Write With Your Eyes. It's every writer's dream: just look at the page and have the words appear. Jean Lorenceau, a neuroscientist at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, has developed an interface to do that, by tracking eye movement. With a little training, he says, a person can learn to control a cursor on a screen. This isn't a cure for writer's block, though. Lorenceau sees it as an aid to people who are paralyzed and want to communicate. He plans to test it with people who have Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. BLOG: Man Implants Magnets In Arm To Hold iPod The system works by attaching a camera to the person's head (using a frame for glasses). Ordinarily, when a human eye is not following something that moves, it makes what are called saccades. Lorenceau 's system tracks the eyes for 30 seconds at a time.
BLOG: Camera Uses Eye Blink To Snap Photo The system isn't as sophisticated as it could be — there are ways to add processing to smooth out the movement more. Eye-popping illusion lets you write with gaze alone | Crave. Last month, a paralyzed man sent his first tweet using eye movements. A new technology out of France could allow him not only to type, but to draw and sign his name in cursive on a computer. The technique, described in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology, relies on a novel head-mounted display that uses a camera to track eye movements and then relays that movement data to a computer. Discovered by a Paris scientist studying optical illusions, the technique tricks the neuromuscular machinery into overcoming a natural phenomenon known as saccadic eye movements. Try moving your gaze smoothly across a fixed object.
Notice your eyes subtly jumping from one point to another? They're "saccading," a movement that would hinder eye writing in much the same way a shaky hand would interfere with handwriting. "We show that one can gain complete, voluntary control over smooth pursuit eye movements," Lorenceau says. CES: A laptop that follows your eyes - 1/13. Control a computer with your eyes. The brilliant Stephen Hawking certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes to physics, and do imagine just how much more he is able to achieve if he were to be fully healthy?
I guess that is a rhetorical question, and do appreciate his immense contribution to the world of science. Those who suffer from various diseases or have physical conditions that restrict one’s movement to just the eyes, can finally be able to use their eyes to control a computer, even if the kind of parts used amount to just $35 thereabouts. The system is sensitive enough that under testing circumstances, test subjects managed to score within 20% of an able-bodied person right after a mere 10 minutes of practice.
This particular tracker will rely on a couple of video console cameras in addition to a pair of eyeglasses that require to be calibrated. . Solar panel eye implant might restore sight. Don’t you just love technological advancements in the medical field? Scientists have managed to come up with extremely small “solar panels” that are implanted into the eye, and this might eventually help restore vision to the blind without requiring to rely on wires that are unsightly, not to mention uncomfortable. We are talking about a wireless source of power here, and since it is derived from solar energy, you know that it ought to be able to run indefinitely (in theory, at least, without subscribing to normal wear and tear).
Second Sight from Sylmar, California have inspired this prosthetic retina, where a camera detects visual information that is then relayed to an implant within the eye using wires, which in turn replaces damaged photoreceptors. A video camera mounted on a pair of glasses will be able to relay the information to photovoltaic implant thanks to a beam of low-intensity infrared light. . Bionic eye gives sight to the blind. Remember the Six Million Dollar Man? Well, I am quite sure if inflation was to be taken into account, Steve Austin would be worth far more than that today with his cybernetic enhancements, but this is another can of worms altogether. What we are interested in today is a new ‘bionic eye’ microchip which has been implanted in the eyes of two blind British men, and the interesting thing is, these implants actually ended up with them receiving some form of vision for the first time in decades. The microchip itself measures 3mm in size, and were implanted behind the eyes of these men, being connected with electrodes.
It takes weeks for the effect to kick in though, as they have both regained ‘useful vision’ after some time, being able to recognize faces and potentially see once again. According to James (one of the two blind men), “Since switching on the device I am able to detect light and distinguish the outlines of certain objects which is an encouraging sign. . Professor wants to embed camera in the rear of his head. LookTel Money Reader app receives major update. Robot sensory perception could help the blind get around. Being blind does not mean the end of the world, but for many, it makes life a whole lot harder since it is tougher to get around.
Good thing technology has made leaps and bounds in this area, where technologies used in robots to help them navigate through their surroundings have been modified and adapted to assist the blind folk get around indoor and outdoor spaces without any additional help – certainly a far more technologically advanced solution compared to the humble (but superbly useful) walking stick is needed. Enter this system that is being developed by Edwige Pissaloux and colleagues at the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France. Read on after the jump to find out how robotic vision might eventually phase out the walking stick to help the blind get around. Should it be perfected, it might eventually enable blind folk to get around without any external help wherever they want to go. . Tactile Wrist-Watch Helps Those Visually Impaired To Tell The Time. Jacob Rynkiewicz decided that perhaps it was time to start focusing on the basic needs of those who are visually impaired.
Sure there are fancy gadgets and devices that allow those who are visually impaired to get along with their lives but perhaps one such need, one as basic as keeping time, has been neglected, which is why he has come up with the concept watch that would allow those who are visually impaired to better tell the time with the Tactile Wrist-Watch. The design of the watch itself is an elegant one, sleek and classy, looking better than some of the other regular watches out there. The watch’s band is made out of a flexible rubber and shouldn’t cause any skin irritation and taking the watch on and off should be an easy affair.
So in order to tell the time, all the user would have to do is feel the surface of the watch with their hands, with the inner black circle representing the hours and the outer white circle representing the minutes. Prototype bionic eye implant from Australia. Concept: Tactile Phone For The Visually Impaired. “Virtual Cane” Lets The Visually Impaired Navigate Via Sonar. A team affiliated with Israel’s Hebrew University, has developed a new device that would allow the blind and visually impaired to navigate their way by the use of “virtual canes”. The device makes use of sonar-like technology (much like how bats use sonar to “see”) to detect objects within 10 meters, which would allow the blind or visually impaired to make their way about safely. The handheld unit will emit an invisible focused beam in the direction that the user chooses, and other sensors will then detect the distance and height of all objects near the user.
The information is then communicated back to user via a series of intuitive vibrations to create an impromptu spatial picture. The “cane” also varies the strength and frequency of the vibrations, depending on how near or far the user is from the object, so light vibrations could mean that the user is still quite a distance away from the object, while strong vibrations could mean that the user is getting very close to the object. EYE 21 system lets the blind “see” through the use of sound.
It seems that there have been quite a lot of new technologies that are coming up directed at those who are visually impaired or blind, and that can only be a good thing! We had previously reported on a “virtual cane” that made use of sonar to help map out obstacles and objects, and only a couple of hours ago we wrote a post on a prototype high-tech glasses that makes use of augmented reality to help the visually impaired “see”. Now we have the EYE 21, developed by engineers from the Research Center for Graphic Technologies at Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), which seems to work somewhat similarly to the “virtual cane”.
Much like the “virtual cane”, EYE 21 relies on the use of sound to help guide those who are visually impaired or blind. The sunglasses come with two built-in micro video cameras, a computer and a pair of headphones. High-tech glasses will allow those who are visually impaired to “see” Having one’s vision impaired can be life altering; the way we go about our daily life, the things we can and cannot do have all been changed. Sure we could use seeing-eye dogs which are extremely effective, but compare the cost of training up a seeing-eye dog which is reportedly at 25,000 GBP, with a set of high-tech glasses which could potentially cost 500 GBP. In terms of cost effectiveness, it’s a no brainer. Oxford scientists have designed a set of high-tech glasses (which has yet to be given a name) which they claim will radically change the life of those suffering from certain visual impairment disorders, such as macular degeneration or diabetes-induced retinopathy.
How these glasses are supposed to work is through the use of a camera and a LED display, which are used as the “lens” of the glasses. It’s a pretty clever idea, perhaps one stop away from actual bionic eyes. Woman looking for funding for a prosthetic eye digital camera. Having lost her eye in a car accident, Tanya Marie Vlach arrived upon the idea of installing an eye-camera in place of the prosthesis that she currently has equipped. If you think about it, it’s sort of like a pseudo-bionic eye, although it will most definitely not be able to replace a natural eye. In essence what she’s trying to achieve is an eye-camera that will be able to capture video in 720p HD quality and transmit it back wirelessly to a mobile app.
Tanya also wishes for the eye-camera to be able to zoom, be water-tight and include facial recognition. She also wants the pupil to be able to dilate according to the amount of light available, much like how a regular eye would. It’s currently a Kickstarter project and she has requested for a funding of $15,000. It sounds like a really unique project, and a pretty worth cause. Light Stick concept is a modular walking stick for the visually impaired. Unfortunately for the visually impaired out there, a lot of things that we consider to be normal and easy can be a challenge for them. This includes reading or even crossing the street, which is why this modular walking stick, also known as the Light Stick, designed by Wu Guanghao looks like it might be welcomed with open arms by the visually impaired community if it were to ever be put into production. For starters, the stick comes with a sensor built into the bottom of it which sends out sonar pulses to detect obstacles in the user’s way.
When an obstacle has been detected, the nature of the obstacle will be conveyed through vibrations in the stick that vary in vibration strength/speed. Next up the handle of the stick itself will pull double duty as an electronic scanner, allowing the user to scan written text which in turn will be “read” back into the wireless headphone worn by the user, also built into (and removable) the stick. .