New Technology helps a blind soldier see with his tongue.
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Imagine being at war in the midst of battle without being aware of what was going on around you. Imagine having the desire to serve your country and help your fellow soldiers but you needed an aid to walk. This has been a problem for British soldier Craig Lundberg for the past three years. Craig Lundberg lost his vision after he was struck by a rocket propelled grenade in 2007.
After his incident Corporal Craig Lundberg was the first to get his hands or should I say tongue on a new device called Brainport. You can say that he was a pioneer in using this device. Brainport allows him to see images from his goggles which are then translated with a simulation pattern to his tongue and converted into signals that can be understood by his brain. People who are visually impaired will learn to use this device by recognizing patterns, movement and also high contrast objects. What concerns me is what happens if this particular soldier gets the device damaged while on a mission? Does the device have some sort of backup software and is it durable enough to withstand the different environments and situations a soldier has to deal with in the time of war?
According to Lundberg he says that the device feels like “licking a nine volt battery” or “like popping candy”. This device has a great potential to change the lives of many people if released to the public. This device could help those who are visually impaired see their loved ones which could be an enormous advancement in life of people affected by this disability. Lundberg says “ One of the things it has allowed me to do is pick up objects straight away, I can reach out and pick them up when before I would be fumbling around to feel for them”. The value of this simple action is taken for granted by so many people. You can tell that life is a lot more easier for Lundberg and his family ….even more so than before. There has to be some feeling of relief within him that now he has the ability to do more things for himself as well as others.
Currently this revolutionary device being used is only a prototype according to Disability and Health News. hopefully the British army will find answers to these problems before it is used by other visually impaired soldiers.The neuropsychologist supervising this trial Maurice Pitito says that “ It’s a concept in which you replace a sense that was lost by another one.” Brainport can allow people who are visually impaired walk around without a cane. It gives them the opportunity to navigate obstacles and even the opportunity to read signs. It also allows them to get a feeling of the world from their tongue and that gives them a sense of seeing. Most people do not understand that you do not only see with your eyes but you see with your brain.
Dangers of home fires for wheelchair bound
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What seems to be a simple thing to do, get out of the house before the fire gets too bad isn’t so simple. Many fires start and and stay small for some time but crank out all kinds of gases that can force you to lose consciousness before you knew that there was a problem. Another problem is where you do see the fire but it is blocking the exit you use to get out. What is the best way to attack that problem? Just try to push through the fire and hope that you get through before the fire gets to you? An alternate plan would be to barricade yourself into a room with towels and water. The towels are used to block off the smoke from getting into the room. While that will work temporarily save you from the fire what now? Call 911 and let them know which room you are in. Regardless of the situation, for single family homes the fire department will always be able to create an opening in the wall to get you out.
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Back on the air!
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I have been gone for a while and wanted to give you an update before the next news story is posted. I have been dealing with strange mini colds which included 16000+ white cell count and 103+ temps. They hast for about two or three days and then poop out. I have gone to the hospital numerous times for this to no avail. However, the last several months have had this lasting longer and draining my energy to the point that I could not do anything. More hospital stays, more drugs and I still have the same results. I’m taking a different tact this time by getting different experts in on consult in hopes that someone will come up with a brilliant idea. Until then I’ll do my best to keep the news heading your way, but if things slow down, at least you know that it isn’t because of lack of interest. 
Accessible software disappearing
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While some commercial software packages have interfaces to work with screen readers and magnifiers, open source, or free applications cannot hook up to these helper applications. Because of licensing pricing and the inability of free software to pay for licensing for a large number of users throughout the world, open standards in file formats appears to be creating a perfect storm of problems. In order to keep companies like Microsoft from controlling file formats and applications that can create those formats Internet engineering groups have created the OpenDocument format. This format is completely free and has no licensing or royalty fees associated with it. Programs that use this format can read and write the files making it a Rosetta stone for programs across the enterprise.
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Cyber-Shockwave underscored disabled issues during emergency
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A war game was played out about a week ago where the United States was attacked through the Internet and the electrical grid crashed causing immeasureable problems across the country. The game was re-broadcast by CNN and it was a chilling realization that not only were the able bodied in big trouble, but the disabled community was going to see serious casualties as nurses were unable to get to patients in homes, medication that required refrigeration went bad and hospitals were beyond overload with car accidents and crime waves that hit neighborhoods because the police could not respond. The actual war game did not take into account the disabled community or how they were going to be helped, but one could easily see that without electricity people in condominiums are stuck there with wheelchairs that slowly stopped without a way to recharge them. Even if you could get out stores were closed and you could not get to grocery stores, gas stations, or anywhere else that people go to for basic needs.
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Careers and the disabled in recessions
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Disabled workers have been shown over and over to be excellent workers. Many jobs like IT do not require anything more than someone with a college education that is sitting at a desk with a phone and a computer. Since many paraplegics can easily do work sitting at a desk there is no reason that they should not be considered for the job. Unfortunately many bosses assume that the disabled are brain damaged and are incapable of doing any real work in any capacity. Many of us see this in our lives as we go to the mall.
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Disabled community loses out on helping free software
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...Communication is sorely lacking in the disabled community not only to each other, but to virtually anyone in the able bodied community. This ends up creating products and services that are virtually impossible for the disabled to use. The sad thing is that with only a few changes virtually all products can be made so that the disabled could more easily use them. But the disabled community does a very poor job of communicating with companies, entering into groups that test products, or write letters or call companies to make things better. This is especially bad with the free and open source communities that write a multitude of software packages for free.
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Disabled demanding games they can play too
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Disabled gamers have had virtually no place to go to that writes up how well the games work for those with disabilities. In fact, some gamers have taken things into their own hands and are starting to sue large game companies that ignore the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to the law all companies are required to make their products useful to the disabled so that everyone can have access to them.
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New transport law in North Ireland
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For years the disabled have been complaining that taxis and bus drivers have refused service, charged extra to take them on board, or have just roared past them because they didn’t want to deal with a wheelchair on the bus. Finally a new law, the "Disability Transport Regulations" now require that taxis, buses and trains treat the disabled as any other able bodied passenger, including charging the same price and taking the as passengers. There have been many complaints over the years that mass transit workers refuse to help the disabled and many times drive past taxi and bus stops that people in wheelchairs are sitting in.
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Newly disabled in Haiti finding new life difficult
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Falling debris and collapsing building have created hundreds and perhaps thousands of disabled people. Many have have lost more than one limb, making it all but impossible to get around a country that never was very disability friendly. With few building standards to begin with, there are no ramps for wheelchairs and mass transit has no way of dealing with wheelchairs or those that use crutches or walkers to get around. Even those that are close to work or stores are finding movement to be difficult at best because of pot holes in roads and damaged sidewalks. Because Haiti is not a high tech country, most work is done with manual labor, the disabled are typically thrown aside and find that work is impossible to find. There are so many able bodied people looking for work that there is no reason for a businessman to hire a disabled person and deal with setting up a work environment to help that person. The earthquake has multiplied the problem because there are far fewer places to get work and there are now many more disabled people that are looking for work.
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