Low-cost keyboard developed for the disabled

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Low-cost keyboard developed for the disabled

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A Honduras teenager developed an inexpensive eyeball-tracking computer device for disabled people.

13 December,2011 12:56 pm

Most of us use a mouse and keyboard to navigate around a computer screen. But a teenager in Honduras is winning praise for developing an inexpensive eyeball tracking system that could change the way disabled people use computers.17-year-old Luis Fernando Cruz developed the system after he learned about the plight of physically challenged students.In my last year of high school I met a fellow student who is paraplegic. After hearing their story, I decided to investigate a little more into how people (with disabilities) do things so I can be aware of the problems and then I discovered that such systems are very expensive. For example, a similar system costs more than $10,000 and I found that many people cannot pay this, especially in countries like Honduras.But they can afford his system. It costs just 300 dollars, making the potentially life-changing technology accessible to thousands of disabled people in the developing world.The system operates through electrodes built into a pair of inexpensive glasses.The interface then tracks horizontal eye movement by measuring small electrical changes generated by the eye-ball.The software translates these changes into inputs that choose letters in a grid, providing people with motor disabilities a new way to communicateFor Cruz, the eye-tracking keyboard was a natural follow-up to his first invention.At 16, I developed the first video console in Honduras, the first video game console ever made in Honduras. Then I did other projects and then I became interested in the interface between humans and the computer so I began this project.Cruz hopes his device can attract attention in the United States where he would like to attend college, and turn his passion for computer technology into a career.