Henry mentioned about the use of aerial drones to expend the world. It is incredible how he made use of relatively easy solution to improve his life. He uses mouse cursor controlled with his head to pressing buttons in a web browser that allow him to see video from the robot. It gives him sense of movement and watch the world go by around - in his garden, home and even in the roof. Controlling web interface in this way might not be very comfortable I guess. But using head-mounted display could be a solution when you see exactly what your drone sees. And imagine that such dead-mounted display could translate a head movement onto the drone movement. That is amazing and I think that is possible. What do you think about such idea to use a head-mounted display to help disabled people to explore their surrounding world better?
Let’s focus on computer interfaces to help blind people. Have you ever wondered whether it is possible to “see” with a tongue?
The BrainPort device uses electrodes spatially correlate with the pixels from small camera hidden in the glasses. As William Seiple said, tearning to “see” with a tongue is not different than learning to ride a bike. If you want to read more please read this article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=device-lets-blind-see-with-tongues
To open a discussion please watch this movie about “What is Assistive Technology”. It not only refers to the disabled but AT is something more wider in scope.
These are very general movie but if we could talk about assistive technologies that would be great. Below I listed a couple of points that might be helpful for starting a discussion:
- Do you know any other kind of devices, application or robots that may be treated as assistive technology?
- What are the pros and cons of using such technology?
- Is that technology available for a mass ? What can we do to make it more accessible and not expensive?
- Can you share links to company that operates in the market and deal with such technology ?
- Do you know someone who uses assistive technology to become more self-sufficient? Or maybe you know someone famous?
One sentence I’ve heard in the TED movie made me stop for a while to do some thinking „… use technology not to replace people but to make people better …”. I believe it is very true and it would be good if we all would think that way. For big companies it is actually much easier to implement technology to make their profit bigger while just making people redundant.
ReplyDeleteRegarding assistive technology I do not have much experience with one.
Nowadays people have much more possibilities to start implementing assistive tools. What I mean is 3 elements: open-source software, open-source hardware (e.g. Arduino) and 3D printing. Having all that ingredients you can build different small or big tools performing helping actions to people that are less self-sufficient.
The price tag for mentioned technologies is very low so we are going to see a huge growth of smart designs solving some accessibility problems I believe.
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ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what people can come up with! I'd like to try the drone mounted camera with Oculus Rift (3D glasses) and see how it works. There is another TED talk featuring the inventor of Segway presenting a prosthetic arm:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/dean_kamen_previews_a_new_prosthetic_arm.html
The cost of this kind of solutions is probably mostly in the development effort it takes to design them. I'm sure we'll see a lot more of this in the future. I don't see any downsides, especially for the recipient whose life can be improved.
I'm not really familiar with the concept so I can't really share information about some other useful devices or people using them. However, seeing that's because I don't really have people with disabilities in near family, that would be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThe main issue with all these technologies is simple - money. 300$ for a drone isn't a lot. 17000$... now that's another thing entirely. Granted, prices are bound to go down once this technology becomes more developed and accessible, but I'm not quite convinced this is something easily available for typical disabled person. Especially in our country, which has its own issues with healthcare system. Do you come from wealthy family? Great, here's a private drone collection, your virtual eyes, ears and limbs. You don't? Well, tough luck.
On the other hand, that's pretty much the case with everything, so it's not really a "con". Not really much that can be done about it, except hoping that technology will advance enough that less expensive devices will be good enough for the masses. As long as they do their job and aid the people, they don't really need all the frills and expensive additions.
In my opinion this is just one of the main reasons why we should develop new technologies. Some time ago I saw a Documentary where doctors implanted deaf woman a small device with which she started to hear it. For me it is just amazing that with technology we can help people. Like said that guy on that film "use technology not to replace people but to make people better"
ReplyDeleteSure, there are many different similar devices, they want to come into the market, please just look at the service like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Unfortunately I don't keep the history of these services but many different (maybe even futuristic) projects have been already found.
ReplyDeleteOf course, advantages is that this can help people, disadvantage is that this devices interference with the human body (this interference can be also with negative impact to human body).
Like I said before many new devices started via crowfounding services, so yes - they are available for a mass.
Maybe I don't know such a sophisticated devices which you show here but for example I know some blind people who use the smartphone with modification of android (Iphone also have this functions) and I know that they are happy with that. Before interface modifications they were disabled from use smartphones.
I think that one of the simplest example of assistive technology (AT) is a spaz chariot. It isn't as amazing as some things showed in presented videos, of course, but works and helps disabled people. Another example is a hearing aid.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes see on the TV some inventions like artificial palms. I suppose that AT will become more and more popular because of grow the percentage of disabled people in society.
Pros of AT are connected with allowing disabled people for doing normal things. The more difficult is the question about cons. I see one. Some inventions are overused by non disabled people and later we can hear about problems with obesity or lack of reading skill.
I suppose that such inventions are already available for mass but many of them are too expensive. But they should be cheaper in the future.
From famous people using AT I know Stephen Hawking. He's used a speech synthesis for many years.
Yes, sophisticated technology for the mass like individual aerial drone for controlling what happens around is out of an average person. But Tomasz Gruza hit the nail on the head writing about something which is quite common. But anyone mentioned about something which is the most common as regards AT.
ReplyDeleteLet’s think about computer screen readers for the visually impaired.
A screen reader is a software that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound, or a braille output. There are many braille displays in the market. They are used to read text that is displayed on a computer monitor. The braille display is connected to the computer and produces braille output with small plastic or metal pins that move up and down to display the braille characters.
http://www.attriumph.com/images/activebraillepic.jpg
At this place I want to mention about HTML 5 technology which puts an emphasis on accessibility website content by visually impaired people. The content needs to be available on a broad range of devices, such as ordinary computers using a keyboard or mouse and screen readers or audio browsers. When you design your website in HTML 5 you add semantic meaning to the content of your webpage and in the same time the content becomes reachable by the widest variety of people, including those with different disabilities.
Please call me Grzegorz, not Tomasz :-).
DeleteI didn't want to bound to the newest technologies. Personally I think that many inventions are a brillant composition of a few already known things. While I was looking at controlling drone by Henry I saw drone, remote controlling, movement sensor and so on. None of constituents seemed to be a something extraordinary, but they composition was awesome, practical and very useful.
Nowadays speech synthesizers also don't look extraordinary, because nowadays everybody has "Iwona" or something similar in his mobile, but they probably were something "new and revolutionary" when they were introduced on the market.
For me inspiring is that often with really small finical effort with new technology we can make some people life much easier. For example few days ago I was answering some blind person question where she is. This was on a cross rows and this lady where waiting for a traffic lights to cross a street. Of course Warsaw is a modern city so on this traffic light button is a small explanation for blind people describing how crossword is organized but unfortunately there is no more precise information about place. This motivates me to thinking about phones with NFC readers. It can be rather cheap to put tags on every traffic light and blind person using phone with NFC reader could read all necessary information from that.
ReplyDelete• Do you know any other kind of devices, application or robots that may be treated as assistive technology?
ReplyDeleteKinectTranslator.com – it’s software that uses Microsoft Kinect to recognize motion and translate sign language to text and speech. It gives freedom and independence to deaf people.
• What are the pros and cons of using such technology?
Pros are quite obvious I guess, but what can be the downside of it. The only thing that comes to my mind is that quite often such technology is made by companies that consider profit as a main priority so those solutions are very expensive where they don’t necessarily have to be. That’s just sad since it’s targeting people that already have enough problems.
• Is that technology available for a mass ? What can we do to make it more accessible and not expensive?
It will be less expensive when it will be for mass. Mass production gives us lower prices, but since disabled are “not so many” in terms of overall market size probably it will never get to such a size to really make those solutions very cheap.
• Can you share links to company that operates in the market and deal with such technology ?
Migam.pl – creator of KinectTranslator.com
It’s even more interesting since it’s technology created by Polish company.
• Do you know someone who uses assistive technology to become more self-sufficient? Or maybe you know someone famous?
I don’t know anyone personally but of course first person that comes to my mind is Stephen Hawking, he uses AT a lot and in few areas and he shows how much can be done when you are determined enough.
The development of information technology creates new opportunities to build assistive technology for people with disabilities. Familiar technologies:
ReplyDeleteYou can replace the work of technology using the mouse to control the movement such as head, eye movements or breathing. People with severe mobility limitations that
can move his head can control the sound device HeadMouse system. Person has stuck to his forehead sensor which transmits the signal to the DVR. The recorder forward
signal to the computer. The computer converts them into cursor movement. Clicking may take place take place using a switch or by stopping the cursor in place at the set time, eg 3 seconds.
Similarly, the Tracker eg Magic Cursor, HeadMouse Origin Instruments dragger.
Interiors using eye movement is BlinkIt. It uses the signal transmitted from the motion of the eyelids. Eyelids are lit in the infrared.
Other device is Integra Mouse. It allows operate a computer using only the mouth. Each movement is recognized by the mouthpiece and sent to the computer.
It is possible to also control the cursor using the eyeballs. These devices represent PCeye EyeTech and tracking technology eyeball movement by cameras placed on your computer.
Eye movement is directly responsible for the movement of the cursor. Thanks to this technology you can play games, send and receive mail, and perform all other functions typical of the computer.
Other known to me techniques are controlled using signals from muscles. E.g. Brainfingers device. With this device, you can control all applications on Windows.
I think that one of the main aims of technology should be to help disabled people feel part of the community (especially their families) and provide them with means to make their lives more meaningful and happy. By providing such tools for others I feel that in case anything wrong happens to me I could still have ways of experiencing life and that is a soothing thought for me. Moreover, I believe that all of the devices presented in the article are great, but I feel that they are not the ideal solution that we would want to have. The desired state would be to have tools that would allow us to overcome problems, like artificial eyes for the blind that would allow them to see or some sort of cyber skeletons that would restore the ability to move... and I would love to see technology reach a point where such things would be possible, but currently there are only workarounds.
ReplyDeleteI must also admit that I do not feel an expert in this matter. I don't know any companies that deal with such problems and provide such technologies to others. I also count myself lucky as none of my friends or family members have encountered a situation where such help would be needed.
Do you know any other kind of devices, application or robots that may be treated as assistive technology?
ReplyDeleteThis topic really interests me, because being on internship last year in Eindhoven (Netherlands) I had opportunity to work on the application for people with aphasia. Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder caused by brain injury or trauma. It affects language comprehension and generation. There are three major aphasia groups: expressive (when the individual is unable to express himself or herself in speech or writing), receptive (when the individual is unable to understand auditory or written words) and combination of both. The main consequence of aphasia is problem with maintaining contacts and participating in social exchange, which eventually can result in becoming passive and socially isolated. Aphasics can improve their language comprehension but complete recovery remains unlikely.
Individuals with aphasia like to be listened to and understood like other healthy individuals. They want to express their ideas, comments, anecdotes and feelings about what occurred to them in their daily life. Aphasics require easy access and simplicity in their communication aids and need the ability to communicate at a distance instantaneously.
During my stay I've prepared storytelling application for mobile devices (Android/iOS) which helps aphasic to communicate with family and friends. Main features of this app are:
- free drawing and taking notes
- taking photos with front and back camera
- accessing camera roll for loading and saving images
- reading QR codes for opening websites in mobile browser
- accessing websites in mobile browser
- adding text with full OS system features (spell checking, speech synthesis etc.)
- adding current time and date
- accessing maps with Geolocation
- saving created images to camera roll and printing
- publishing canvas to Facebook account with easy to use dedicated interface
Working prototype was presented to the experts from Aphasia Center at Eindhoven and received positive feedback. Moreover many new improvements were proposed. Final version of application will be tested by people with aphasia in near future and will be available at Android Market/App Store.
What are the pros and cons of using such technology?
Generally pros of AT are rather obvious - it allows people with disabilities to function normally again, brings happiness and improves quality of life. Cons include the possibility of failure of the device which could result in a dangerous situation such as the inability to call for help etc.
Is that technology available for a mass ? What can we do to make it more accessible and not expensive?
In many countries (including Poland) AT technology is still very expensive and we can rarely hear about it. Fortunately the popularity of mobile devices (tablets/smartphones) and growing number of AT applications can make a difference. IT students can create such apps during studies.
Can you share links to company that operates in the market and deal with such technology ?
I know DynaVox Company which delivers great communication tools and applications for aphasics - https://mydynavox.com/
Do you know someone who uses assistive technology to become more self-sufficient? Or maybe you know someone famous?
I had opportunity to talk with caregivers for aphasics. They showed me that even simple applications for the iPad can help a lot in communication and improve their quality of life. In my opinion, the most famous person with a disability using AT technology is Stephen Hawking.
I have seen Marcin’s application during his presentation in PJWSTK. It was impressive how it can help people with Aphasia to return them self-confidence. We teach that technology on which Marcin based his application. It amazing how we can use it and what extend we can help the others. The features were already listed by Marcin. Combine them in one compact application available on tablet makes it very useful. Good idea is a mother of everything. Congratulations and wish You success!
DeleteThe assistive technologies have a great future
ReplyDeleteThey are ones of the fastest developing technologies in the world. Specialty the prosthetic devices and implant and FRMi based augmentations allowing to control computer devices by brain waves. The most famous example of person using such assist is Steven Hawkins.
Links:
ReplyDeletewww.abledata.com
www.microsoft.com/enable/at/types.aspx
www.viewplus.com
www.quantumrlv.com.au
www.humanware.com
www.assistiveware.com