Technology shows flair in dealing with disability

Net Result: Playing around with an "avatar" a computerised, animated character which can represent you onscreen in cyberspace, and that you control - is pretty cool stuff. It's especially cool when you are a kid in a wheelchair, and the avatar lets you move and dance and interact with other friendly avatars up on a giant screen, and even gives you the chance to perform onstage before an audience.

The avatars - in this case, giant butterflies - are part of an unusual project at Dublin's Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) called Féileacán ("butterfly" in Irish), which combines complex human/machine interfaces and virtual reality computer graphics tools. Controlled by modified joysticks and microphones that will respond to gentle blows rather than voice commands, the children and their butterflies will be part of a networked dance performance at the Seventh Annual European Disability Conference in Dublin, August 31st to September 3rd.

Féileacán is just one way in which computers and kids with disabilities are being brought together by an Irish-based, international collaboration between leading technologists and health care professionals. They're teaming up to find more creative ways for young people with disabilities to learn and interact.

"Our mantra is that we want to expand human potential through innovation, and we really believe that every person deserves to benefit from technology," says Mr Gary McDarby, a researcher with Media Lab Europe (MLE), the Dublin spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab.

MLE and the CRC are partnering with New York University, London media and idea incubation centre Smart Lab UK, and New York's Montefiore Hospital.

Children at the CRC are trying out a range of technologies along with kids from three Irish schools for children with disabilities: Scoil Mochua in Clondalkin, St Gabriel's School in Limerick and St Clare's School, Ennis.

Ms Kate Brehm, researcher with NYU's Center for Advanced Technology, says the avatars offer a kind of "virtual puppetry" that lets children control their onscreen characters with the same techniques needed to manoeuvre their wheelchairs.

"This is quite an innovative and flexible set of learning projects," says Mr Ger Craddock, manager of technical services at Dublin's Central Remedial Clinic. The clinic children have workshops to use the technologies twice a week, he said, and because of the interactive nature of the projects, are meeting children they otherwise would rarely, if ever, see. Another virtual interactive world, called Still Life, uses mind-calming virtual-reality "energy orbs" to improve co-ordination and concentration. A child can sit or stand before a computer screen holding a sensor-filled orb (a large ball) in each hand - one orange, one yellow. On the screen are two swirling energy fields, one orange and one yellow. The computer senses where the orbs are in the child's hands, and tracks their movement across the screen.

The child tries to remain still while moving the ball to match its energy force on screen. When that happens, there's an explosion of colour, and slowly, a large puzzle piece appears. Gradually, a jigsaw of an otherworldly landscape begins to fill the screen.

"There's a lot of sophisticated technology behind what looks like a very simple interface. This is really looking at computer vision in a new way," says Mr McDarby. The game requires a complex tracking mechanism, the ability to monitor feedback from multiple sensors, and intelligence to filter out background colours that could be incorrectly read as the two orbs. Several other projects are in the works. Researchers have set up a basic webcam network between the CRC and the three schools, for example. So far, the network lets children in the two Dublin locations to talk to and see others in Limerick and Ennis.

The network is limited by the slow speed of the internet link, which is dial-up access in each location except the CRC, which is on ISDN. Surely an ideal project for a broadband operator in Dublin, Ennis and Limerick?

The projects demonstrate how technology can be put to work alongside people with disabilities to create a more inclusive world.

That's the theme behind the conference at the end of summer, when professionals from around the world will come to UCD to discuss assistive technologies and how they might do even more in the future. You'd think this would be the ideal year for Dublin to host such a conference, as it is the European Year of People with Disabilities as well as the year when the Republic will host the Special Olympics World Games.

But Mr Craddock says the organisers face extra challenges precisely for those reasons. Many firms are sponsoring the Olympics and haven't the budget to support the conference, and news about the conference is hard to hear above the publicity for the Games. And the Government says its budgets are also tight. The organisers could use some industry help to sponsor elements of the conference, from keynotes to individual sessions to lunches. They also need a sponsor to publish the proceedings, which will go to libraries around the world. They also have a major exhibition of assistive technologies at UCD's O'Reilly Hall that will be open to the public during the conference, and have spaces for additional exhibitors.

More information at www.atireland.ie/aaate, or contact Mr Craddock at graddock@crc.ie, or (01) 805-7523.

Karlin's tech weblog: http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/