Complete paralysis is awful. Imagine having to somehow navigate the world without being able to move anything below the waist. Even watching TV is nearly impossible. But the WinkyMote, a project headed by Katia Vega, is a type of “second skin” makeup that integrates some circuitry and has allowed at least one quadriplegic to control his television. By placing it near the eyes and covering it with makeup, Felipe, a 33-year-old master student in Administration (who was paralyzed 13 years ago in a Jiujitsu accident) was able to turn the TV on and off, as well as to change channels, simply by combining various blinking commands. “Winkymote was prototyped with Clio, an arduino based microcontroller from Seeed Studio” and while it has achieved some really cool results, we can’t find any information about availability for any other similar patients.
[ Project Page ] VIA [ MedGadget ]
