Japanese company WHILL’s eponymous product is one of those things that’s so smart that it’s almost annoying that no one has done this before. WHILL, which debuted recently at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, is a prototype aftermarket drive train that attaches externally to an ordinary wheelchair, augmenting it with electrically powered drive.

The design is simple: two circular hubs–connected by a central bar that goes up and over the seat of the wheelchair–attach to the outside of a wheelchair’s wheels. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, those hubs impart drive to the wheels, making the manual a wheelchair an electrically powered machine. To drive, the user simply leans or pushes on the crossbar, nudging it in the direction he or she wants to go.

A two hour charge can get about 19 miles of distance, and WHILL is no slouch when it comes to speed either, topping out at just more than 12 miles per hour. The device is still in prototype so cost info isn’t yet available, and that will likely be the determining factor dictating whether or not something like this takes off. Regardless, an electric-powered augmentation that amps up an ordinary wheelchair?

Here it is how it looks like:

WHILL via PhysOrg

A novel attachment that is designed for an ordinary wheelchair can turn the chair into a “power-coaster” with electric drive. The transformed manual wheelchair into an electric wheelchair is the result of technology from a Japanese company called WHILL, which is also the name of the technology.

Here is an important announcement from Indian Association for Family Therapy for your information:

Post-Conference Workshop

The ‘Just Therapy’ Approach: Utilising cultural, gender, spiritual and socio-economic contexts in Family Therapy

Hosted by School of Mental Health, VIMHANS

13 & 14 January 2012

Trainer: Charles Waldegrave

‘Just Therapy’ is a reflective approach to systemic therapy developed by workers at the Family Centre in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand.  It has taken the understanding of systems’ dynamics to a canvas beyond just the family system and developed ways to use the larger systems for healing and change in the consulting room. A fundamental feature of ‘Just Therapy’ is that it addresses directly the broad cultural, gender, social, spiritual, economic and psychological contexts underlying the problems experienced by those with whom therapists work. It embodies the Family Centre philosophy and commitment to cultural, gender and socio-economic equity regarding who receives the resources of therapy and the processes of delivering therapy.  There is a deep belief that these contextual issues provide important insights into authentic notions of wellbeing and healing.

This workshop will present the conceptual framework of this approach alongwith demonstrations and activities to engage the participants with how to use and incorporate the key values and professional stances of this approach. In order to help the transfer of the learnings after the workshop, a substantial amount of conceptual material will be shared.

Objectives

The participating professionals will:

• become oriented in the usage of the Just therapy Approach in clinical and community work and conceptually competent in the approach.
• develop deeper awareness of the context and the meaning attributed to experiences, viz. larger issues interplaying with presenting issues in the family/couple system and become more equipped to incorporate these issues in their work.
• develop their ability of reflectiveness about the work with a family/couple system
•  build clarity and personal articulation about the values, ethics and contexts of therapy and the role of therapy and therapists more broadly in society.

For Whom

Psychologists, psychotherapists, family and child therapists, couples therapists, social workers, counselors, faculty of psychology departments of colleges and Universities, researchers in the disciplines of Psychology, Cross-cultural studies and Social Policy, post-graduate students from the mental health disciplines.

About Charles Waldegrave

Charles Waldegrave is a pioneering New Zealand family therapist and one of the founders of the ‘Just Therapy’ approach of the Family Centre in Wellington. He holds 2 MAs and his professional orientation is post-structural family therapy.  Just Therapy is practiced throughout the world and the key professionals of the Family Centre regularly run international workshops on the Just Therapy approach.  In 2007 the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA) presented the Just Therapy team with an award for a ‘Distinguished Contribution to Social Justice’.

Charles is also a psychologist and social policy researcher.  Alongside his therapeutic work, he leads the Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit (FCSPRU) and is a joint leader of the New Zealand Poverty Measurement Project (NZPMP) and the New Zealand Longitudinal Study on Ageing (NZLSA) research programmes.

More information about the approach and Charles Waldegrave can be found at their website : http://www.familycentre.org.nz

Fee:       IAFT Members: Rs. 3500/-                                           Non-Members: Rs. 4,000/-

The fee includes all handouts, lunches, tea/coffee and the Certificate of participation.

Please send fee  (by cheque or DD payable in Delhi) to:  Dr. Indu Kaura, Secretary, IAFT

D – 6, Vikas Puri, New Delhi – 110018.

About  IAFT:

The Indian Association for Family Therapy was founded at the initiative of visionary psychologists and child development professionals in May 1991 in New Delhi. Formally registered in 1994, the IAFT has created a collective space and forum for professionals from the fields of Psychology, Social Work, Education, Human Development and Allied Health Services.

The membership of IAFT has grown over the past 2 decades to span a number of cities in India and abroad. It is committed to furthering the knowledge, practice and cultural adaptation of family therapy, couples therapy and a systems approach in India.

Activities: 

1. Study group meetings / Clinical case forums for theory and practice learning.

2. Seminars, workshops and trainings by active family therapists.

3. National and International level Conferences.

4. Maintenance of a library of books, journals, papers and videotapes.

(Click here to read from source: Indian Express)

The Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh, has designed a reading machine for the visually impaired that will help them read books, letters, magazines and other documents that are not in Braille without the help of a third person. CSIO is a premier national instrumentation research laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India.

“Translating text into Braille is not only time consuming but also very expensive,” said Pawan Kapur, director, CSIO. Two different designs have been developed by a team of CSIO scientists headed by Dr H K Sardana, who conceptualised the instrument around four years ago. In the first design, a pair of high resolution cameras captures an image of the document using step-by-step scanning. A minimum of four such steps are required to scan an A4 page, while a book page may be covered in only two or three steps. The instrument takes 15 to 30 seconds to convert an A4 size printed document into speech. In the second design, a portable scanner (horizontal scan length of 210 mm) is used to scan the printed document as a whole. One can scan the document after connecting the handy scanner to USB1/USB2 and listen to the recognised text using headphones.

The instrument uses a controlling unit which converts the scanned image to text document using optical character recognition techniques and this text document is read aloud with the help of text-to-speech conversion. The controlling unit also comes with a keypad user interface with various options. With the help of nine keys one can modulate speech coming out of the instrument and can also navigate to various features. The user can also use a set of voice commands to operate the instrument. This portable system can also be battery operated.

“The instrument was demonstrated at Institute of Blind, Chandigarh. We are planning to approach government agencies and NGOs for partnerships,” said Kapur.

4 Ways iPads Are Changing the Lives of People With Disabilities

Noah Rahman has moderate Cerebral Palsy affecting his communication, cognition and upper and lower body movement. When he turned two, his language, cognitive abilitity and fine motor skills were diagnosed by a developmental specialist as being at least 12 months behind. Then Noah got an iPad.

Four months later, his language and cognition were on par with his age level. His fine motor skills had made significant leaps.

Today, the three-year-old (pictured at right with his father) spends an hour or two on his iPad each day. He switches his apps between reading and writing in English, Arabic and Spanish. In the fall, he’ll enter a classroom of five-year-olds. “The iPad unlocked his motivation and his desire because it’s fun,” says his dad Sami Rahman, co-founder of SNApps4Kids, a community of parents, therapists and educators sharing their experiences using the iPad, iPod touch, iPhone and Android to help children with special needs.

SNApps4Kids taps into a burgeoning trend for people with disabilities. Touch devices — most notably the iPad — are revolutionizing the lives of children, adults and seniors with special needs. Rahman estimates some 40,000 apps have been developed for this demographic.

“Touch has made it exceptionally accessible — everyone has an iPad, everyone has an iPod,” says Michelle Diament, cofounder of Disability Scoop, a source for news relating to developmental disabilities. “If you’re someone with a disability, having something that other people are using makes you feel like part of the in-crowd.”

For people lacking motor skills, touch screens are more intuitive devices. There is no mouse, keyboard or pen intercepting their communication with the screen. Larger platforms, like iPads, are preferred over smaller iOSand Android devices for ease-of-use and, of course, the cool factor.

Here are four ways that touch devices are changing the lives of people with disabilities:

1. As a Communicator

Before the iPad and other similar devices, using touch-to-speak technology was incredibly expensive, costing around $8,000. Now, it only costs $499 for an iPad and $189.99 for a thorough touch-to-speak app likeProloquo2Go.

That relative affordability has made the technology more available for children and adults that can’t use their voice. With the simple touch of an iPad, a hungry non-verbal person can communicate exactly what he or she would like to eat. Those apps can then be customized with photos or features to suit an individual’s life and needs.

Another option is Assistive Chat, which predicts several sentence completion options. For the most severely disabled people, Yes|No is a simple app that allows individuals to voice their preference in yes-or-no responses.

“It gives dignity back to people who are more disabled,” says Vicki Windham, a special education teacher in the Clarkstown Central School District who trains people of all ages to make the most of their iPads. Windhamreviews apps for people with a variety of special needs.

For hard-of-hearing iPad users, soundAmp R amplifies sound in a variety of situations. Users can also record lectures or presentations they want to listen to again later.

2. As a Therapeutic Device

SNApps4Kids co-founder Cristen Reat’s son Vincent was born with Down syndrome, which can also lead to low-muscle mass. While he can walk, Reat describes his son as a Buddha that prefers to sit still most of the time. Throughout his life, Vincent’s therapists and parents have tried to help him be more active. It was not until his physical therapist placed an iPad on a treadmill that Vincent was motivated to walk. He now stays on for nine and a half minutes, interacting with his iPad while he’s in motion.

In addition to increasing his gross motor ability to walk, Vincent’s iPad has helped his fine motor skills. For Vincent, computers and older technology required visual shifting — between a mouse or keyboard and the screen. On an iPad, Vincent can watch as one of his fingers writes directly on the screen to make selections.

Similarly, Noah Rahman has shown motor improvement. After playing the Elmo Loves ABCs app on his iPad, he can write the entire alphabet, requiring sophisticated finger isolation. As a three-year-old, this puts him well above his grade level. “First it was ‘do it for me,’ then it was ‘do it with me,’ now he does it by himself,” says Noah’s father.

3. As an Educational Tool

Years ago, one of Jeremy Brown’s autistic elementary school students picked up his iPhone off his desk and began navigating the iOS with ease. “It’s like a fish to water,” says Brown, a teacher for autistic elementary school students, of his students’ interactions with touch technology.

Brown is immersed in online discussions of technology and special education, moderating the Facebook groupiTeach Special Education, collaborating on the podcast EdCeptional and coauthoring the blog Teaching All Students. While use of the iPad in classrooms is not yet approved in his school district, he believes the iPad is a great supplemental method of instruction, estimating 80% to 90% of his students with autism see great results when using iOS devices. Brown hopes his school district and others across the country will approve iPads in the classroom.

While no one advocates replacing traditional instruction, a number of apps do address academic subjects from math to language to reading and writing. In October 2010, Apple even featured an “Apps for Special Education” section in the App Store.

Brown encourages parents to separate their children’s recreational uses of the iPad from those in the classroom. Some students may watch YouTube videos on the school bus but while they’re at school they know Mr. Brown’s iPads are only for education.

4. As a Behavior Monitor

Behavior Tracker Pro is a popular app for parents, therapists and teachers to quantify the behavioral progress of children with special needs. In addition to taking notes, good and bad behaviors can be video recorded and later reviewed. The app automatically turns that input into visual graphs and charts.

High school teacher Vicki Windman notes that the iPad can also be a great way to strengthen and reinforce memory for seniors with Alzheimer’s or memory loss. Still, she warns that touch technology is not a miracle drug: “You’re not curing Alzheimer’s. Parents challenge me all the time — they want a cure. It’s no cure.”

That doesn’t mean it can’t help. Apps like Medication Reminder tell users when it’s time to take medication.Memory Practice, a memory strengthening app, was created for the developer’s mother shortly after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Windman’s father uses an app called Nudge, which gives him a persistent reminder every fifteen minutes to accomplish lapsed tasks on his to-do list.

Long-Roads Ahead

Despite these successes, SNApps4Kids cofounder Cristen Reat recommends a measured approach. “Just because you buy a device doesn’t mean it’s going to change anything,” she says.

Rahman agrees. He says that viewing the iPad as the solution is the backwards approach. “We are big advocates that the user needs to understand the objectives first before you pick the technology,” Rahman says. “We’re not just putting [our son] in front of an iPad and walking away. That’s the real key.”

The original article is available at http://mashable.com/2011/07/25/ipads-disabilities/

Here is an update from our friend Mr. Mathews from Five India:

Greetings!

It is with great excitement that i announce that the HANEN center has finally agreed to bring the It Takes Two To Talk ® to India  and FiVE has the honor of being their official hosts in India.

Testimonial : As an SLP working predominantly with younger children, I always believed that family had a larger role to play in the intervention process than just bringing the child to therapy. But the challenge of getting parents more actively involved was a hard one and so I was constantly online looking for resources I could use. That is when I found the Hanen Centre. On a first browse, I thought ‘Well, I am already trying out some of what they are suggesting’ but after a chat with a friend (in USA), who had just completed the It Takes Two to Talk course, I realized that what made it a brilliant program is IT’S STRUCTURE. It is so well laid out that you simply have to follow the steps and everything falls into place. The naturalistic approach makes the whole session fun for everyone involved (parents, caregivers, child and therapist). It is the Best thing that has happened to my work! It changed the way i think and the way i approach intervention. And it can also be easily incorporated into any environment of the child such as other therapy sessions (OT, PT, Special Education etc), school and with the whole family (not just parents).

Only 14 seats! Early bird registration closes on 20th August. For more details, please contact Sowmya on (+91)  9444407847

Sincerely,

Mathew Easow

www.fiveindia.com

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/HANEN-certification—1st-time-in-INDIA.html?soid=1106382273671&aid=nkFmsi5AB-w.

The world’s first artificial retina, Argus II, produced by U.S. company Second Sight Medical Products, was approved for sale in the European market. The
new product can give to people who have partially blind due to retinal degenerative diseases and will be available through several treatment centers in Europe, at a price of $ 100,000.

Artificial retina consists of several parts: a pair of glasses with a video camera sends images to a processing node, which in turn transforms images into
electrical impulses that are transmitted to an array of electrodes implanted in the retina of the wearer. The system offers a resolution of 60 pixels (picture
points), compared with tens of millions, he offers a healthy eye, but will allow users to discern shapes and distinguish light from dark.

The device was tested on 30 patients so far, and positive evaluations of European authorities led to the approval of the product for sale in Europe. Starting this summer, Argus II will be available at a price of $ 100,000 in
these medical centers:

* Centre Hospitalier National des Quinze-Vingts d’Ophthalmologie (Paris, France)
* Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève (Geneva, Switzerland)
* Manchester Royal Eye Hospital (Manchester, United Kingdom)
* Moorfields Eye Hospital (London, UK).

Click here to read from Source: Human Store

Additional reading: Weekly Blitz

Pritha Chatterjee Posted online: Tue Jul 19 2011, 02:31 hrs

Bionic Eye or the “‘smart glasses” offers promise to Blind persons to now see. This technology called Argus II (Bionic Eye) developed by  Oxford University researchers,  uses a tiny camera and a pocket computer to alert users to the object and the person in front of him. These glasses will facilitate the visually impaired when they go shopping and to the train station. In fact, this tool can make the blind persons ‘read’ bus number and any digital display such as train numbers,  computer display on the ATM etc.

If the test is successful, these glasses can be found on the market in 2014. According to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, the most important thing, the price is less than £ 1,000 and it will make these glasses can reach many people. Clinical neuro science researcher Dr. Stephen Hicks which received funding from the Ministry of Health said, “These glasses are very satisfactory and will be manufactured at a price that could reach everyone.” Currently, as reported Dailymail, Hicks claimed to have been working on prototype versions of these glasses.

<a href=”http://bit.ly/rbWQ1B” target=”_blank” />Check out this image!</a>

The developments in Stem Cell therapy seems very promising to restore health to many of sensory organs.

Here is what Chauthi Duniya has covered recently on the promise of stem cells to cure blindness:

With the advances made in stem cell science and medical innovations, a cure for glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, may soon become a reality.

For many years scientists have focused on the capabilities and promise of stem cells that are the body’s master cells.

Stem cell science has established a workable theory for how stem cells are able to proliferate and develop into any tissue in the human body from blood to bone and whole organs.

Animal studies show promise
Scientists from the UK were able to restore vision to blind lab mice, by successfully grafting stem cell tissues taken from bone marrow on to the damaged nerves in the eye.

The researchers noted that with the healthy cells in place the eyes soon began to repair themselves and and full vision returned.

This scientific breakthrough signifies that millions of people with optical conditions such as glaucoma could be able to regain sight through the potential use of stem cell therapy.

Lead researcher Professor Keith Martin, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and eye surgeon at Addenbrooke’s, stated, “Finding treatments to reverse blindness is no longer in the realm of science fiction.

“We are doing it in animal models and results are so encouraging that we hope to move forward to testing on humans soon. Stem cell treatment is moving forward very fast in many branches of medicine and we are seeing some of the best results in eyes.

“We hope to use cells from patients, taking samples from blood and bone marrow, and modify them. We can then use these stem cells to protect cells from glaucoma and regenerate ones that have been damaged.

Read full article at http://news.chauthiduniya.com/stem-cell-therapy-could-cure-blindness

Here is some interesting news from CBS News:

Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells – a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

“This is a roaring success,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study – the longest and largest of its kind.

Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.

The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.

In the study, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers took a small number of stem cells from a patient’s healthy eye, multiplied them in the lab and placed them into the burned eye, where they were able to grow new corneal tissue to replace what had been damaged. Since the stem cells are from their own bodies, the patients do not need to take anti-rejection drugs.

Adult stem cells have been used for decades to cure blood cancers such as leukemia and diseases like sickle cell anemia. But fixing a problem like damaged eyes is a relatively new use. Researchers have been studying cell therapy for a host of other diseases, including diabetes and heart failure, with limited success.

Adult stem cells, which are found around the body, are different from embryonic stem cells, which come from human embryos and have stirred ethical concerns because removing the cells requires destroying the embryos.

Currently, people with eye burns can get an artificial cornea, a procedure that carries such complications as infection and glaucoma, or they can receive a transplant using stem cells from a cadaver, but that requires taking drugs to prevent rejection.

Continue to read more at : http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/23/health/main6611727.shtml?source=related_story&tag=related

Related Stories:  Adult Stem Cell Research leaving Embryos Behind at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/02/health/main6735628.shtml