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Play Away Indoor Playground 4 Piece Combination The Play Away Playground was designed with the special needs child in mind. At the center of this system is the Support Bar, easily suspended in nearly any doorway, Then you just choose the attachments and you have instant vestibule stimulation. No tools required! Combination Kit includes the Support Bar, Net Swing, Trapeze Bar and Strap Swing. That's a 22% savings over purchasing items separately! For more information visit our site. Talking Maps and Diagrams Make Learning More Fun and Inclusive  ViewPlus Technologies announced the release of IVEOTM software to add audio labels to digital images to make learning more interesting and accessible.Websites and textbooks are loaded with images and diagrams that can be difficult to interpret by people with learning and visual disabilities. IVEOTM allows pictures to be labeled with audio tags, making them more interactive and inclusive for the reader. Different components of an image can be individually labeled with speaking tags. By navigating with a mouse or keyboard, one can hear the labels assigned to each part of a diagram or image, enhancing comprehension beyond use of vision alone. For blind people, as well as sighted, tactile/kinesthetic (touch) learners, IVEOTM has an optional hardware component, called the IVEOTM Touchpad. Tactile printouts can be placed on the IVEOTM Touchpad to provide an alternative display of images on the computer screen. Users can then read printouts through a combination of sight and touch, receiving audio feedback as they explore the image. IVEO™ incorporates all three learning modalities - tactile/kinesthetic, auditory and visual. Now teachers can easily create lessons that are effective for students with special needs. Contact ViewPlus directly info@viewplus.com, 541.754.4002 or visit the ViewPlus website http://www.viewplus.com for more details. Price: $945 TurnyPageTurner  This page turner is an electronic device that uses a robotic arm to turn the pages of a book (hard or soft cover) or a magazine either forwards or backwards. It is operated by a single switch (any dry contact closure) or it can accept an infrared command (so it can be used with an environmental control unit). The page turner has been used by several dozen clients through Integrated Rehabilitation Systems, Inc. and has produced a great response from them all. It has a few options including an adjustable stand, a puff switch and a carrying case. It comes with a micro light pneumatic switch. Price: $3,499.99 For more information, visit: http://store.integratedrehabsystems.com/tupatu.html or phone Erik Strader at 972-313-0186 or by email:estrader@integratedrehabsystems.com. Pointsmart Mouse Software Helps Children, Adults with Disabilities Using a computer mouse can be a difficult and embarrassing task for children and adults with disabilities affecting fine motor skills. But a new software application, available soon, promises to ease the frustration of using a mouse -- and provide greater computer access for people who suffer from cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury or other disabilities that make it very difficult to point and click. PointSmart, developed by Infogrip, http://www.infogrip.com/product_view.asp?RecordNumber=988&sbcolor=006600&optiontxt=Search helps stabilize erratic mouse movements by allowing users to adjust the sensitivity of those movements beyond standard speed and acceleration adjustments found on most personal computers. A final version of the product is expected to be on the market in March. PointSmart features a joystick mode that starts the mouse in one direction and allows it to continue without continuous control until the user chooses to change direction or select an object. For visually impaired users, PointSmart can display very large and easy-to-read mouse pointers on the computer screen. In schools, PointSmart will allow children with disabilities that affect fine motor control to effectively access computers that their classmates use on a daily basis. In work environments, people with disabilities that affect fine motor control will be able to use a mouse without the frustration of missed targets or misplaced information. Introducing PointSmart, the first mouse driver enhancement software that makes any mouse, trackball, touchpad, joystick or any other pointing device accessible for users with physical limitations. PointSmart allows you to slow down the speed of the cursor to a snails pace - great for users with poor motor control. PointSmart also includes Automatic Direction Control. This feature allows the user to touch or bump their pointing device in the direction they wish the cursor to move and PointSmart does the rest. The cursor will continue to move until the mouse is touched again and then it will stop. This feature is excellent for users that have very limited movement. With PointSmart you can even turn any mouse into a switch interface. Program your mouse clicks to do things like left, right and middle clicks, scroll up or down, click and drag, double click, space bar, tab, arrow keys and many more. You can even turn your mouse clicks off! Features include: Speed Inhibitor - Slows down your mouse to a very slow speed Automatic Direction Control - moves the cursor in any direction with a slight touch of your mouse Mouse Button Options - assign almost any function to your mouse clicks - turns your mouse into a switch interface Screen Wrapping - move your mouse to the edge of your screen and it will wrap around to the opposite side Invert Directions - lets you reverse the position of your mouse, trackball or joystick for easier access Requirements: Operating System - Win 98,ME,2K,XP Pointing Device - PS2,USB Price: $99 If you have questions, or would like a printed copy of the Catalog please fill out the catalog request form or contact us at 805-652-0770 or sales@infogrip.com. Bionic Suit Offers Wearers Super-strength New Scientist April 9, 2005 
A ROBOT suit has been developed that could help older people or those with disabilities to walk or lift heavy objects.HAL, or hybrid assistive limb, is the result of 10 years' work and integrates mechanics, electronics, bionics and robotics in a new field known as cybernics. The most fully developed prototype, HAL 3, is a motor-driven metal "exoskeleton" that you strap onto your legs to power-assist leg movements. A backpack holds a computer with a wireless network connection, and the batteries are on a belt. Two control systems interact to help the wearer stand, walk and climb stairs. A "bio-cybernic" system uses bioelectric sensors attached to the skin on the legs to monitor signals transmitted from the brain to the muscles. While the bio-cybernic system moves individual elements of the exoskeleton, a second system provides autonomous robotic control of the motors to coordinate these movements and make a task easier overall, helping someone to walk, for instance. The system activates itself automatically once the user starts to move. The first time they walk, its sensors record posture and pattern of motion, and this information is stored in an onboard database for later use. When the user walks again, sensors alert the computer, which recognizes the movement and regenerates the stored pattern to provide power-assisted movement. The actions of both systems can be calibrated according to a particular user's needs, for instance to give extra assistance to a weaker limb. The HAL 4 and HAL 5 prototypes have an upper part to assist the arms, and will help a person lift up to 8 pounds more than they can manage unaided. The new HALs will also eliminate the need for a backpack. Instead, the computer and wireless connection have been shrunk to fit in a pouch attached to the suit's belt. HAL 5 also has smaller motor housings, making the suit much less bulky around the hips and knees. HAL 3 weighs 8.5 pounds, but the help it gives the user is more than enough to compensate for this. "It's like riding on a robot, rather than wearing one," says Sankai. He adds that HAL 4 will weigh 7.4 pounds, and he hopes HAL 5 may be lighter still. Many requests for the devices from people with brain and spinal injuries have been received; so planning is to extend the suit's applications to include medical rehabilitation. The first commercial suits are likely to cost between $14,000 to $19,000. Currently not in production. Kurzweil 3000 for Windows Kurzweil 3000 for Windows was first introduced in 1996. It has since become the leading reading, writing and learning software solution for individuals of all ages with learning difficulties like dyslexia, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and other literacy difficulties. Teachers have demonstrated time and again that Kurzweil 3000 provides students the tools they need to improve their reading speed and comprehension, plus a suite of features that make it possible for them to learn and study independently. In this way, it has helped improve their academic experience, their ability to function effectively in the workplace and the quality of their daily lives In addition, the product is proving instrumental for both classroom and standardized assessments. Kurzweil 3000 not only reads questions and answers aloud, it allows students to type answers directly onto the image of a scanned test, thereby offering more independence for both the student and teacher. Prices start at $1,495 Contact and ordering info: Toll free: 800-894-5374 http://www.kurzweiledu.com/kurz3000. customerservice@kurzweiledu.com ROBOTRON PTY LTD Excalibur 
The Excalibur represents the culmination of two decades of experience in designing and manufacturing assistive devices, widely used and known by our blind and vision-impaired customers all over the world.This remarkable reading machine combines all the attributes one should look for in a reading machine: speed, reading accuracy, simplicity of use, low weight and small size. We included all this, and yet, incredibly, we managed to keep the glass size at 14.5 x 8.5 inches (370 x 216 mm), the largest scan area available in any reading machine of its size and price, making it possible to scan two pages of a standard-size book at the same time. The machine weighs only 8.5 lb (3.7 kg), making it possible to be carried around with ease. With internal storage of 10,000 pages and external USB storage, multi-lingual capabilities and logical and intuitive user interface, this is a reading machine suited for a demanding vision-impaired user. Price: $2,999.95 Contact and ordering info: Sensory Tools Division Robotron Group 15 Stamford Road Oakleigh 3166, Australia Tel +61 3 9568 2568 Fax +61 3 9568 1377 http://www.sensorytools.com/excalibur. Piloting a wheelchair with the power of the mind Paralyzed patients dream of the day when they can once again move their limbs. That dream is making its way to becoming a reality, thanks to a neural implant created by John Donoghue and colleagues at Brown University and Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. In 2004, Matthew Nagle, who is paralyzed due to a spinal-cord injury, became the first person to test the device, which translated his brain activity into action (see "Implanting Hope," March 2005, and "Brain Chips Give Paralyzed Patients New Powers"). Nagle's experience with the prosthetic was exciting but very preliminary: he could move a cursor on a computer screen and make rough movements with a robotic arm. Now Donoghue and team are pushing ahead with their quest to develop a commercially available product by testing the device in two new patients, one with a neurodegenerative disease and the other suffering the effects of a stroke. With spinal-cord injuries and some types of stroke and neurodegenerative disease, the information-relay system between the brain and muscles is disrupted. The Cyberkinetics device consists of a tiny chip containing 100 electrodes that record signals from hundreds of neurons in the motor cortex. A computer algorithm then translates this complex pattern of activity into a signal used to control a computer cursor, robotic arm, and, maybe eventually, the patient's own limb. The researchers have now tested the device in two new patients, one with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, and the other with brain-stem stroke, a particularly devastating type of stroke that paralyzes the body but leaves the mind intact. The scientists presented their latest results at the Society for Neurosciences conference this week in Atlanta, GA. At the conference, Donoghue, founder of Cyberkinetics and a neuroscientist at Brown, and Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist at MGH who works with the patients studied, talked with Technology Review about the latest developments in neural prosthetics and their plans for the future. Read the entire article and interview at: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17629&ch= Emerging Technology -- Braille Converter Eases Web Use A European consortium has developed a service that automatically converts documents into Braille. Still in the testing phase, RoboBraille will allow users to send plain text, rich text, HTML, or Word documents by email, and a few seconds later receive the document as an MP3 audio file or as electronic Braille that can be read by a tactile display or sent to a Braille printer. "About two or three years ago we came to the conclusion that it's simply too complicated for the average user to produce Braille," according to consortium leader Lars Balieu Christensen, who also heads a Danish assistive technology company. "We wanted to set up a system that was entirely automated, where the user didn't need to know anything apart from an email address." Christensen hopes to expand the service to include PDF documents. RoboBraille will be free to individual users and nonprofit organizations when it is made fully available next year. The service currently handles about 400 requests a day, but is capable of processing about 14,000 Braille conversions a day. Read the entire article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6542441.stm Links: Braille converter eases web use http://softhail.com/news_abc?letter=B Robobraille http://www1.robobraille.org/websites/acj/robobraille.nsf Users Flock to Free Document Conversion Service http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=127 |
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