The Latest Technology To Help The Disabled
Keeping fit is an important part of modern life, it maintains our health, it builds strength, and it ensures that our body is always at its peak. We’ve got a variety of different fitness techniques to choose from. Some athletes like to run, others like to swim, and the rest prefer to build muscle in a gym or keep fit on a sports field. Whatever the case, we almost always need full use of our bodies to accomplish most of the many fitness activities we like to indulge in. But what if you’re disabled?
Many people out there have lost the use of their limbs, such as their legs, through various accidents, or are even born like that. While none of us can really appreciate how difficult average life must be if you’re disabled, it must be ten times as difficult for those disabled that want to keep fit. Often, running or jogging is not an option, along with heavy swimming. Without the strength of our legs, it can quickly become exhausting to even attempt the simplest of activities. Researchers and tech developers have met this problem with a range of technology designed to make it easier for the disabled to maintain their health and fitness, no matter how they are impaired.
Apps For The Disabled
Modern smart phones are wondrous things, and despite many decrying them as one of the reasons obesity is such a problem in modern times, for many, a smart phone can make a huge difference in their fitness, and not only can they provide health benefits, but they can be used to play games like real money slots during off hours.
Certain apps have been developed specifically for the disabled; they monitor activity, sleep, and can even keep track of what a person eats. Some companies like Rithmio have taken this one step further, where the app can actually keep track of a person in a wheelchair, monitoring their activity and keeping record much like it would with a person walking.
Assistive Tech
This has gone one step further in certain fields, and researchers are currently developing tech for even the most extreme cases. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, designers have been working on tech that will assist those with severe spinal cord injury. The power to control their computers, their wheelchairs, and even their phones – all with the use of their tongues.
A special magnet is glued to the tongue, either temporarily or permanently through a piercing. The sensors on a headset then monitor the magnet, and interpret the movements in order to translate that into something that the computer or wheelchair can understand. Not only does this give a severely disabled person the chance to move around without assistance, but gives them full usage of a computer, being able to move the mouse cursor, type on the keyboard, and much more.
The tongue was chosen because it tends to be one of the few muscles that isn’t affected by a spinal cord injury, even a severe one, and it’s direction connection to the brain makes it much easier for the person to control their tongue, and the tongue is also resistance to fatigue, making it the perfect tool.