Archive for November, 2015

Lack of Assistive Technology for Feeding

Monday, November 9th, 2015

Earlier this year, I met with multiple Occupational Therapists to learn about assistive technology to help people feed themselves. I assumed a task as common and necessary as feeding would have lots of AT options available. There have to be effective ways to lift food up and bring it to the mouth. The most common aides are adaptive utensils that are easier to hold. They have foam or a strap attached to the handle to require less hand dexterity and strength to use. They are marginally helpful for someone with reduced hand and arm function but for people who need more help, they are wholly insufficient.
utensils  NC35013
The task of moving food from a plate to a mouth is complicated mainly because of the different textures and shapes of food. And besides that, I found no tools designed for helping people plate food to begin with.

I did find some feeding machines such as the Windsor which is decades old, weighs about 30 lbs, spins a plate and lifts a spoon. The design is so unwieldy and inconsistent; it was a tremendous hassle to set up and use. (apologies for the video quality!)

Also the modern version of it, called the Bestic, is smaller, faster, but still ineffective and dropped a lot of food. The only types of food it works reasonably for are stews. By the way, it costs $7000! There is also the brand new Jaba arm which could be used for feeding, unfortunately that costs over $50,000.

prosthetic_arm__wheelchair

(video of Bestic machine. image of arm)

Overall, I came to the realization that AT manufacturers and designers have acknowledged the creating a feeding machine generalized enough for handling different types of food and environments and effective for use by people of varying abilities is not feasible or cost-effective. People with hand limitations are forced to migrate to full assistance in the form of caregivers and consuming liquid-only diets through feeding tubes and perhaps one of the most under-appreciated assistive technology devices, straws.

 

Saturday, November 7th, 2015

Music is very powerful. It has the power to move people and bring them together across cultures. Many use it as a form of expression and as a way to channel their emotions. There are those who are musically talented and take it upon themselves to learn the art of music and learn how to play many instruments. However, what happens if you have cerebral palsy? Or are paralyzed and cannot manipulate your limbs? And what happens if you love music and would love to play the guitar or piano?

Eye Play the Piano is able to allow people who do not have control of their arms to express themselves via Piano. It does so by taking advantage of gaze tracking algorithms and using a head-mounting device to interpret the eye movements of the user. The user interface of the system is shown below:

Picture1

The user stares at a certain note and blinks whenever the user is ready to “press” the note. The head-mounting device is connected to the piano and once the user’s input is interpreted,  there is a mechanism that allows the respective keys to pressed. It gets really interesting when the user wants to play complicated chords. In this video, one can see how anyone can use this device and play the piano. The technology allows one to learn how to plan the piano and get better at it. The boy in the video is playing the piano and one can see how great he is at it and the joy that he gets out of performing in front of a large audience.

I believe this form of technology is fantastic, and that everyone should be given the opportunity to learn and express themselves through music, even if someone has a disability.

Assistive Technology in the Classroom

Saturday, November 7th, 2015

Education is the foundation to innovation. It can provide children with tools to become productive members of society, a flourishing economy, and a strong democracy. Everyone deserves to learn, but throughout history not everyone has had the same opportunities to do so. Traditionally, students with disabilities have been alienated in general education classrooms as teachers are unable to provide them with the tools necessary to learn concepts in the same way as their non-disabled peers.

images (2)

However, with the invention of certain assistive technologies, like FM sound systems, teachers are able to better engage and educate diverse learners in an inclusive classroom setting. FM sound systems help to reduce background noise and increase the teacher’s voice for students with hearing impairments, on the autism spectrum, with AD/HD, and with processing disabilities, such as Dyslexia.

download (1)

Over the past decade, more people have demanded that assistive technology be included in the classroom, maintaining that price should not be a prohibitory factor. Ideally, every school would be able to cater to the needs of all of the students that attend them, but in practice, low budgets prevent schools from reaching this goal. To further complicate the situation, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools must provide students with a free, appropriate education. Though courts vary in their interpretation of this policy, often it means that if a school does not have assistive technologies such as the FM sound system, the school district must pay for the student to go to an out of district, often private school at extremely high costs. Investing in the creation of more accessible, low-cost assistive technologies could improve the education of a significant portion of the population. Assistive technologies in the classroom are an incredibly important area to further develop as they can engage students who would traditionally require secluded, segregated, and often, unfortunately, inferior educational services in special education classrooms.

images

Design Inspiration

Friday, November 6th, 2015

Source: Anninvitation.com

 

When our phones and computers run out of battery, we may become frustrated. While inconvenient, we likely forgive these technologies for failing us. These failures are transient, and ultimately forgettable. Forgivable, even — we carefully recharge our phones and tote them around, despite our previous squabbles. But what if our body fails us? Sprained ankles, weak lungs, chemical imbalances, limited hearing ranges, truncated visual peripheries, mobility impairments? The complexity of the human body is astonishing, and if there’s anything that the design process has taught me, it is that the more complex a design, the more likely a part – or the whole – is to fail.

Truly, it’s astonishing how many functions the body serves is supposed to serve. In my opinion, one of the most exciting aspects of living in the 21st century – as opposed to the 20th or the 19th or the 18th and so forth –  is that there is no shortage of new technologies aiming to mitigate or altogether resolve some of these “failures”. That is, of course, only if somebody wants to utilize them.

From advances in pharmaceuticals to advances in hardware for bone fortification, it’s interesting to see the world’s formal and informal design and engineering community look at the body as a design inspiration. From rectifying our inabilities to “stand up straight”, to lessening the impact of Alzheimer’s on a patient, it’s interesting to think about what we consider assistive technologies today, and to ponder – or even dare to project – what these technologies will look like in the future.

With complicated designs come complicated solutions, and the body is the most complicated design of them all. It would be interesting to pick a part of the body on a kinesiology chart and think about how to protect, fortify, or amplify its power and potential. I feel so lucky to be a part of a course that empowers us as blossoming designers and engineers to think of the gifts of the body, and how to improve the “human experience.” After all… “it’s the only place [we] have to live.”

Source: Jim Rohn, motivational speaker and entrepreneur.

 

 

Neural Engineering

Friday, November 6th, 2015

One field of assistive technology I find particularly exciting is neural engineering – actually enhancing, replacing, or repairing neural systems. Examples of this include cochlear implants to assist hearing, and deep brain stimulation to help with neurological motor problems like the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Cochlear implants have external parts that sit behind the ear, and internal parts to stimulate the brain. Unlike hearing aids, they do not amplify sound. They can actually be effective for people who are completely deaf. The implants bypass the ear, directly turning sound into electrical signals that stimulate the auditory nerve. Hearing with a cochlear implant is different from normal hearing, but with some time and adjustment people with the implants can learn to recognize and understand many sounds in their environment.

Blausen_0244_CochlearImplant_01

 

Another assistive technology in this category is deep brain stimulation, a surgical implant used to treat things like Parkinson’s. It works by sending electrical stimulation, using something similar to a pacemaker, to specific areas of the brain that control movement. The idea is that it can help block abnormal signals that cause symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

DeepBrain-New1

Here is a video of a man demonstrating his symptoms of Parkinson’s with and without his deep brain stimulation implant turn ed on. With the stimulator turned off, he has hand tremors and has difficulty walking, but when it is turned on, he can walk more normally and his tremors aren’t noticeable.

I think it’s amazing that there is technology that can directly stimulate neurons in the brain to help with disabilities. The field of biotechnology is rapidly growing, and there is a lot of research currently being done to improve technologies such as these and to develop new ideas. It’s exciting to see what will be developed in the next few years.

 

Sources:

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/coch.aspx

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/deep_brain_stimulation/deep_brain_stimulation.htm

 

 

Friday, November 6th, 2015

Sports, specifically soccer, have played a major role so far in my life.  I started playing soccer when I was about 5 years old and, while I largely retired after my freshman year at MIT, I still play intramural soccer when I have the chance.  Not only has soccer been a long running thread in my life, at times, I’ve dedicated major portions of my time to the sport, sometimes having 6 days a week of organized playing. 

 

Today, I coach a Cambridge Youth Soccer team of 8-10 year olds.  Coaching has caused me to reflect on the impact that soccer has played in my development.  Its influence spans social, physical, psychological, and behavioral development.  Soccer has truly been a major factor in shaping who I am, even when I’m far from a soccer ball.

 

Considering the impact that soccer has had on my life, I was excited to see wheelchair soccer at the Abilities Expo a few months ago.  I was glad to see that there was still the opportunity for individuals with disabilities to experience the excitement and solidarity that comes with playing a team sport that I found so entrancing.

 

I was curious about the sport options available for individuals with disabilities and was pleasantly surprised.  A number of organizations exist with the explicit purpose of making adaptive sports available.  One of these organizations is Disabled Sports USA.  Disabled Sports USA offers 35 different adaptive sports to try for individuals with various disabilities.  The sports range from volleyball to shooting to scuba diving.  Many more sports are offered through other organizations (Disabled Sports USA doesn’t organize wheelchair soccer, for example).  One interesting sport is goalball, a team sport for the blind.  Goalball involves a team of 3 rolling a ball across a gym toward another goal which is protected by the other team.  The players react and defend their goal using the sound of the ball rolling.  It’s neat to see not only adapted sports, but entirely new sports develop.

 

How Can I Help You?

Friday, November 6th, 2015

After hearing other people’s experiences, reading about them and even experiencing them first hand, I’ve started thinking more and more about how the general public, as well as individuals, treat those with disabilities.

A couple of months ago, the class participated in a “wheelchair lab” in which we were each given a wheelchair and a list of tasks to (try to) complete. Something that became immediately evident to me, other than how difficult it is to navigate a wheelchair, was how people treated me a bit differently. I had a lot more doors and elevators held open for me, I also got quite a few more looks than I normally do. Most people were really friendly and helpful, but I, and other classmates, sometimes found that people could be insistent on doing something to “help”. Of course it was a nice gesture, but the special treatment, although positive, seemed to emphasized the already apparently differences between them and I.

FF_WHEELCHAIR

Folding wheelchairs used to navigate around campus.

In lecture earlier this week, we had the chance to listen to a panel of MIT students talk about living with a disability. At one point, they were asked in what way should others treat them. They simply asked for understanding and empathy, which probably the answer I would have also given if asked the same question. What I’m now realizing is how fine the line between trying to be a helpful person and being slightly patronizing can be. I don’t have the answer to how exactly I, or anyone else, should act, but I’ll take the student panelists’ advice on just being as understanding and empathetic as possible to anyone who needs a hand.

 

 

 

AT in Hollywood.

Friday, November 6th, 2015

Last Monday, I attended the most interesting lecture about the aesthetics of assistive technology. One of the messages I got was that AT product could be and should be fashionable – beautiful. As I was pondering the conjoining of the two, I was remembered a very interesting movie character I saw in Kingsmen: The Secret Service  – Gazelle.

star-trek-3-reportedly-casts-kingsman-the-secret-s_7qbg.19204668024-4559644-2539660700-kings

 

<left image from http://za.ign.com/star-trek-3-1/89901/news/star-trek-3-reportedly-casts-kingsman-the-secret-s>
<right image from http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/gazelle-kingsman-vs-arrow-and-merlyn-1679986/>

 

 

Gazelle is a villain, sure, but she is an amazingly beautiful, intelligent, and strong character. She is a very hot villain – with AT.

I understand that Hollywood has a bunch of problems – sexism, ageism, violence, racism, etc., and this movie has varying degrees of all of that, not even mentioning anything about the wishy-washy-ness of the ending and the main character. However, if the movie left you with anything at the end of it, it would be that Colin Firth is still hot and that Gazelle was absolutely stunning. And those shiny prosthetics on her legs couldn’t have been sexier  – nor deadlier. 

I really approve that the mainstream media portrayed a character with AT so attractively. One might say – “Hey, she was still a villain.” but then what are we – 10-year-olds? (Apologies to actual 10-year-olds reading this blog post. You guys are cool, but you will understand me a few years down the road.) We can fully appreciate a good character well shelled-out – be it a villain or heroes. I wish the trend continues that the media keeps churning out attractive characters with AT.

download

<image from http://www.artofvfx.com/kingsman-the-secret-service-matt-kasmir-vfx-supervisor-nvizible/>

The Most Advanced Assistive Technologies in the World

Friday, November 6th, 2015

While humans work feverishly to produce new technologies, often times it is nature with the greatest solution. One of the most impressive example of this is found in the use of service animals. Service animals are widely used to help those with disabilities to live more normal, easier lives, and in that sense they can be thought of as a form of natural assistive technology, far more capable than any robot ever built. While it is commonly known that dogs can be trained to help the blind navigate, or signal the deaf of loud noises, which themselves are incredible tasks, these animals can be trained to help in even more subtle ways as well. People who suffer from epilepsy for example, can obtain a trained dog which will recognize when its owner is having a seizure, and alert others of what is going on. This type of behavioral recognition is incredible, and can keep someone from getting seriously injured. Some dogs can even be trained to press an automatic button which will call the police in the case of a seizure. For someone who lives with epilepsy, and who may be in constant fear of injuring themselves in the event of a seizure, having a service animal like this could provide not only serious therapeutic companionship, but also much greater peace of mind, knowing that they are never alone.

It has even been observed, that some dogs have the capability of detecting the onset of a seizure before it actually occurs! This type of early detection is not fully understood by scientists, but has been observed minutes, or even hours, before the onset of a seizure. Viewing these animals themselves as an assistive technology could encourage scientists to work with them in order to actually understand the root of this detection. It seems apparent that when developing new technologies, we should look to be inspired by the complex technologies that exist as simple pets, all around us.

Service dog helping to guide someone with a disability

Wish I Would Have Known

Friday, November 6th, 2015

 

This past month, there was an effort to raise awareness for invisible disabilities. The Invisible Disabilities Association kicked off a week of events to raise the voice of those with disabilities. The events included:

“On Kick-off Sunday”: Incorporate  Invisible Disabilities Week badge available at invisibledisabilities.org into you Facebook profile pictures.

“My Story Monday”: post a photo and a 100 word essay or short video about the importance of disability awareness.

“Tell a Friend Tuesday”: promote the #InvisibleDisabilitiesWeek hashtag

“Thankful Thursday”: posting thanks to the friends, family and caretakers that give the disabled community inspiration, strength and hope throughout the year.

“On Five for Friday”: donate $5 to support the IDA on Click & Pledge Connect.

The Kick-Off on Sunday was also intended to raise money but unfortunately only $204 of the expected $5000 were collected. I also did not hear about this event myself until I looked deeper into invisible disabilities. (Yes, maybe because of the MIT bubble)

I wish we could have participated in this event especially since disabilities and mental health are a large issue on campus. Invisible disabilities had never been so prominent in my life until I arrived at MIT. I saw how huge of a toll it could take on someone with the passing of one of my classmates last year and with Estephania’s testimony during the panel. The frustrations that both of these individuals expressed definitely tells us that we need greater awareness on campus.