CATEA (The Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access) is a multidisciplinary engineering and design research center dedicated to enhancing the health, activity and participation of people with functional limitations through the application of assistive and universally designed technologies in real world environments, products and devices. CATEA is affiliated with the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Pacific Rim Conference in Hawaii on April 29th & 30th
You can’t miss the 29th Annual Pacific Rim Conference on Disability and Diversity, 2013: Being in Community, April 29th & 30th, 2013 at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. Formally called the Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities, Pacrim is one of the world’s top rated international educational offerings. The 2013 Call for Proposals will be open from August 1, 2012 through December 14, 2012. We want your proposals! We are looking for your creative ideas to build the just, sustainable and inclusive future we all want! We have many topic areas relevant to educators and researchers including Teach to Reach, Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Education, Post-Secondary Education and much more. To learn more visit: www.pacrim.hawaii.edu, email prinfo@hawaii.edu or call us at (808)956-7539
example of a self-driving car
While Google (the company better known for its web search engine) announced experimental self-driving cars, the state of California has recently decided to allow them on public roads. As the
following article from Slate.com shows, much of the discussion so far has been about whether or not these vehicles will be safe, what the legal implications of traffic violations “committed” by an autonomously directed vehicle will be, and, lastly, how best to insure that control over the cars can be reliably overridden by a competent driver. The last point is especially troubling for those of us who see the autonomous car as a potential form of assistive technology, one that might provide people with functional limitations unprecedented new levels of mobility and independence.
Oscar Pistorius running 400 meter race in Olympic Qualifier
One of my highlights of this Olympics has been watching Oscar Pistorius compete in the 400m. We were screaming at the television willing him on, on Saturday when he ran in the qualifying round. And when he qualified for the semi-finals, we were chuffed beyond words. Yes, there was disappointment when he didn’t make it through to the finals, but that image of Kirani James swapping name tags with Oscar on the track at the end of the race – that will stay with me forever.
Kirani James was interviewed by BBC sport after the race and they asked him how the race was for him – he said that he was honoured to be running a race with Oscar Pistorius. This time he didn’t make the finals. However, by walking out on that track and competing with the likes of Kirani James, Oscar has shown us that anything is possible.
Click here to read the rest of Metro Blogs’ Article on Oscar Pistorius
Cassie Mitchell
Cassie Mitchell, a research engineer in Georgia Tech’s Biomedical Engineering department, will compete in this summer’s Paralympics in London. Mitchell, a track and field athlete, was featured in a recent broadcast by a TV station in her home state of Oklahoma. She also has a web site with more information.
The Muskcogee (Oklahoma) Phoenix has also published a story on Ms. Mitchell.
Olympics Results:
Cassie placed fourth in three events: the women’s 100 and 200 meter track events and the women’s discuss throw.
The Georgia Tech Research Institute has launched a program called Homelab that uses a network of volunteers to test new products for seniors. According to the Homelab web site, “remain safe, live healthy lifestyles, manage chronic conditions, remember to take medications, or remain connected with community and caregivers.” The Homelab product was recently covered by Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Tags: aging in place, Assistive Technoloyg; Georgia Tech; disabilities, healthy aging
This is a great opportunity to enjoy the game and get to know the Deaf community and its great athletes coming from all over the States. The Mike Glenn Foundation is a non-profit organization that runs on donations: time, money or anything we can use during camp week. You have to understand that this camp is free for all the participants – they only pay a $25 registration fee. Most needed items are food, rental cars, drinks. If you know, by any chance , anyone that works in this sectors and is willing to help us out with items or monetary donations, we will be forever grateful. You can visit www.mikeglenn.com to find more information about the camp or please do not hesitate to contact Adesi Brown at adesi@bellsouth.net and/or 404.729.1025.
Tags: Assistive Technology, basketball, Blindness, deafness, sports camps, vision impairment
From journalist Keith Whitney over at Atlanta TV station WXIA – an article about Tech students using the Xbox Kinect to assist in education. Read the article.
Telephone Device for the Deaf
The U.S. Department of Justice is suing telephone service provider AT&T for fraud, alleging that it improperly charged for internet-based relay services for the deaf. The story gets a little bizarre, involving Nigerian scammers and the revelation that AT&T does not provide this service for free, but instead charges the Federal government for all the calls made via the relay service by deaf or hard-of-hearing customers. I’ll leave it to you to
sort it out on your own. Relay services allow the user to make a telephone call by typing in their messages on a keyboard device, the typed words are then displayed to a human intermediary, who reads the words aloud to the call recipient. Coincidentally enough, the original technology behind this, which was based on teletype machines, was invented (or at least pioneered) by Georgia Tech graduate
Paul Taylor (ChemE 62).
Meg Lynch, a student at the University of Wisconsin, does not let snow, ice and rocky terrain get between her and her biology fieldwork. Meg, who uses a wheelchair, recently completed a week long, hands-on course on identifying wolf tracks in the wild. This is a unique story about how a university is providing the “wheels” to students who otherwise would be confined to the classroom.
http://www.wjfw.com/stories.html?sku=20120104222342
An Open Prosthetics design
The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) movement has really revived during the past ten years, from home renovation, electronic device hacking, and automobile “tuning” to robotics. Now do-it-yourselfers are taking on prosthetic limbs. According to the web site
Open Prosthetics, “the Open Prosthetics Project is producing useful innovations in the field of prosthetics and freely sharing the designs. This project is an open source collaboration between users, designers and funders with the goal of making our creations available for anyone to use and build upon.”
