It’s rather amazing that such a simple assistive technology device can make things a lot easier on people who need to use walkers to accomplish even simple tasks, such as taking food from the kitchen to the dining table. Student Jay Price, a mechanical engineering student at University of Colorado at Boulder, watched his father struggle with these issues for years as a patient with Multiple Sclerosis. When the opportunity arose for him to combine his profession with helping fellow sufferers, he jumped at it.

ReEnabled.org has long been a proponent of hacking the Wiimote into an assistive technology device, but now Stephen Vickers, of De Montfort University, in Leicester, UK is developing the Wiimote killer - an eye tracking interface that can perform all the same functions. His team is developing the software as part of the EU-funded […]

Using a laser pointer to guide a robot to find and retrieve an item it has never seen before sounds like science fiction, but Georgia scientists have found a way to make the ‘impossible’ possible.

Input devices, software, and output devices are assistive technologies that can improve the lifestyle of mobility impaired individuals. MSN has a very basic article up describing the basis of these technologies and their use to a non-techy audience. It isn’t earth shattering news, but if you’re thinking of trying to explain to grandma how DragonDictate is going to be able to help her remember to take her medicines or turn on the television or lamp, it might be of some help.

Belgian researchers have developed a brainwave reading headset which requires no batteries, and no external power source, overcoming a powerful obstacle to using this type of technology for day to day assisted living for the disabled. Combine this assistive technology with a little 4G WiFi, predictive neuroscience, some useful computer software, perhaps a GPS tracking device attached to an iPhone controlled electric scooter/wheelchair or exoskeleton, and the human body is on track to become more of a simple brain house than a work horse. The possibilities are limitless.

Pinktentacle translates a cyborg project from Asahi into English for those of us who aren’t blessed with the ability to read Hiragana/Katakana…and what they’ve dug up is astonishing! Japanese researchers have been implanting electrodes for monitoring activities directly into subjects brains. Researchers have already applied with ethics committees to begin robotic testing and expect to have great success. Resistance is futile.

The armed forces have long been innovators in the development and use of technology with many programs eventually having a trickledown effect into the lives of normal citizens. This phenomena has been seen in everything from air travel to ballpoint pens. The exoskeleton concept is nothing new to the community of people interested in mobility challenges, and the US Army appears to be on the fast track to getting something into production rather quickly. After a prototype is developed, deployed, and released we can expect to see civilian impact fairly quickly.

Reuters reports, via i4u, that Japanese researchers at Nissan (the auto maker) are developing a special assistive technology suit specifically geared toward helping senior citizens overcome the mobility impacting vagaries of age: frailness, weakened eyesight, slowed reflexes, and stiff joints. The company is aware of a non-elder market as well, and intends to develop for the disabled consecutively with their efforts toward providing improved eldercare.

Vitals.com, a New Jersey based startup, aims to take the guesswork out of finding a good physician by soliciting user reviews, certifications, and other risk factors for poor quality care. The site allows one to search out information on a particular physician, or to find a physician based on location, and specialty, and then see what his or her patients are saying about the quality of care they receive.

Codenamed ‘Newton’ Microsoft is developing a wireless handheld remote for the XBox 360. Modelled on the Wiimote, the ‘Newton’ device features a planned software development API that will be of ultimate interest to people developing assistive technology for the disabled. Expect offbook usage of this device to exceed offbook usage of the Wiimote almost directly out of the gate.