Looking a lot like a no-hands Segway, the Exmovere Chariot is a surprisingly agile personal wearable transportation device.  The incarnation demonstrated in the following video is described as an “entertainment version” but there are plans to create a version for the disabled to enable more independence, mobility and the ability to leave the rest of us in the dust.  The video is interesting to watch, if only to see how truly agile and maneuverable the device can be.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today scientists revealed a new device that uses a tiny magnet that can help disabled people steer a wheelchair or operate a computer using only the tip of the tongue. The magnet is only the size of a grain of rice which lets the human direct a wheelchair around a room. It is easily implanted under the tongue, the team at the Georgia Institute of Technology said.

‘We chose the tongue to operate the system because unlike hands and feet, which are controlled by the brain through the spinal cord, the tongue is directly connected to the brain by a cranial nerve.
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‘This nerve generally escapes damage in severe spinal cord injuries or neuromuscular diseases,’ said Maysam Ghovanloo, an assistant professor who helped direct the work.

‘Tongue movements are also fast, accurate and do not require much thinking, concentration or effort.’

It’s amazing how advanced technology is getting. This device could revolutionize the field of assistive technologies that are made to help the disabled. The first stage of testing has already been done, their next step is to try it on people with severe disabilities.

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via [dailymail]

It knows only 32 words, but someday, it may get a grip on the entire human vocabulary. A group of engineering students at Carnegie Mellon University gave this term a twist and created a hand that talks. The students Bhargav Bhat, Hemant Sikaria, Jorge L. Meza and Wesley Jin demonstrated their project ‘HandTalk‘ a sensor equipped glove that translates finger and hand gestures into spoken words.

The motivation for this concept is to enable the communication between deaf persons and persons that do not have knowledge of the Sign language.

The HandTalk works like this: sensors in the glove pick up gestures and transmit the data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a cell phone which runs a Text to Speech software. The sensor data are converted first into text and then to voice output. A person not knowledgeable in Sign language can listen via the cell phone what the other person is saying in Sign language form.

via [talk2myshirt]

Have you ever wondered how people with vision impairment can match so well? Texture and touch can only tell so much but color has to be seen, not felt. In fact if a person is born blind, how do they know what a color is at all? This new labeling system translates visual data into sounds.

It detects the brightness, saturation, and hue of color. You can sort thru like colors by organizing them in groups with similar tones. This comes in extremely handy when you’re trying to figure out your darks and lights when doing the laundry.

The new e-Sullivan is a new portable computer that converts all types of printed materials into Braille. Not only it can convert into Braille, but also provide assistance with such computer-related tasks, such as instant messaging and web browsing. The device is thin and very durable composed of rubber and a plastic resin shell.

e-Sullivan is very simple to use.  The middle, ring and little fingers are what you would use to type the Braille. While the thumbs are used for the scrolling wheel and the mode button.Taeho Wang, the genius designer, has created e-Sullivan concept with hope to be able to lower the wall between deaf-blind people and the world. e-Sullivan has been nominated for the Business Week International Design Excellence award.

Most people take for granted the small hand muscles that are used for everyday things such as writing. For some of the disabled it’s hard to control small hand movements.

A pen or graphite tip is inserted into a small hourglass shaped holder which provides all the support. The rubberized knob makes it easy to grip with your palm to move the pen. Effort is powered by the arm instead of the hand.