Parrot Speak To Call: Hands Free Phone Software

As we saw in the last post, spinal cord injuries or paralysis can render arms unusable. Anyone with not so good motor skills also have difficulty using their fingers and hands to perform daily operations, thus making them depend on others around them to get things done. One of those things can be getting help to make and receive phone calls - a process that seems fairly simple, but without the use of arms, can be quite a bit of a challenge. It is quite possible that someone may not be around all the time, and waiting for a friend or caregiver to come check in on them may be the only option for quite many people.

To alleviate this problem, Parrot "Speak to Call" provides a very convenient solution. A software that runs on Windows PC along with Dragon Naturally Speaking and Microsoft Speech (comes with Windows), Parrot helps make and receive phone calls by just using speech. The interface is very simple and minimal with just the essential options displayed. The software comes with a few "lists" of its own (Family, Friends, Professionals & Businesses and Work), to which you can add contact information and their phone numbers. Of course, it gives you the ability to add more lists too if the four it comes with are not enough. With just one word commands, Parrot can make making and receiving phone calls a breeze. Check out the quick videos below to see Parrot "Speak to Call" in action.

Set up is very simple (make sure you know how to enable your speech recognition software). The best part is that you don't require a phone line or need to hook it up to your existing phone line. It works on its own and does not depend on any other hardware accessories (except the USB headset you will be using to make calls) which typically complicate set up and use, and make things difficult to fix if they break. When you sign up, they give you a phone number as well.

A very good solution for people who don't have good motor skills or cannot use their arms because of paralysis or other spinal cord injuries. This software can also be used by bedridden people or  those who cannot move a lot because of sickness or old age to call their caregiver to let them know if they need anything.

Signing up requires a one time fee of $99 and a monthly $39 fee for unlimited calling within USA and Canada (month to month; no contract). $10 from each sale also goes to charity!

Go to Parrot's website to learn more about this product.

Website: www.speaktocall.com

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Tongue Driving System: Tongue Controlled Wheelchair For Quadriplegics

Professor Maysam Ghovanloo at Georgia Tech has been working hard since 2005 on a system that lets a user control their wheelchair with their tongue. Tongue! His research has borne fruit, and the results are pretty incredible.

This system is most beneficial for people who have high level spinal cord injuries or are quadriplegic.

This is how it works: The user has a magnet placed inside their tongue in the form of a piercing. The

user also wears a headset which actually detects the location of the magnet as the tongue moves. The location is grabbed and wirelessly communicated to an app installed on the user's phone which in turn sends it to the wheelchair and the command is finally executed.

This method is found to be three times faster than the traditional sip and puff method.  Not only can it be used to just maneuver a wheelchair, but to play video games and use computers or phones too. 11 volunteers helped with the testing and it was found that their performance significantly improved between training session one and two, suggesting how easy it is to use.

The idea behind the study was not just to see how accurate and fast TDS (Tongue Driving System) is but also to prove to insurance companies that tongue control is indeed useful.

The next step in this research is to enhance the TDS by getting rid of the headset.

Watch this video to learn more about what professor Ghovanloo has to say about TDS.

Go here if you are interested in reading the published paper.

Source: The Verge

Image sources: Examiner, Georgia Tech Research News

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The Eye Tribe: Eye Tracker in Tablets

We have seen quite many eye controllers in the recent past that do a fantastic job controlling devices by just tracking eye movement of the user. However, all of them require the purchase of an additional accessory that come for a steep price. To combat that, a group of former PhD students in Copenhagen plan to make  the eye tracker a standard feature in tablets and smart phones that would not require the purchase of additional equipment.

Eye tracking software (source: NPR)

The Eye Tribe is a company that has built a technology that would use the built in front facing camera of a mobile device to track eye movement of the user. Basically, an infrared beam would be projected towards the face, and reflected in the user's pupil. The Eye Tribe's sophisticated algorithms are able to determine where the user is looking, and use their eye movement to perform tasks on the mobile device.

The idea is to mass market this technology, bringing it to not just people with disabilities, but every consumer in the market. The only issue right now is that use of this technology (for mass marketing) would require modifying the camera on mobile devices, and The Eye Tribe is in talks with major manufacturers to see how this can be achieved. The first device with this technology built in expected to hit sometime in 2013.

This video demonstrates a regular Windows 8 tablet being controlled just with the eyes!

Source: NPR

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Hands Free Wheelchair

Image source: Engadget

If you are a technology aficionado, and are curious to know what sort of amazing projects can come out   of a small workshop, then you should totally subscribe to The Ben Heck Show!

In one of his latest episodes, Ben Heck shows how he created a hands free wheelchair for a soon to be father who wanted to take care of his baby while still in his wheelchair.

Watch this video to see how Ben created two additional accessories for Josh's wheelchair - an add-on motor assembly that sits beneath the wheelchair and a joystick (track ball?) like device that sits in the front on the footrest and controls the chair's speed and directionality.

If you want to skip all the technical details, go straight to the "Powering it up" segment on the video's progress bar.

Source: The Ben Heck Show via Engadget

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