special-world-issue-1

REGULARS | RESOURCE FILEBACK TOCONTENTSRESOURCE FILEYour global guide to a range of exciting new resources for those working withchildren with disabilities and/or SENProloquo4Text®Augmentative and Alternative Communication(AAC) is a lifeline for people who do not haveintelligible speech. Recent years have seena move away from bespoke systems to awider use of tablets, smartphones and apps.While this system is not suitable for all AACusers it has transformed life for many people.AssistiveWare® has been in the vanguard ofdevelopments. Their latest app Proloquo4Text®is so intuitive that a user, carer or familymember can set it up for prediction and toWizeFloorImagine an iPad on the floor, controlled bymovement and gesture rather than by touchand you come close to visualising a WizeFloor.This Danish invention consists of a ceilingmountedprojector, a Kinect camera, a vinylfloor mat, a set of audio speakers, plus anApple Mac Mini. Users walk, run, jump, dance,wave, roll, shuffle across the floor to makethings happen. Now H.C Andersen, a children’shospital in Odense, Denmark,is usingWizeFloors as part of its treatment plan bothfor diagnosis and therapy.expand abbreviations. This means the usergets more talk for fewer key strokes. On iOS7it will work with switches or VoiceOver.The WizeFloor is not dependent on languageor age so doctors can observe the childrenand get a clear picture of their capabilitiesand they have also found that if the childrenare stimulated physically and intellectually theyrecover faster.Brain in HandPeople with dementia, those recovering fromstrokes, posttraumaticstressdisorder or drugaddiction, needto regain theirindependencebut also needtimely support.Brain in Handwas createdby academics,business andtechnologyexperts,healthcare andpsychologyprofessionals in the UK. A smartphone-basedsystem devised for people with autism,it is now being rolled out to other groups.Users can call for support when it’s needed,rather than when it’s available and canuse an anxiety monitor with a traffic lightsystem to indicate how they are coping. It isa technological umbilical cord which keepspeople connected while letting them beindependent.Smart GlassesCongratulations to the UK’s Royal NationalInstitute for the Blind (RNIB) and theUniversity of Oxford for winning the public voteand £500,000 in Google’s £3.2M UK ImpactChallenge. As part of their winning projecta team at the University led by Dr StephenHicks researched low-cost and non-invasivewearable technologies based on depthcamerasand see-through displays to enhancethe residual sight of blind and visuallyimpaired people. The glasses use a speciallyadapted 3D camera to capture images,which are then used to separate out nearbyshapes and objects and highlight them clearlyon the inside of small transparent displays.These displays form part of the lenses ofthe glasses, allowing people to use their ownvision as much as possible. The £500,000funding will enable RNIB and Oxford Universityto create 100 pairs of smart glasses andtest them with 1,000 people. This will be thefirst large-scale test of smart glasses andaugmented reality for sight enhancement.42WWW.SPECIALWORLD.NET | ISSUE 1 | SEPTEMBER 2014