handicapped
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In Japan, nerds control girls with joysticks
For some of you, like this guy (look at his face!), this is a dream come true, no questions asked. The rest will be wondering what the hell is going on here. See, that bicycle helmet affixed with what looks like a robotic crab is a not so subtle, ear tugging navigational device that could ultimately benefit the sight-impaired or anyone, really -- it pulls on the left ear to direct the wearer to the left, on the right to go right. Simple. Granted, it looks ridiculous now, but imagine it miniaturized under a tin-foil helmet and communicating with a hands- and eyes-free GPS navigational system. You've just seen the future, how does it feel? %Gallery-76350%
Ask Engadget: Good input device(s) and user interfaces for the 'over 80 crowd?'
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from a very concerned Mike, who is hoping to give his grandmother a way to properly interact with a laptop. "I am trying to configure out a really dumbed down and intuitive PC for my grandmother. She recently had a stroke and while she is under my care I would like to repurpose a laptop for her to surf and email her children. Anyone have any experience with what input devices and UI's are really understandable for the over 80 crowd?" We know this is a bit "out there" for Ask Engadget, but we get the feeling Mike isn't alone here. Anyone have any experience with unorthodox input devices and UIs designed for those with limited mobility and / or weakened vision? Spill the goods in comments below!
Bone-anchored hearing aids filter out noise, finally ready for human implantation
Think those noise-canceling earbuds are hot stuff? Imagine if said technology was applied to an advanced type of implantable hearing aid, and you'll have an idea of exactly what Earthlings with severe hearing loss now have to look forward to. For years now, we've watched as cochlear implants became more effective in lab tests, and up until recently, we've had strict medical testing procedures to thank for the inability to actually get one. Now, one Colin Hughes will soon be amongst the first Australians to enjoy a "new bone-anchored hearing aid designed to adjust to noisy environments, quiet conversations and the varying rhythms and pitch of music." Due to a birth defect that left him with atypically narrow eustachian tubes, Colin was never able to take advantage of traditional hearing aids for any length of time, but now these $12,000 (per pair) devices are promising a new life for the 70-year old bloke. Our favorite feature? MP3 players can be directly (and discretely) attached, enabling old geezers to tune out old hags without them ever noticing.[Thanks, Mike]
Laser-equipped Virginia Tech dirt buggy can be driven by the blind
And you thought those self-driving whips in DARPA's Urban Challenge were hot stuff. As the mighty Hokies look to prove their dominance in the field of engineering, a student team from Virginia Tech has assembled what amounts to a vehicle that can actually be driven by blind individuals. In short, the specially equipped dirt buggy is outfitted with an array of laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a few other related systems that enable drivers to respond to whatever the vehicle "sees." Best of all, the project is far beyond the drawing board, with a blind driver (Wes Majerus) already singing praises about the vehicle and deeming it a "liberating" experience. Regrettably, there's no information on what the team plans to do with the vehicle going forward, but we do know it hopes to pass along the same technology to more street-legal motorcars.[Thanks, Trisha]
15 Minutes of Fame: The two shall be as one
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes - from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.There are couples who play together, and there are couples who play together. Jen and Mike, members of <The Panic Attacks> on Scilla-US, fall into the latter category - so much so that perhaps their playstyle doesn't accurately qualify as "playing together" at all. More accurately, Jen and Mike play as one, sharing the controls to seamlessly guide their mutual character, FertZane, through Ulduar and all the rest of WoW's endgame content.A rare disability called arthrogryposis keeps Jen wheelchair-bound and binds the couple's gaming together. The congenital disorder causes joint contractures, muscle weakness and fibrosis and leaves Jen with quite limited use of her arms and legs. Nonetheless, she says she's always loved video games because it was something she could enjoy as long as she could manage the controller. "For using my computer, I use a pen in my mouth to type and trackball mouse that I can hold in my lap," she says. "This makes computer gaming a lot more challenging for me, since I cannot look at the monitor while using the keyboard - but a mouse just can't always do everything that needs to be done."
DeafBlind Communicator helps deaf / blind individuals communicate
Every so often, we stumble upon a new piece of technology designed to assist deaf and / or blind individuals, but we've yet to see a creation so complete as this. HumanWare, working in tandem with the Washington State Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, has concocted a DeafBlind Communicator to provide a trio of communication options to handicapped individuals: face-to-face-, TTY and SMS. The DBS system consists of two separate components -- the BrailleNote and a DB-Phone, the latter of which is a specially designed handset with a QWERTY keyboard and unique software that helps the deaf-blind community converse with bus drivers, waiters, friends, family, etc. The Braille menus enable those folks to easily strike up conversations and live life more easily, and it seems as if sales inquiries are being fielded as we speak.[Thanks, Drew]
15 Minutes of Fame: Dislocated but not disconnected, Part 2
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Last week, we met Lileya of Lightbringer-EU, who has a rare, lifelong condition that causes her joints dislocate at the drop of a pin. Stacking up a Lifebloom roll can literally dislocate a finger or her wrist. "I get up in the morning, and the first thing we do is check to make sure that all my joints are in place -- which they rarely are," she recounts. "I need help sitting up, and the first thing my husband says when I put my feet on the ground is 'Slowly, let's not dislocate those ankles standing up.' Each day is different but the same."What keeps Lileya at the keyboard despite these seemingly insurmountable challenges? We visited with Lileya to explore how her love of end-game raiding and her struggle to balance a precarious collection of symptoms and physical challenges keeps her connected to WoW and to life. This week, Part 2 of our interview with this determined player.
15 Minutes of Fame: Dislocated but not disconnected
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. We've written about disabled gamers before, but Lileya of Lightbringer-EU brings a perspective to playing WoW that we haven't heard. Lileya's disability is a rare, lifelong condition that makes even the simplest tasks impossible some days. From her ankles to her knees, from her fingers to her shoulders, Lileya's joints dislocate at the drop of a pin. Even stacking up a Lifebloom roll can dislocate her wrist. "I don't have all that much in common with Aaron who has recovered enough that he can walk without assistance and drive, or Kalzedhan who plays for 12 to 14 hours a day, or Catten," she muses. "I have a rare genetic disorder that I have never lived without. My life is very different from theirs." Lileya's relentlessly frank, articulate blog, In the Fringes, exposes what it's like to live with the horrifying prospect of keeping track of all your joints on a minute-by-minute basis. We visited with Lileya for a two-part interview exploring how her love of end-game raiding and her struggle to balance a precarious collection of symptoms and physical challenges keeps her connected to WoW and to life.
Braille e-reader concept can't be far from reality
The technology's already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers -- Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park -- have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface's shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it's definitely a start that needs to happen.
Researcher finds electrical stimulation key to rehabilitating paralyzed limbs
We've seen the wonders of electrical stimulation before, so it's no real shock (ahem) to hear that a University of Florida engineer has figured out a method to combine that very tactic with sophisticated computer learning technology in order to assist Earthlings in regaining "more precise, more life-like control of paralyzed limbs." Reportedly, the research could help around 700,000 Americans who suffer from strokes and 11,000 from cord injuries each year. Says the university's Warren Dixon (pictured): "It's an adaptive scheme to do electrical stimulation more efficiently, with less fatigue and more accuracy." Eventually, the dream is to build a wearable, pacemaker-sized device that could output the precise amount of stimulation at the perfect time in order to encourage natural movement, and it would also be able to adapt to each individual as it learns their habits and techniques. Not mentioned in the report, however, was just how beneficial this discovery could be to the scads of preposterously lazy Americans, too.[Via DailyTech]
Ben Heck creates breath-controlled drum pedal for Guitar Hero World Tour
Last June, Kinetic Communications created a clever workaround for wheelchair-bound gamers who possess a penchant for Rock Band drumming, but were unable to use the kit's kick pedal due to their disability. Ben Heck, modder extraordinaire, recently did the same for the Guitar Hero: World Tour set -- however, rather than attaching an extra button to drumsticks, Heck found an altogether brilliant method of using the set's foot-activated percussion: He made it breath-controlled.It took a fair amount of fancy engineering, but Heck recently uploaded instructions to his blog that show how to remove the pedal's piezoelectric sensor, and make it respond to air pressure rather than, well, foot pressure. You can get further details on the modification, as well as a video of Heck giving it a test run, on his site. It's definitely an intriguing idea, though it more or less prohibits the drummer from simultaneously singing, making Phil Collins role-playing a near impossibility. Still, great work, Ben![Via Engadget]
Sprint WebCapTel On the Go brings call transcription to the mobile
Sprint has just made its WebCapTel service even better. In an effort to provide greater accessibility to Americans with hearing loss, the carrier has introduced the aforementioned service to allow "hard of hearing customers to read word-for-word captions on Windows Mobile 6 web browsers," and for what it's worth, it's also compatible with Safari 2.0. The free web-based system enables hearing impaired individuals to make a call using two phones -- one of which is used for reading captions while the other is used for listening and speaking. The process seems simple enough; before making a call, the user would log onto www.sprintcaptel.com on one device in order to receive the transcription of the discussion on the other. It's available now for calls made within the US (and its Territories).[Via RCRWireless]
MIT developing autonomous wheelchair that listens when you speak
Oh MIT, do the wonders that come from your halls ever cease? Yet another remarkable development is emerging from the fabled institution, and this time it's an autonomous wheelchair that can remember important places in a given building (read: the hospital ward, your house, the local arcade, etc.) and then take you there on command. In other words, the voice recognizing chair could understand phrases of direction, such as "head to the kitchen," and it would take on the burden of navigating the halls while letting the rider chill. The researchers are implementing a system that can learn and adapt to the individual user, and in the future, they'd like to add in a collision-avoidance system and mechanical arms to help patients lift and move objects. Say, can regular joes / janes buy these? We're totally feeling this over the Segway.[Via medGadget]
Video: ReWalk exoskeleton helps paraplegics walk
ARGO Medical Technologies' ReWalk has been out a few months now, but it's tough to really appreciate what this thing can do unless you see a patient utilize one on video. Hailed as a "quasi-robotic ambulation system," the wearable device was specifically created to assist those with lower-limb disabilities and give them back upright mobility. In the video waiting in the read link, one particular individual relies on the ReWalk to stand up and move about after being stricken to a wheelchair for 20 years -- no need to take our word for it, though, real live proof is but a click away.[Via MedGadget]
Researchers devise neural implant that learns over time
Brain-machine interfaces have done quite a bit in helping handicapped individuals interact with prosthetic limbs, computers and other humans, but a new neural implant concocted at the University of Florida could make all those past devices look archaic. Put simply, researchers have discovered a method that would enable brain-machine interfaces to "adapt to a person's behavior over time and use the knowledge to help complete a task more efficiently." Until now, the brain was the instrument doing all the talking while the computer simply accepted commands; with this method, "the computer could have a say in that conversation, too." In all seriousness, this type of learning mechanism could be game-changing in the world of physical therapy, but we hesitate to give something mechanical inside of our body too much free will, ya dig?[Via Physorg]
Xbox 360 kiosks headed to children's hospitals across the US
Here's your heartwarming story for the day. Microsoft has teamed up with Companions in Courage in order to bring "hundreds" of Xbox 360 kiosks to children's hospitals across the nation, and the gaming stations have already been installed at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children's Hospital of Orange County, California. The customized units are "hospital-friendly" and come pre-loaded with a variety of E and E10+ rated games, Y-rated television programs, G-rated movies and the Xbox Live headset / Vision camera in order for gamers to play online. Speaking of, each kiosk is wired to a private Live network which "allows hospitalized children across the country to play games and chat" with each other. There's no word on where the stations are slated to arrive outside of the three venues already mentioned, but those interested in broadening the reach of the endeavor can feel free to donate to the cause.[Via OhGizmo]
AT&T reveals iPhone Text Accessibility Plan for hearing impaired
Although AT&T has had a specialized plan for the deaf and hard of hearing for some time now, the iPhone has been unfortunately unable to take advantage. No longer will that be the case, as said carrier has just implemented the Text Accessibility Plan for iPhone, which provides unlimited texting, unlimited data usage, $0.40 per minute pay-per-use voice and Visual Voicemail. Granted, the iPhone TAP does cost $40 ($10 more than the vanilla TAP), but you are getting limitless texts (versus 5,000) and Visual Voicemail thrown in -- not that those inclusions really warrant the extra Hamilton. Nevertheless, those with adequate documentation can get their iPhone on the plan right now, just click the read link for details / instructions.
New brain control development could help quadriplegics get around
Sure, we've seen brain power used to give mobility back to the immobile, but a new development in Europe is one-upping current efforts by adding in a hint of artificial intelligence to the tried and true brain-computer interface. The MAIA BCI not only converts signals emitted by the brain into actions -- such moving a wheelchair forward -- it also thinks for itself when needed in order to assist the user in getting where he / she wants to go. Essentially, the individual need only think about going left or forward (for example), and the machine itself will automatically detect obstacles and potential barriers in order to move more efficiently. As it stands, there's still quite a bit of testing to be done before MAIA-based wheelchairs would be available to the public, but researchers are already hoping to integrate said technology into artificial limbs and the like.[Via Physorg]
Researchers clear up TV watching for visually impaired
Yeah, we've got HMDs for the visually impaired, but seriously, who's for sporting one of those things just to catch an afternoon soap? Thankfully, Dr. Eli Peli (and colleagues) from Harvard Medical School is lookin' out for said sect, and has developed a method for "enhancing the contrast of images of people and objects of interest on their digital televisions," which, during trials, was found to enhance legibility and overall enjoyment when watching. Furthermore, the technology is said to be the first to play nice with digital TV images, which seems fairly important considering that analog signals have but a few months to live here in America. Purportedly, the all-important modification that made the adjustments possible could be applied to HDTVs and digital STBs in the future, and sure enough, Peli has already sparked up conversation with Analog Devices in order to create a prototype chip for use in forthcoming sets. Now, if only clearing up those Get Smart reruns were this simple...[Via InventorSpot, image courtesy of Harvard (PDF)]
Brain2Robot project creates EEG-controlled robot arm
Thought-controlled appendages are far from new, but an international team of researchers have apparently created an apparatus that aims to make the lives of paralyzed individuals a tad easier. The Brain2Robot project utilizes electroencephalograph (EEG) signals in order to give patients the ability to control a robotic arm, which could eventually be used to do everything from hold periodicals to lift a cup of coffee. Reportedly, the arm could be ready for commercial use within just a few years, but there's no mention of an expected price range. Granted, we'd be a bit more excited about all of this if the technology were somehow made mobile, but it's hard to kvetch about a helping hand, regardless.[Via Primidi]
