COMPORTA: New Technologies In The Service Of The Disabled

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COMPORTA: New Technologies In The Service Of The Disabled

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=60780

In many cases persons with limited mobility in their upper limbs;

those with muscular dystrophy, those suffering from certain nervous

and muscular disorders such as cerebral palsy, lose the ability of

moving their wrists and arms and, thereby, may have difficulties

handling certain devices, such as a computer mouse or keyboard or a

TV remote control pad. In the COMPORTA project, work is being

carried out with these people severely disabled in the upper limbs.

The aim of the project is to adapt a portable communicator that will

have various applications for these persons.

Xmadina Tecnología Adaptativa, S.L.; Eleka Ingeniaritza

linguistikoa, S.L.; Robotiker; Minos 97 and the Bidaideak

association have all participated in this project.

COMPORTA is based on the use of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant),

also known as electronic agendas. Given their small size and weight,

they are totally portable and are easy to use anywhere. This is why

PDAs are so useful for persons with neurophysical disabilities, and

can help with greater personal autonomy; in effect, they enhance

one´s quality of life. This is because they can be used to

communicate anywhere, listen to music of one´s choice, search the

Web or control the television set.

Nevertheless, those with disabilities in the arms and hands may have

problems in handling the buttons and tactile screens of the usual

PDAs. In order to provide a solution to this, an adaptation has been

made of Etsedi, a PC application created for the Xmadina company.

Editing text

Etsedi created a virtual keyboard on the PC screen, reducing the

complete virtual keyboard of the commercially available variety to

just eight keys. Taking into account that many people with limited

mobility are capable of handling the control pad for a wheelchair

with great precision and skill, the distribution of the 8 keys has

been designed so that they can be selected by means of movements

similar to those of these control pads. That is to say, the virtual

keys are selected with movements carried out in one plane, in

different directions.

The Etsedi application edits texts in Windows. Having a choice of

various menus, the user may write numbers, text or special

characters. Each virtual key has a set of characters that have been

grouped together on the basis of an analysis of combination

frequencies, while taking into account that these combinations never

occur and, thus, introducing the text is facilitated and optimised.

Besides, the application predicts the words that the user wishes to

write. As the user keys in a word, the programme automatically comes

up with up to 16 possible words around the 8 virtual keys, in such a

way that a simple movement can directly select the desired word. The

dictionary used by the application for this prediction can be

updated and adapted by the user to his or her needs.

The COMPORTA project has adapted this application to PDAs and has

developed the same system of prediction for the Basque language.

Further, they wish to extend the functions so the device can be used

for electronic mail, surfing the Net, and so on.

Giving a voice to the text

People disabled in the upper limbs often have problems in speaking.

This is why COMPORTA, by means of a virtual keyboard, adds a voice

to the written text. Using voice synthesisers and text-to-speech

technology, the text keyed in by the end-user is heard through the

speakers

This part of the project has been the task of Eleka Ingeniaritza

Linguistikoa and, although applications of this technology exist in

other languages, this is the first time in Euskara.

Thus, it will be a bilingual PDA, voice synthesising in both Basque

and Spanish, enabling the end-user to use either language. Moreover,

different tones of voice are available, the user being able to

employ the tone of their choice and which best befits their

personality, sex, age, etc.

Remote Control

The PDA can also be useful for controlling various everyday devices.

This is why, at COMPORTA, they want the PDA also to be a remote

control one for various utilities controlled through the PC. This

means the PC would have the software necessary to control the TV,

the music centre, the DVD, etc., and the PDA would send the

corresponding commands to the PC to control this software.

Wheelchair tuning

So that the PDA is genuinely portable, a support will be designed

which will be an articulated arm adaptable to different models of

wheelchair and which can also be used to support other items.

The device will have small speakers incorporated which will have

sufficient power and quality to be used in noisy environments, such

as the street. Current PDAs have inbuilt speakers but they are not

very powerful; the new, reinforced system will guarantee quality in

communication.

And all this, for how much?

There currently exist a number of devices for the disabled on the

market. However, unfortunately many disabled persons are denied

access to these because, according to the INE (Instituto Nacional de

Estadística) their price is prohibitive. This is why COMPORTA have

focused on the final product being accessible for this target group

of people.

The solution adopted was the use of commercial hardware with adapted

software. In most cases, the hardware is specialised. In this case,

however, it is one that is manufactured in great numbers, thus

reducing the price considerably. Moreover, in choosing a PDA amongst

mobile communicators, the economic factor was also taken into

consideration, as these are also cheaper than other communicators.

Internet reference

http://www.eleka.net/