The Verge on the eyeWriter inspired EyeCan from Samsung:
While controlling a mouse pointer with your eye isn’t brand-new technology, Samsung’s taking steps to get it in the hands of as many people as possible by open-sourcing its eyeCan technology. EyeCan was developed by five members of Samsung’s Creativity Lab, and was built with the purpose of helping those who are paralyzed from a disease like ALS control a computer through eye tracking. They’ve been testing it and posting videos of it in use on YouTube over the last few months (not surprisingly, one of those videos showed off a game of Angry Birds) and now the team is ready to release the software and documentation behind it for anyone to develop their own solution.
The Verge: Samsung releases source code for eyeCan, an eye-controlled mouse for the disabled
See also:
A Brain–Computer Interface Allows Paralyzed Patients to Play Music with Brainpower Alone
From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/jcpGSWManfY/
A pianist plays a series of notes, and the woman echoes them on a computerized music system. The woman then goes on to play a simple improvised melody over a looped backing track. It doesn’t sound like much of a musical challenge — except that the woman is paralysed after a stroke, and can make only eye, facial and slight head movements. She is making the music purely by thinking.
This is a trial of a computer-music system that interacts directly with the user’s brain, by picking up the tiny electrical impulses of neurons. The device, developed by composer and computer-music specialist Eduardo Miranda of the University of Plymouth, UK, working with computer scientists at the University of Essex, should eventually help people with severe physical disabilities, caused by brain or spinal-cord injuries, for example, to make music for recreational or therapeutic purposes. The findings are published online in the journal Music and Medicine.
Nature News: Music is all in the mind
(via Richard Yonck)
See also: Eyewriter, an inexpensive way for people to draw using only their eyes.
From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/JUccmkw7faE/
I thought I’d posted about this before, but I haven’t:
SoundBite detects noise using a microphone placed in the ear connected to a transmitter in a behind-the-ear (BTE) device. The BTE transmits to an in-the-mouth (ITM) device that sends small sound waves through the jaw to the cochlea. There is no surgery needed, and both the BTE and ITM are easily removed to be charged inductively. Sonitus Medical is still preparing the SoundBite for eventual FDA trials for single sided, and (eventually) other forms of deafness. Check out more photos after the break.
There are other hearing aid devices that utilize bone conduction. Most, however, use a titanium pin drilled into the jaw bone (or skull) to transmit sound to the cochlea. SoundBite seems to be the first non-surgical, non-invasive, easily removable device.
Singularity Hub: New Hearing Aid Uses Your Tooth To Transmit Sound
(Thanks Trevor)
See also:
New Devices Aid Deaf People By Translating Sound Waves To Vibrations
From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/6nLeToG6sxw/
