[Electronics-talk] ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE. Creating Software ThatOpens Worlds To the Disabled

[Brett Boyer]

Thanks for a great article! Let's hope this happens more often.
bb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DAVID DE NOTARIS" <david at daviddenotaris.com>
To: "NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; "Discussion of 
accessible electronics and appliances" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 4:44 AM
Subject: [Electronics-talk] ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE. Creating Software 
ThatOpens Worlds To the Disabled


> 12/18/08 NYTimes Business Section
> ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE. Creating Software That Opens Worlds To the Disabled.
> By JAMES FLANIGAN. ONE computer program would allow vision-impaired 
> shoppers to point their cellphones at supermarket shelves and hear 
> descriptions of
> products and prices. Another would allow a physically disabled person to 
> guide a computer mouse using brain waves and eye movements.
> The two programs were among those created by eight groups of volunteers at 
> a two-day software-writing competition this fall. The goal of the 
> competition,
> sponsored by a nonprofit corporation, is to encourage new computer 
> programs that help disabled people expand their capabilities.
> The corporation, set up by computer science students and graduates at the 
> University of Southern California, is named Project:Possibility. It grew 
> out
> of an idea two years ago by Christopher Leung, then a master's degree 
> candidate in computer science and engineering at the university, who was 
> working
> on a project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
> As Mr. Leung explained in a recent interview, 'The project manager came to 
> me and said: 'Chris, we have several blind students coming to work with us 
> this
> summer. If you can think of anything we can do for them, let me know.'
> At the time, Mr. Leung said, he was working on a solar system 
> visualization program. I came up with a project called 'touch the sky' 
> where a blind person
> would use a forced feedback device to feel three-dimensional 
> reconstructions of terrain on other planets,' he said.
> The experience inspired him to think beyond just one group of students and 
> one project. It was apparent that there was a need for a larger organized 
> effort,
> a community of developers and disabled persons to conceptualize projects 
> that can help people,' Mr. Leung said. So I gathered colleagues into a 
> room at
> J.P.L., pitched the idea and asked for their help. Several of them and 
> dozens of others since then have taken on the challenge and brought 
> Project:Possibility
> to where it is today.
> The effort is centered at the University of Southern California and led by 
> volunteers, including Ely Lerner, an information systems developer at 
> Amgen
> Inc.; Elias Sayfi, a senior software engineer at the Jet Propulsion 
> Laboratory; and Stanley Lam, an undergraduate business student at the 
> university.
> In 2007, they organized a competition called 'Code for a Cause' in which 
> 25 students in five teams engaged in a weekend of intense computer 
> code-writing.
> The event attracted assistance from executives at Google, Amgen and the 
> propulsion laboratory. This year, in October, the competition expanded to 
> 50 students
> in eight teams with mentors from Google, Amgen and the laboratory, as well 
> as judges from Lockheed Martin and Amgen and encouraging words from a 
> Microsoft
> executive.
> The competition was won by Bar Code Reader, the program to help the 
> visually impaired read information on grocery items. Second place went to 
> Mind Control,
> which allows the physically disabled to guide a computer mouse by neural 
> impulses. All the code, written in 12-hour sessions on a single weekend, 
> made
> progress, but also left room for further development.
> The Bar Code Reader team 'didn't hook up a cellphone, so we used a 
> Motorola simulator,' said Michael Crowley, an associate professor of 
> engineering practice
> who was the mentor for the team.
> James Han, founder of ProsForPros, an Internet hosting and consulting firm 
> for small businesses, was the mentor of the Mind Control team. We were 
> able
> to leverage open-source codes for mouse control and link to the neural 
> actuator in the first 12 hours,' Mr. Han said. In the second 12, we 
> created the
> user interface. I believe implementation of the program is currently in 
> development with similar devices.
> Project:Possibility directors have plans for more ambitious projects. 
> First, there will be a competition in February with teams of computer 
> science students
> at the University of California, Los Angeles, in hopes of multiplying the 
> number of programs to help the disabled. The project also plans to create 
> a worldwide
> open-source Web site on which disabled persons and software developers can 
> collaborate on new ideas and add to existing programs.
> Imagine a specialist Facebook or MySpace-type social network in which 
> users would be involved in designing the tools they want and need,' said 
> Stephen
> A. Lee, a British software developer who operates Fullmeasure.co.UK and is 
> a director of Project:Possibility. Students would talk to users and work 
> on
> projects that meet needs as well as be exciting.
> He estimated that 'an active online community may well take six or more 
> months to organize, as there is inertia and shyness to overcome. There 
> will also
> be costs to create such an online community, he said, 'for Web hosting, 
> associated technology costs and set-up labor.
> To date, Project:Possibility has operated without revenue and without pay 
> for participants. Its programs belong to the nonprofit project and to the 
> University
> of Southern California. Its sole source of financing was a $15,000 grant 
> in early 2008 from the Mozilla Foundation, an organization that promotes 
> the concept
> of the Internet as a public resource open to everyone.
> Nor does Project:Possibility intend to be a commercial venture, Mr. Leung 
> said. We do not plan to earn revenue through a spread of our programs. In 
> fact,'
> he said, 'we plan to be completely open-source -- our programs can be 
> downloaded, modified and used by anyone at no cost -- in hopes that 
> similar programs
> will spread to other universities and around the world with or without our 
> involvement.
> But, at a project meeting early this month, the directors decided to 
> establish a paid position. We are looking to grow and that will require 
> people to
> dedicate even more of their time to this project,' Mr. Leung said. So it 
> will be necessary to 'compensate for our core positions and perhaps one 
> day to
> have a full-time staff.
> Mr. Leung lives and works these days in Beijing. I'm a Chinese-American 
> who grew up in Northern California and never spoke Chinese,' he said. So 
> I'm learning
> Chinese and working here, but keeping in touch online with 
> Project:Possibility.
> To pay for staff, the project will continue to depend on grants from 
> companies and charitable groups. At some point, it hopes to establish 
> regular fund-raising
> efforts for its nonprofit operations.
> What's great is that companies like Google and Mozilla support our 
> projects,' Mr. Leung said. The companies gain by getting ideas on 
> technological breakthroughs
> and seeing ways to adapt them to everyday products. One 
> Project:Possibility program, for example, called Community Captioner, 
> integrates subtitles with
> YouTube 'so the hearing-impaired can have sound with their videos.
> . PHOTO: Students at the University of Southern California working on a 
> software competition entry intended to help blind people. (PHOTOGRAPH BY 
> J. EMILIO
> FLORES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) .
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