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Engineer with cerebral palsy designs device that promotes digital inclusion of disabled people

Shared by Hugo Sousa on 2022-07-27 01:10

About the solution

Júnior Prado, a Brazilian with a master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, faced several serious challenges growing up, due to his medical condition. He was born with cerebral palsy. Regarding school, the main problem he had was not being able to write. So, Júnior had to rely on his colleagues for class notes and the evaluations were made orally.

Inspired by the hardships he went through, Junior devoted his expertise to developing tools that could ease the life of people alike. Alongside the team of ‘Grupo de Tecnologias Assistivas e Educacionais (TAE)’ of the Federal University of Ceará, he designed the AdaptMouse, which allows patients with motor disabilities to use the computer. The mouse benefits people with low mobility in the upper members and was made using a 3D printer. The main advantage compared to the equipment already on the market is the price, which is much lower.

It was also created, to be used alongside the mouse, an adapted text editor, which detects hand gestures and converts them into written text. The system that detects hand motion replaces the traditional keyboard. For the development of these tools, it was used machine learning techniques and electromyograms (EMG). Further information about the methodology used can be found in the article: ‘Classification of Hand Movements from EMG Signals for People with Motor Disabilities’. (DOI: 10.1109/TLA.2020.9398644)
Júnior Prado is perfecting the products and has hopes to put them on the market in a near future.

This story was adapted from: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2021-11/engenheiro-com-pa... and https://www.opovo.com.br/noticias/ceara/sobral/2021/11/11/engenheiro-cri...

The images were taken from: https://diariodonordeste.verdesmares.com.br/regiao/no-interior-do-ce-alu... , as we do not own any of them.

This solution shall not include mention to the use of drugs, chemicals or biologicals (including food); invasive devices; offensive, commercial or inherently dangerous content. This solution was not medically validated. Proceed with caution! If you have any doubts, please consult with a health professional.

DISCLAIMER: This story was written by someone who is not the author of the solution, therefore please be advised that, although it was written with the utmost respect for the innovation and the innovator, there can be some incorrect statements. If you find any errors please contact the patient Innovation team via info@patient-innovation.com

About the author

In 2019, Júnior Prado, an engineer with cerebral palsy, developed a mouse and an adapted text editor to enable the use of the computer by people with low mobility in the upper members.

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