#assisitive technology

[demianlapointe]

A list of resources from the Assistive Technology Center, New Jersey’s online resource for information and equipment. They help people with disabilities, their families, teachers, and employers identify and learn to use the technology that will be most effective in meeting their goals.

[sensoryguru-blog-blog]

Incredible! The power of the #mind meets the power of #technology. 

DJ Fresh & Mindtunes: A track created only by the mind (Documentary)

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Chipmaker Races to Save Stephen Hawking’s Speech as His Condition Deteriorates

Intel is developing communication technology that can quickly process and respond to signals Hawking sends from the few muscles in his body that he can still control

By Larry Greenemeier

  DEFIANT: Intel is working on a system that will use physicist Stephen Hawking’s cheek twitch as well as mouth and eyebrow movements to provide signals to his computer. Hawking is looking to prevent the further deterioration of his ability to communicate.Image: Courtesy of ²°¹°°, via Wikimedia Commons

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has long relied on technology to help him connect with the outside world despite thedegenerative motor neuron disease he has battled for the past 50 years. Whereas Hawking’s condition has deteriorated over time, a highly respected computer scientist indicated at last week’s InternationalConsumer Electronics Show (CES) that he and his team may be close to a breakthrough that could boost the rate at which the physicist communicates, which has fallen to a mere one word per minute in recent years. For the past decade Hawking has used a voluntary twitch of his cheek muscle to compose words and sentences one letter at a time that are expressed through a speech-generation device connected to his computer. Each tweak stops a cursor that continuously scans text on a screen facing the scientist. At CES, Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner noted that Hawking can actually make a number of other facial expressions as well that might also be used to speed up the rate at which the physicist conveys his thoughts. Even providing Hawking with two inputs would give him the ability to communicate using Morse code, “which would be a great improvement,” said Rattner, who is also director of Intel Labs. Intel has since the late 1990s supplied Hawking with technology to help the scientist express himself. The latest chapter in their work together began in late 2011 when Hawking reached out to Gordon Moore, informing the Intel co-founder and father ofMoore’s law that the physicist’s ability to compose text was slowing and inquiring whether Intel could help. Rattner met with Hawking early last year around the time of the latter’s 70th birthday celebration in Cambridge, where the Intel CTO was one of the speakers. After meeting with Hawking, Rattner said he wondered whether his company’s processor technology could restore the scientist’s ability to communicate at five words per minute, or even increase that rate to 10. “Up to now, these technologies didn't work well enough to satisfy someone like Stephen, who wants to produce a lot of information,” Rattner said. Intel is now working on a system that can use Hawking’s cheek twitch as well as mouth and eyebrow movements to provide signals to his computer. “We've built a new, character-driven interface in modern terms that includes a better word predictor,” Rattner said. The company is also exploring the use of facial-recognition software to create a new user interface for Hawking that would be quicker than selecting individual letters or words. Hawking’s current setup includes a tablet PC with a forward-facing Webcam that he can use to place Skype calls. A black box beneath his wheelchair contains an audio amplifier, voltage regulators and a USB hardware key that receives the input from an infrared sensor on Hawking’s eyeglasses, which detects changes in light as he twitches his cheek. A hardware voice synthesizer sits in another black box on the back of the chair and receives commands from the computer via a USB-based serial port. Intel’s work with Hawking is part of the company’s broader research into smart gadgets as well as assistive technologies for the elderly. The key to advancing smart devices—which have been at a plateau over the past five or six years—is context awareness, Rattner said. Devices will really get to know us the way a friend would, understanding how our facial expressions reflect our mood, he added. Intel’s plan for identifying personal context requires a combination of hardware sensors—camera, accelerometer, microphone, thermometer and others—with software that can check one’s personal calendar, social networks and Internetbrowsing habits, to name a few. “We use this [information] to reason your current context and what's important at any given time [and deliver] pervasive assistance,” Rattner said. One approach to “pervasive assistance” is the Magic Carpet, a rug that Intel and GE developed with embedded sensors and accelerometers that can record a person’s normal routine and even their gait, sounding an alert when deviations are detected. Such assistance will anticipate our needs, letting us know when we are supposed to be at an appointment and even reminding us to carry enough cash when running certain errands, according to Rattner, who added, “We’ll be emotionally connected with our devices in a few years.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=intel-helps-hawking-communicate#

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Brain Computer Interface - A Reflection by Anirban Lahiri, Senior AT Specialist, Mada (Qatar Assistive Technology Center)

Brain Computer Interface - A Reflection Since inception of the human race the idea of being able to perform an action solely on the basis of thought has been an unending quest. Throughout eras scientists have been working either actively or sporadically to explore ways to make this happen. Initial work (in the late 1920s) was involved around discovering the fact that electrical signal produced by the human brain can be detected and recorded from the scalp. The advent of computers was a significant breakthrough in this area of work, as it lead the way towards what we today know as “Brain Computer Interface (BCI)”.

The computational processing aspect of computers now opened up doors to the possibility of being able to analyze and distinguish the patterns of the electrical signals being produced by the human brain, and thus allowing to trigger a desired outcome for a given identified brain signal pattern. For example, when brain signal pattern A is detected by the computer then it could be associated to trigger a tangible action like activating a switch to turn on/off the lights. In simple terms this kind of a setup that detects electrical signals from the brain, and computes these signal patterns to initiate a substantial tangible action is known as a BCI.

BCI has always been a subject matter of interest in the fields of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology. The potential of BCI is unbounded with regards to improving the lives people with disabilities. For example, BCI based systems could allow an individual with severely restricted or no range of movements (e.g. spinal cord injuries) to drive a power wheelchair, operate household appliances, etc. Or even help someone in a vegetative state to communicate by speaking out the words that the individual would like to say. Primarily there are two categories of BCI systems – “invasive” and “noninvasive”. Invasive systems interact with the brain directly via electrodes / sensors that are implanted into the brain or its surface. While noninvasive systems interact with the brain indirectly via electrodes / sensors placed on the surface of the head that detect brain signal emissions (e.g. Electro-Encephalography (EEG), functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and Magnetic Sensor Systems). Example of a noninvasive BCI system in use Noninvasive BCI systems usually involve wearing a head cap (aka EEG cap) with multiple holes / slots to put on the electrodes at the relevant areas of the surface of the head to detect and record the electrical signals emitted by the brain. Electro gel is used on the electrodes to improve contact between the scalp and the electrode. Due to the requirement of a gel such electrodes are also known as wet-electrodes.

Existing systems can have anywhere between a few to more than a 100 electrodes. The practicalities of using wet electrodes – e.g. drying up of gel, repeated cleaning of electrodes and head skin to setup EEG Cap, irritation of sensitive skin due to application of gel, etc. – does not make them convenient for quick setup and daily use. Over the recent few years this has prompted the development of dry electrodes. Unlike wet electrodes, dry electrodes do not require the use of gel and can be setup direct into the EEG Cap. Although still in the infancy of its developmental cycle, dry electrodes are quickly catching up in terms of detecting high quality brain signals as their wet counterpart. Regular comparison studies are being carried out to evaluate the performance of Wet vs. Dry Electrodes within the context of EEG based noninvasive BCI. Quadriplegic Woman Controlling Robotic Arm with Thought using an Invasive BCI System Currently invasive BCI systems are mostly implemented within controlled research oriented environments.

Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology applications are at the forefront of the research being conducted in this area. Recent examples of breakthroughs include enabling a Paralyzed Woman to Steer a Robotic Arm with her Mind and Sip Coffee and Controlling a Prosthetic Arm with Thought to perform generic tasks. Both these cases required a computer chip to be implanted in the user’s brain. This chip is programmed to collect the electrical signals from the brain and translate them into actions to be carried out by the robotic arm. Noninvasive EEG based BCI systems have also been a sizzling area of development. Due to the non-surgical nature of setup noninvasive systems are being experimented to be utilized for a wider range of applications.

The Brainable Project is an example of noninvasive BCI systems being employed to control home automation systems by people with severe disabilities. Noninvasive BCI systems have also managed to penetrate into the mainstream market, for the most part in the gaming industry. The Emotiv EPOC is a noninvasive EEG mainstream BCI interface that is sold with an optional SDK kit to develop customized applications. The EPOC also comes with a number of readily available applications such as emotion / mood recognition, and virtual games. Similarly, BCI technology from NeuroSky has managed to incorporate its application into a number of devices like media players, video games, and the latest being a fluffy wearable pair of cat ears that responds to the emotional state of the user.

The future of BCI looks promising with immense positive impact on improving the lives of people with disabilities. Both invasive and noninvasive BCI technologies possess their own set of current practical drawbacks. Invasive BCI requiring a surgical procedure to implant sensors and the dependency of noninvasive BCI on wet electrodes to detect a good quality brain signal make them inconvenient of day-to-day use. The entry of noninvasive BCI into the games market has been an encouraging aspect of development. Although in its early stages at present, the future seems to be geared towards BCI being seamlessly integrated into video-games with industry giants like Sony (Playstation), and Nintendo (Wii) looking to find new ways of interaction and controls for gamers. The widespread usage of BCI will result in improved hardware and extensive application of such technology.

The work in the field of BCI has evolved enough to continue maturing into a fully developed solution. The question is how much longer will it take for such a breakthrough technology to be perfected?

Sources: • Brain-Computer Interfaces: Revolutionizing Human-Computer Interaction, B. Graimann, B. Allison, G. Pfurtscheller, 2010 • Brain-Computer Interfaces: Principles and Practice, Jonathan R. Wolpaw, Elizabeth W. Wolpaw, 2012 • Brain-Computer Interfaces: An International Assessment of Research and Development Trends, Theodore W. Berger, John K. Chapin, Greg A. Gerhardt, Dennis J. McFarland, Jose C. Principe, Walid V. Soussou, Dawn M. Taylor, Patrick A. Tresco, 2008 • Simultaneous EEG Recordings with Dry and Wet Electrodes in Motor-Imagery – http://mlin.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/BCI2011JS.pdf • Paralyzed Woman Steers Robotic Arms With Mind And Sips Coffee – http://www.assistivetechnologyblog.com/2012/05/paralyzed-woman-steers-robotic-arms.html • Controlling A Prosthetic Arm With Thought – http://www.assistivetechnologyblog.com/2012/12/controlling-prosthetic-arm-with-thought.html • The Brainable Project - http://www.brainable.org/en/Pages/Home.aspx • Necomimi brain-activated cat ears hit the U.S. – http://www.gizmag.com/necomimi-brain-activated-cat-ears/23302/

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WebAIM Screen Reader Survey

WebAIM Screen Reader Survey SSB applauds WebAIM for their efforts to bring data to our community. A great example is their recent survey on screen reader usage and preferences. In May 2012, WebAIM conducted a survey of preferences of screen reader users. They received 1782 valid responses to this survey. This was a follow-up survey to the original WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey of January 2009 and the follow-up surveys from October 2009 and December 2010. The survey was primarily distributed via Internet channels – email lists, social media, etc. This would suggest that the majority of respondents who found out about and completed the survey did so because they were monitoring one of these channels. This automatically rules out groups of screen reader users who do not have Internet access and those who use screen readers for targeted purposes such as work, school or as part of training and vocational programs and do not monitor Internet distirbution channels. This likely has a lot to do with explaining the proficiency statistics, where 58 percent of respondents rated themselves as advanced screen reader users and 64.2 percent considered themselves to have advanced Internet proficiency. In stark comparison, five percent of respondents claimed to have a beginner level of screen reader proficiency and 2.2 percent rated themselves as having a beginner level of Internet proficiency. These results are not surprising as the respondents would likely need to have a moticom of proficiency to complete a survey posted on the Internet. To capture data from the groups which were excluded alternate methods for distributing the survey announcement and recordinng the results would have to be employed. Alternate methods of distribution could include placing announcements in publications read by users of screen readers, targeting consumer and other blindness-related organizations such as rehabilitation agencies and training centers, radio reading services for the blind and other information channels targeted at the blind community such as NFB Newsline. Other methods of submitting results could include an automated or manned telephone line, Braille, audio submission, or using various agencies and centers to collect data and submit the results on behalf of the respondents. JAWS still remains the dominant primary screen reader, however it has seen a significant decline in loyalty – down to 49% from 66.4% in October 2009 and 59.2% in December 2010. Window-Eyes and ZoomText saw small increases in primary screen reader usage while VoiceOver saw a small decrease in usage. The survey made it clear that screen reader users are abandoning more expensive primary screen readers for free and low-cost alternatives. The open source NVDA screen reader saw a 500 percent increase in 2.5 years from 2.9 percent to 13.7 percent, and the low-cost screen readers from the Serotek Corporation, System Access and System Access to Go are gaining increasing popularity. The significance of these findings is that JAWS no longer holds the market share within the survey sample. For our clients, this translates to meaning that “works with JAWS” is no longer sufficient for an organization to claim compliance with functional regulatory requirements. This stresses the need for organizations to implement technically correct code and cross-technology accessibility solutions as prescribed by SSB’s accessibility best practices which are included as part of the Accessibility Management Platform. It was interesting to find that there was not a marked difference between respondents with and without disabilities. JAWS was a little more popular and NVDA slightly less popular among users with disabilities. They also found Regional differences: JAWS was much more popular in Asia (68% of respondents), Australia (58%) and North America (50%) than in Europe/UK (37%). NVDA was nearly 4 times more popular in Europe/UK than in North America. The survey found that JAWS usage on a desktop/laptop continues to decrease while both NVDA and VoiceOver increase. Window-Eyes and System Access usage is generally unchanged. 58% of respondents use more than one desktop/laptop screen reader. 26% use three or more and 9% use four or more different screen readers. The percentages of respondents using multiple screen readers are notably increasing over time. The vast majority of respondents had updated their primary screen reader within the previous year. The percentage of users updating in the previous year has increased slowly over the course of these surveys. It’s important to note that many users may still be using screen readers that are several years old. Users of NVDA (95.3% updated in the previous year) and Window-Eyes (92.6%) were more likely to have updated their screen reader in the previous year, whereas users of JAWS (80%), VoiceOver (78.3%), and especially ZoomText (51%) were less likely to have updated. With the given combination of screen reader brands, versions and platforms (operating systems and browsers) that are or could be in use throughout the disability community, it becomes imperative that public-facing properties such as government, financial and educational websites not rely solely upon modern techniques to provide accessibility solutions. For example, the Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) specification has varying degrees of implementation between JAWS, ZoomText, Window-Eyes, NVDA and VoiceOver, and between versions of each of these products. Moreover, WAI-ARIA implementation varies among browser brands and versions. This is why it is important that any accessibility solution which implements WAI-ARIA is coupled with a non-ARIA fallback solution. For more on SSB’s policy concerning the use of ARIA, refer to ARIA Guidance. One of the most significant statistics is that 98 percent of respondents noted that they have Javascript functionality enabled in their browsers. This means that virtually all users will not encounter accessibility solutions which have been provided by organizations in the form of alternatives to scripting. It is very important that organizations seek to make all of their scripting functionality accessible rather than providing accessible functionality via an alternative to Javascript. AMP has best practices in the areas of Ajax and dynamic content, simulated controls, focus and keyboard accessibility which address the issues of making Javascript accessible to users of screen readers. The two biggest accessibility challenges noted by screen reader users were inaccessible Flash content and Captchas which they were unable to solve. SSB has best practices for Adobe Flash and Flex which guide in the development and testing of accessible Flash content. Best practices for accessible solutions to Captcha are also in the system as well. Respondents also indicated that using structured headings are one of the primary mechanisms used to navigate web pages using a screen reader. To aid in the development and testing of correct heading structure on web pages, AMP contains best practices which address this topic including: Avoid unnecessary use of heading elements, Ensure heading elements are properly ordered, Ensure headings and labels are descriptive and unique, Ensure implicit headings are avoided, and Provide section headings to organize content. When compared to October 2009, cost has notably increased as a main reason for respondents using their primary screen reader. This may help explain the shift to less expensive screen readers. Only 1.7% of JAWS users cited cost as the main reason for using it, compared to 48.3% of NVDA users and 30.3% of System Access users. Availability was cited as the primary reason by VoiceOver users. Existing Comfort/Expertise was cited as the primary reason by JAWS, Window-Eyes and ZoomText users. This was a very interesting study and shows interesting market trend in movement away from expensive AT and moving towards free and low-cost alternatives. The entire survey can be accessed by navigating to: http://webaim.org/blog/survey-4-results/