of the device as a way to connect to the Internet by speaking instead of typing.)</span><br />
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The device is also gaining support among disabled adults and the elderly. Among the more than 30,000 customer reviews on the Amazon website are those from caregivers for wheelchair-bound relatives who love the control that Alexa gives them over their environment, and also from family members of older adults who enjoy Alexa’s companionship and help.</div>
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Alexa wasn’t designed for older adults, and experts say that might be part of its appeal with that demographic. The device avoids the bland aesthetic that has traditionally characterized assistive devices, which turns off consumers who don’t self-identify as old — that is, pretty much everyone. </div>
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“They were smart to make it look like a cylinder,” said Tony Gentry, an occupational therapist and director of the Assistive Technology for Cognition Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University. “People can project their own imagination onto it.”</div>
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<strong style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Promise</strong></div>
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Gentry recognizes Alexa’s promise to alleviate loneliness in older adults and plans to test the device with some of his elderly clients soon. Robots “don’t have to do much to provide a sense of companionship,” he said, noting how people are quick to anthropomorphize their Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners.</div>
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Among older adults, a sense of companionship can mean the difference between sickness and health. Research has shown how loneliness causes people to become physically ill. </div>
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Friar lives alone. She received her Alexa as a gift during a visit to the U.S. last Christmas. She brought the device back to Panama and connected it to WiFi herself. “People should recognize how easy it is to set up,” she said. </div>
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To set up Alexa, users need an electrical outlet and a Wifi connection. The latter can come from a desktop computer, smartphone or tablet. Friar owns an Amazon Fire smartphone, along with four computers, two tablets and two Kindle e-readers. She’s unusually connected for her age: only 30% of adults age 71 and over who are online own a smartphone, and of those just a tiny fraction use the phone intensively, according to Forrester Research, a market research firm.</div>
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Ron Grant, 63, owns a smartphone, and he’s eager to buy an Alexa, too. “It looks like it’d be fun and handy,” said Grant, of Moore, Okla. who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at age 55. For now, he’s holding off buying one, hoping Amazon will lower the device’s $179.99 price tag. </div>
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Grant enjoys listening to music and would welcome the ease of asking Alexa to play his favorite tunes. He sometimes has hand tremors and would also like a way to turn on the television and adjust the channels and volume without fumbling with the remote control. Alexa can be programed to turn the TV on and off.</div>
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<strong style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Limitations</strong></div>
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For those with dementia, Alexa can tell the date and time, as well as respond to questions whose answers might have slipped from memory, such as “When was Ronald Reagan president?”</div>
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Yet given the devastating progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, experts say Alexa’s usefulness can only last so long. The device will eventually become confusing and possibly anxiety-provoking as people forget how to use it. “The ability to say, ‘what is the traffic like?’ and ‘buy me some paper towels’ is valuable, but it’s a short window,” said Niles Frantz, a spokesman for the Alzheimer’s Association.</div>
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Another limitation when it comes to older adults is that Alexa cannot currently dial 9-1-1, a capability that online reviewers have requested. With that functionality, the device could replace on-call emergency buttons, which many older adults eschew. A spokeswoman for Amazon confirmed that Alexa cannot currently make calls and declined to say whether that functionality may be added. </div>
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Alexa does have an Ask My Buddy function to help users in an emergency. Developed by one of the third-party firms that Amazon has invited to create “skills” for Alexa, this function can send phone calls or text messages to up to five contacts. A user would say, “Alexa, ask my buddy Bob to send help” and Bob would get an alert to check in on his friend. </div>
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For her part, Friar would like Alexa to learn Spanish. An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed that Alexa speaks only English today but stressed that the device is “always getting smarter” as the company adds new functionality on a regular basis. </div>
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When Alexa can’t yet say “hola,” Friar enjoys showing the device off to her local friends: “I think Amazon should make a big effort to market it to older adults.”</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-15811550489124964272017-03-06T15:15:00.001-05:002017-03-06T15:15:07.971-05:00Brain-controlled Robots<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zd9WhJPa2Ok" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />
<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<br /> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0b5a1fdc-0259-11e7-aa5b-6bb07f5c8e12">https://www.ft.com/content/0b5a1fdc-0259-11e7-aa5b-6bb07f5c8e12</a><br /><br /> US researchers have taken a step toward telepathic communication from people to robots, by developing a mind-reading device that allows humans to correct a machine instantly with nothing more than brainwaves.<br /><br />
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The prototype brain-computer interface developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology enables a human observer to transmit an immediate error message to a robot, telling it to fix a mistake when it does something wrong.<br />
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Technology that allows humans to interact with robots intuitively through their thoughts could have a range of industrial and medical applications, from robotic limbs to self-driving vehicles.<br />
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“Imagine being able to instantaneously tell a robot to do a certain action, without needing to type a command, push a button or even say a word,” said Daniela Rus, director of MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “A streamlined approach like that would improve our abilities to supervise factory robots, driverless cars and other technologies we haven’t even invented yet.”<br />
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The MIT prototype uses an electroencephalography (EEG) cap to record the human brain activity.<br /><br />
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While it was designed to handle simple binary choice activities — in this case sorting objects into two categories — Professor Rus hopes that after further research it will enable people to interact with more complex robots.<br />
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Brain-computer interfaces are one of the hottest research fields in science.<br /><br />
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Other labs are developing them to let disabled people operate robotic limbs or to give communications ability to locked-in patients who are too paralysed even to blink their eyes.<br />
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The problem is that these systems generally need either an electronic implant or, when using an EEG, considerable training to get the computer to recognise the user’s brainwaves.<br /><br />
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The MIT team, working with Boston University neuroscientists, focused on brain signals called error-related potentials, or ErrPs, that the brain generates when it notices a mistake. They were able to detect a characteristic neural pattern from the observer’s brainwaves that was picked up within a 100th of a second by the team’s machine-learning algorithm.<br /><br />
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“As you watch the robot, all you have to do is mentally agree or disagree with what it is doing,” explains Professor Rus. “You don’t have to train yourself to think in a certain way. The machine adapts to you and not the other way around.”<br />
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The robot, called Baxter, recognised error signals from 12 volunteers who had no training or previous EEG experience. When the human observer saw Baxter moving to put an object into the wrong box, the brain signal came in time for the robot to correct its manoeuvre.<br /><br />
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As ErrP signals can be quite faint, the system can also pick up a stronger “secondary error” brain message if the robot has not corrected its mistake.<br />
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“Today’s robots aren’t great communicators . . . Think of the potential if they could read our thoughts,” said Prof Rus, who views the development as a coming age of what she calls “pervasive robotics”. The technology could enable passengers in self-driving cars to become effective “back-seat drivers”.<br />
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Wolfram Burgard, professor of computer science at Freiburg university, who was not involved in the project, said: “This work brings us closer to developing effective tools for brain-controlled robots and prostheses.<br /><br />
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Given how difficult it can be to translate human language into a meaningful signal for robots, work in this area could have a truly profound impact on the future of human-robot collaboration.”<br />
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The MIT team’s results will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Singapore in May. Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-45539098348363374522017-03-03T10:37:00.000-05:002017-03-03T10:37:23.067-05:00Engineers Bring Tech of the Future to Life<header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
<time class="entry-time" datetime="2017-03-02T12:00:00+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px;">March 2, 2017</time><span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">By</span><span style="font-size: 14px;"> </span><span class="entry-author" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px;"><a class="entry-author-link" href="https://collegian.com/author/lexi-elio/" itemprop="url" rel="author" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">Lexi Elio</a></span></h1>
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<span class="entry-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">While unusually warm winter weather brings campus to life, students sit huddled around computers beneath the engineering building. This dim basement lab houses some of Colorado State University’s most innovative student projects.</span></span></div>
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One group of these students is creating a brain-controlled wheelchair.</div>
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The endeavor is part of a senior design project, the engineering department’s capstone.</div>
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“Our vision [for the chair] is for people who don’t have arm motion or are paralyzed from the neck down,” Joel Kraft, electrical engineering senior, said. “It would be an assistive technology to gain mobility, which isn’t very common for people with those disabilities right now.”</div>
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Three major components make the chair’s design possible: a brain-measuring headset, small but powerful computer, and motor controller.</div>
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While the team meets each week to coordinate their progress, the three each work on one element throughout the week.</div>
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Computer engineering student veteran Jason Gardner works on the headset software. The <a href="https://www.emotiv.com/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #f57921; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Emotiv</a> headset translates practical commands, like move forward, into a technologically usable signal.</div>
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“You have to train it first so it can recognize what those brain commands mean with your specific brain wiring,” Kraft said. Users practice pushing and pulling a digital picture. The picture zooms in and out to reflect how accurately the headset is able to measure the user’s command.</div>
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That signal is then sent to a single-board computer called a <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #f57921; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Raspberry Pi</a>. Kraft is integrating this software with the headset and motor system.</div>
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The team originally designed to use the brainwear headset and computer in place of an electric wheelchair’s joystick. Since they weren’t able to reverse engineer how the joystick worked, they were left to start from scratch.</div>
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Electrical engineering senior Mengjia (Megan) Yi ensures the team’s motor controller effectively receives that signal. A motor controller amplifies a small signal, like from the computer, so the motors can carry out a large task, like moving the chair.</div>
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The concept for the brain-controlled wheelchair was conceived by the team’s advisor, <a href="https://www.engr.colostate.edu/~sudeep/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #f57921; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Sudeep Pasricha</a>.</div>
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All project ideas are originally created by faculty members. Engineering seniors then apply for projects and are matched based on skillset, team compatibility, and preference.</div>
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Each team provides advisors like Pasricha with weekly reports and early copies of all presentations and documents.</div>
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Pasricha wears many hats at CSU: he is a Monfort-endowed professor, Rockwell-Anderson-endowed chair of of computer engineering, director of the embedded-systems and high-performance computing lab, and a professor in both the department of electrical and computer engineering and computer science.</div>
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While his busy schedule contributes to a laissez-faire advising approach, he is always available should the team get stuck.</div>
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“The students have to figure out how to make it work,” Pasricha said. “I help them along the way, but I want [them] to gain from this whole process.”</div>
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Another skill the seniors practice is fundraising.</div>
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While the ECE contributes $600 of funding to each project, many groups need to pursue additional funding.</div>
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“One of our main problems was deciding if we were going to actually use a wheelchair,” Kraft said. “It’s really expensive to get a working one, but we were able to find a cheaper one on Cragislist.”</div>
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Kraft’s scholarship, the <a href="http://anschutzfamilyfoundation.org/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #f57921; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Anshutz Family Foundation</a>, and <a href="http://www.keysight.com/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #f57921; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Keysight</a>, a local measurement company, both donated to the project.</div>
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The team was also able to utilize rollover funding from the previous year, as well as technology like the Emotiv headset. Many design projects continue year to year, although the main goal typically evolves.</div>
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Last year’s project was a <a href="http://projects-web.engr.colostate.edu/ece-sr-design/AY15/smart/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #f57921; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">brain-controlled smart home</a>. The assistive technology was intended to help those with disabilities carry out everyday tasks such as unlocking doors, turning on lights, or changing the television.</div>
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Graduate students and advisors like Pasricha ensure the knowledge and work each team generates doesn’t get lost in the annual transition.</div>
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“This year I wanted the team to try to do something a little trickier, to control a wheelchair,” Pasricha said. “[It] has a lot of parts. To get all those parts working together safely is not that straightforward.”</div>
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The team agrees that designing with safety in mind is more difficult than they expected.</div>
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“There’s two sides to safety: there’s system safety and user safety,” Kraft said.</div>
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System safety means managing the electrical currents to prevent anything from exploding.</div>
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“We’ve fried many things so far, a lot of things really,” Kraft said.</div>
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User safety refers to interactive measures like an emergency stop switch, which would disengage the motor should the chair respond inappropriately.</div>
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Kraft thinks time will prevent the team from outfitting the chair with motion sensors.</div>
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The teams are preparing to present their projects at the Engineering Days symposium in April in the LSC ballroom. Many potential employers attend, so the projects offer tangible examples of the soon-to-be graduates’ work.</div>
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Students put in between 150 and 250 hours including fundraising, design, and implementation and develop a host of documentation on project websites.</div>
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“The senior design project is meant to give experience to the students,” Pasricha said. “A lot of times in their coursework they are just working by themselves, but this whole program prepares them for what it will be like in the real world when they have to work on a team.”</div>
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Students often feel a similar sense of fulfillment as they near the end of their projects.</div>
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Kraft said, “I couldn’t have been blessed with a better project. My dream job would be working with embedded systems to develop assistive technologies and brain-interfacing that could potentially help people in the future.”</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-23438725932417536602017-03-02T17:22:00.002-05:002017-03-02T17:22:31.527-05:00Steering A Turtle With Your Thoughts<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Researchers have developed a technology that can remotely control an animal’s movement with human thought. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Asian Scientist Newsroom | March 2, 2017 | Technology AsianScientist (Mar. 2, 2017) </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that can control a turtle using human thought. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Bionic Engineering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Unlike previous research—most notably in insects—that has tried to control animal movement by applying invasive methods Professors Lee Phill-Seung and Jo Sungho of KAIST propose a conceptual system that can guide an animal’s moving path by controlling its instinctive escape behavior. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">They chose a turtle because of its cognitive abilities as well as its ability to distinguish different wavelengths of light. Specifically, turtles can recognize a white light source as an open space and so move toward it. They also show specific avoidance behavior to things that might obstruct their view. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Turtles also move toward and away from obstacles in their environment in a predictable manner. The entire human-turtle setup is as follows: A head-mounted display (HMD) is combined with a BCI to immerse the human user in the turtle’s environment. The human operator wears the BCI-HMD system, while the turtle has a ‘cyborg system’—consisting of a camera, Wi-Fi transceiver, computer control module, and battery—all mounted on the turtle’s upper shell. Also included on the turtle’s shell is a black semi-cylinder with a slit, which forms the ‘stimulation device.’ This can be turned ±36 degrees via the BCI. The human operator receives images from the camera mounted on the turtle. These real-time video images allow the human operator to decide where the turtle should move. The human provides thought commands that are recognized by the wearable BCI system as electroencephalography signals. The BCI can distinguish between three mental states: left, right, and idle. The left and right commands activate the turtle’s stimulation device via Wi-Fi, turning it so that it obstructs the turtle’s view. This invokes its natural instinct to move toward light and change its direction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Finally, the human acquires updated visual feedback from the camera mounted on the shell and in this way continues to remotely navigate the turtle’s trajectory. The researchers demonstrates the animal guiding BCI in a variety of environments, with turtles moving indoors and outdoors on many different surfaces, like gravel and grass, and tackling a range of obstacles, such as shallow water and trees. This technology could be developed to integrate positioning systems and improved augmented and virtual reality techniques, enabling various applications, including devices for military reconnaissance and surveillance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">The article can be found at: Kim et al. (2016) Remote Navigation of Turtle by Controlling Instinct Behavior via Human Brain-computer Interface</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12px;">Source: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff. Read more from Asian Scientist Magazine at: https://www.asianscientist.com/2017/03/tech/turtle-human-brain-computer-interface/</span>Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4774770194446821970.post-14231779508250338082017-03-01T15:58:00.002-05:002017-03-01T15:58:54.866-05:00Our Voices are Stronger Together -- ALS Advocacy Conference in DC!<header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Arial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="entry-thumb" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">
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ALS National Advocacy Conference Registration Now Open</h1>
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There is a need to continue to educate Members of Congress about ALS and its true impact on people living with ALS and their loved ones. This is where you and your voice come in. Advocates – people living with ALS, their families, friends, doctors and researchers – successfully sharing their stories with members of Congress will result in more legislative victories. Your personal story, delivered first hand, is one of the most powerful tools we have.</div>
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That is why The ALS Association invites you to join the entire ALS community as we unite in Washington, D.C. for the 2017 National ALS Advocacy Conference. This is our opportunity to share your ALS story and let Members of Congress know the true nature of the disease and why more must be done now.</div>
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The public policy priorities that The Association and the ALS community will be focused on this year include asking Member of Congress to 1) cosponsor the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act (S.379/HR.1171), 2) cosponsor legislation, soon to be introduced, to protect access to complex rehabilitation technology, and 3) appropriate $10 million each for both the National ALS Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the ALS Research Program at the Department of Defense (DOD). For more information about the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act (S.379/HR.1171) <a href="https://alsadotorg.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/legislative-update-social-security-disability-insurance-for-people-living-with-als/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out;">click here</a>.</div>
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This year’s conference will be held Sunday, May 14th – Tuesday, May 16th at the J.W. Marriott, in Washington, D.C. After a day and a half of meetings and training sessions, ALS Advocates from across the country will take to Capitol Hill for meetings with their legislators on Tuesday.</div>
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To attend the 2017 National ALS Advocacy Conference, please register online at <a href="http://www.alsa.org/advocacy/advocacy-day/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out;">www.ALSA.org/advocacy/advocacy-day</a>. This website also provides information such as the hotel – the J.W. Marriott, travel information, a conference outline and other important information for participants.</div>
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Conference registration fees are waived for people with ALS and for one caregiver traveling with them to the conference.</div>
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For other participants, the 2017 conference has a $175 non-refundable registration fee for attendees who are affiliated with The ALS Association, an ALS Association Chapter or other affiliated organization. This fee covers a small portion of conference costs, including meals, transportation to Capitol Hill and briefing materials. Registration fees for children are $25. The fee for non-affiliate attendees is $350.</div>
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For the J.W. Marriott hotel, the single/double occupancy rate is $299 plus tax per night; $319 + tax for triple occupancy; $339 + tax for quadruple occupancy; with a maximum of four guests per room. Once you register for the conference, you will be provided with a direct link to the J.W. Marriott’s reservations website.</div>
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In order to request an ADA accessible hotel room, you must contact Michael Coscia at <a href="mailto:adaroom@alsa-national.org" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out;">adaroom@alsa-national.org</a>. Your e-mail should include your hotel confirmation number. For all additional questions about hotel reservations or transportation, please contact Michael Coscia.</div>
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General questions about the 2017 ALS National Advocacy Conference can be sent to <a href="mailto:advocacy@alsa-national.org" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.25s ease-in-out;">advocacy@alsa-national.org</a>.</div>
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The voices on the Hill during the Fly In were heard well, but were just a start. Let us join forces to make our voices louder by participating in the 2017 National ALS Advocacy Conference. We look forward to seeing you there and working together to champion these important priorities for the ALS community!</div>
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Alisa Brownlee, ATPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11460843292700460687noreply@blogger.com0