Sponsor: Advanced Interfaces, Inc.

• Project duration: 10/1/2004 - 9/30/2007
• Total project (est.): $2,485,901
• Requested ATP funds: $1,988,720

About 2.5 million Americans of all ages are afflicted with serious communication and/or motor disabilities and cannot rely on the spoken word to communicate or use a standard keyboard and mouse. This population includes people suffering from congenital disorders such as cerebral palsy, or stroke, brain injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Due to their disability, they are severely restricted in their access to education opportunities, employment, and positive social outcomes. Existing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices are cumbersome, slow, often require the user to sit in a specialized chair or in a particular position (which becomes burdensome over extended periods) and do not differentiate between intended movements and involuntary or imprecise movements. They generally also support only a single mode of communication - activating a switch with a head motion, for example. The user must adapt to the system. Advanced Interfaces (AI) believes that instead the system should adapt to the user. The company proposes to develop a touch-free, personalized, multimodal interface platform (PerMIP) that adjusts to an individual's motor and vocalizing abilities, thereby recognizing his or her communication intent - a significant improvement over current technologies that do not account for individual variations in capabilties. The proposed PerMIP system will address these challenges using multiple sensors to capture head movements, hand movements, vocalizations, and so forth, and adaptive software control to permit the user to use the system from a variety of positions (such as lying in bed, or sitting on a sofa.) Adaptive software will allow the system to "learn" the user's specific behavior patterns and motions, filtering out involuntary gestures and sounds. Advanced Interfaces will subcontract with Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pa.) to define user needs, conceptualize field testing and usability trials, recruit participants and implement field tests, evaluate results, and recommend prototype revisions. A small company, AI secured seed grants for the initial research, but because of the high-risk and long-term nature of the project the company needs ATP support. ATP funds will accelerate the research and development phase, and allow them to support a broader R&D; program that will bring the technology to the entire market of persons with genetic or neurogenic disabilities. If successful, the PerMIP system could significantly enhance the lives of millions of Americans with severe communication/motor disabilities. The system also could help children or the elderly, who may have difficulty using a standard mouse, as well as others who require a touch-free interface, such as surgeons and crisis management personnel.

For project information:

Priya Baboo, (814) 867-8977
pbaboo@advancedinterfaces.com

ATP Project Manager

Timothy A. Hall, 301-975-8077
tim.hall@nist.gov

This is the fact sheet for this project as it was announced on September 28, 2004.
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