University Develops Software for Disabled Veterans

By Madhubanti Rudra

TMCnet Contributor

 

In recent news release, the State University of New York at Buffalo announced the development of a new software program that helps disabled veterans gain independence in the way of typing letters, surfing the Web, listening to music and playing computer games with a single button or switch.

In the release, the university said that the new program proves that computer programming can translate into compassion. The credit of such a groundbreaking development goes to four classmates in a computer engineering class: Austin Miller, Robert Rodenhaus, Leonard Story Jr., and Matthew Taylor. The university developed the program last spring.

The Buffalo-based local technology firm Applied Sciences Group (ASG), bagged $270,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to develop an augmented communications network for spinal cord injury veterans at the Tampa center.

The UB students will work with ASG to bring their OmniSwitch technology into the real world. The software will be developed for disabled veterans at the Spinal Cord Injury Center at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, Fla.

A speech-generating software system is also on the card and a second UB team, comprising of computer science master's students Ari Fogel and Praneeta Prakash, is trusted to develop this. This system will enable nonverbal veterans to communicate with each other and caregivers; e-mail; text message; call friends via Skype (News - Alert); and complete tasks such as controlling the lights or TV via their computer.

Doing away with a mouse and keyboard, OmniSwitch allows users to control a computer with a single switch that plugs into a computer's USB port. The switch can take the shape of a large button, a sip and puff tube that detects air flow, or an eye gaze device that detects a person's blink. These access devices accommodate a disabled person's capabilities, allowing him or her to use the computer like a full-functioning individual.

On the other hand, the speech-generation software is being developed as a 'button builder,' which enables patients to communicate by pressing buttons on a computer screen. Each button prompts the computer to speak or type a customized word or phrase, or to take an action that could include opening a user's e-mail or making a call on Skype. Patients and therapists can customize as many buttons as they want.

In addition to the VA, the UB Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (UB CAT), funded by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation, is helping ASG fund Fogel and Prakash's work.

Earlier this month, the State University of New York at Buffalo announced that UB researchers should have preliminary results from the Federal Highway Administration-funded project by this summer with final results ready by spring of 2012. UB's partners on the project are the Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC) and the Niagara International Transportation Technology Coalition (NITTEC).

'We are building a computer model of the Buffalo Niagara region to help planners better manage the transportation system during inclement weather emergencies like this week's snowstorm,' Adel Sadek, director of UB's Transportation Systems Laboratory, said in a statement.