is one of the most brilliant scientists known planet. He has managed to write books and give lectures, despite being almost completely paralyzed by a disease.
And all thanks to technology.
But the machine that allowed Stephen Hawking who he is, had not been updated or improved in the last two decades.
After three years of daily work next to Hawking, the company Intel developed a new software (called ACAT) that allows you to talk and write about twice as fast as before.
“My old system has more than 20 years and I found it very difficult to continue effectively communicating and doing the things I love every day, “said the teacher when it introduced the software in January.
“I can now teach, write articles and books and talk faster. This new system changed my life, “said Hawking, 73.
Intel now published online the program so that everyone can use it.
But how it works? And how did it develop?
A multidisciplinary team of researchers worked with Hawking for three years.
The experts They focused on modernizing the user interface and used the scientist without completely changing it.
The system works with a sensor on the cheek that detects small movements of Hawking and transferred to a switch placed on his glasses.
Hawking movements are translated into cursor movements, with which the scientist is choosing characters on the computer.
So can build words, switch screens, and so on.
Intel kept this feature and focused on making the interface more contextual user, that is, more adapted to the needs of the scientist.
For example, to browse the internet before Hawking had to leave his text window, use a mouse pointer to open the browser, go to the toolbar, close the cursor and reopen the text tool.
“A standard user interface depends heavily on the use of the mouse, and for someone like Stephen, this becomes a very difficult process, “said Lama Nachman, an engineer and project leader at the Gizmodo website specializing in technology.
“A simple as opening a document could you take three minutes task,” he said.
With the new system, the task can be automated and do through a new menu based on the needs of Hawing.
One of the things they saw the technicians is that with the old system Hawing needed the help of another person to include an attachment in an email. In the new system, not anymore.
In addition, Intel has worked with a language technology company to improve the ability of the system to learn about Hawking, to predict which characters are you will need.
So, actually, the scientific simply type less than 20% of the characters to build complete sentences.
The information is then sent to the speech synthesizer, so that these characters are converted into voice through your computer Lenovo and Microsoft Windows.
Hawking can thus more easily browse, edit, read emails and documents, new documents open and switch from one task to another.
Intel expects ACAT, which works with Windows 7 or later, to be used by researchers to develop new interfaces for people suffering from diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), related to the pathology suffered Hawking.
Intel team has already experimented with other types of sensors that could help other patients.
“We also have a sensor for patients who can use a finger, but little else, and a system with buttons for someone who can push a button, “Nachman said.
Intel released the code to the program and complete the GitHub page.
(With information from BBC World)
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