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Ana Duarte

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Man creates gamers charity inspired by his disabled students

Mick created SpecialEffect in 2007, after being involved with setting up computer equipment for disabled children so that they could study. However, the teacher noticed that they often had no way to play or relax after school and at weekends.

“I realised how difficult it was for children with severe physical disabilities to be able to play independently. It is something that is so important for their psychological development, physical development, motivation and a way to make friends,” the founder explained.

Patient develops fashionable walking aids

In order to cope with the pain and instability she feels because of her condition, Hannah needs to use a walking aid. However, she was tired tired of being treated differently every time people saw her "grandma walking stick".

She has different aids. She decided to create her own walking aids because she noticed a difference in the way she was treated when she uses a plain and undecorated walking aid compared to one of her "upcycled" ones.

Teenager develops tech to help himself and other disabled patients

“When Hải was four years old, he was walking one day, and he fell and could not stand up,” Phan Thị Huỳnh Mai, Hải’s mother, explained. He was infected with polio.

Because of his condition, Hải is only one metre tall and weighs 30kg. He relies on his mother because he has weak hands, so he can’t manoeuvre his wheelchair alone.
Due to this, he wanted to help his mother help himself, in small tasks such as opening a door.

Team invents device to help visually impaired people “see” digital images

The HaptImage technology works thanks to an algorithm that changes digital images into physical sensations that impersonate the would-be exterior of a portrayed object. The users hold a joystick that resembles an ink pen that makes vibrations and resistance in correspondence with the digital object’s shape and feel while users move the joystick around.

Father develops device to know her his daughter needs a diaper change

Because of her condition, Mariel is a quadriplegic and developmentally delayed. So she needs care around the clock.

According to her father, Mariel has been getting good care in special facilities. However, her diapers were changed according to caregivers’ schedules, not hers. Because of this, she regularly developed urinary infections and skin breakouts.

Man develops web browser for his autistic grandson

Because of his condition, Zackary had trouble using computers and going to the web. He even threw the computer mouse in frustration.

Watching this, John tried to find online tools to help with this situation. Since he wasn’t able to find anything, he decided to create his own solution. And that’s how Zac Browser For Autistic Children, a web browser for autistic people, was born.

Grandfather develops system to help prevent children from being forgotten in cars

“He went to work, forgot the child, the child perished. So I became very concerned about that”, he explained. That led Russel “to find a system that would prevent that from happening.”

Being a grandfather and a retired engineer, Russel came up with the Child Safety Seat Alarm System. The product line also includes anti‐drowning and anti‐wandering alarms and one that signals low blood sugar. The safety seat alarm links a small pressure‐sensitive pad to a transmitter, which fastens to the side of the car seat.

Grandfather invents device to help babies sleep

As a father of twins, Frank had trouble putting his kids to sleep. Now, his kids have their own children and have the same problem. This led Frank to create a solution.

After a lot of research, the inventor realised that life outside the womb is not nearly as inviting, nor soothing, as life inside the womb. "I found that one of the major issues was that the baby was suffering because it could not hear the soothing sounds of the heartbeat and the white noise associated from being in the womb," he explained.

Girls develop app to help detect fake drugs

In Nigeria, up to 4 per cent of all drugs in circulation are counterfeits according to the drug regulation agency, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC. Inspired by this, a group of local teenage girls decided to take action and create FD Detector.

Pre-diabetic man creates algorithm to help treat diabetes

Type 2 diabetes runs in Dimistris’ family. His grandfather died of complications related to the condition, his mother was diagnosed with the disease when he was 10 years old, and his Aunt Zacharoula also suffered from it.

Blind woman develops several technologies to help the blind

Chieko had a swimming pool accident that left her blind when she was 14.

"When I started out there was no assistive technology. I couldn't read any information by myself. I couldn't go anywhere by myself”, she recalled.

She has been dedicating her life to create technology that can help her and other people who are visually impaired have a better and more independent life.

Mother builds device to help prevent children from dying in hot cars

Intel Smart Clip was developed to warn patients if they left their baby in the car, allowing the prevention of hot car deaths.

Marcie is an engineer who works at Intel and lives in Chandler, Arizona. Because of the high temperatures there in the summer of 2015, and since she has a baby, she decided to find a solution.

Patient who struggles with depression builds app to help him cope with this condition

With this app, Whindersson aims to create a free platform that people can use to get free psychological treatments.

“We're solving problems like people who have money but want to use it for free, making sure that the people helping the app are real professionals”, the youtuber said.

The comedian wants to gather volunteer health professionals in his project. “I want to make clear that we don’t want a professional to work for free but to take an hour from their day to give a free consultation in our app”.

Pharmacist creates box to help elderly organise their meds

Vanessa noted that some of her older clients, who visit the pharmacy regularly to get their continuous medication, had some difficulties. The number of medications taken daily by the elderly varies from four to more than 20. They take meds to control blood pressure, diabetes, heart, depression, etc. This can be overwhelming.

Woman invents game to help special needs children communicate

Celmira is a teacher who works with special needs students who suffer from autism, dyslexia, Down Syndrome, blindness and hearing disorders.

That led her to invent EKUI. This game consists of a card deck that gather for communication methods: Braille, sign language, spelling and international phonetic alphabet.

Patient creates toolkit to educate others about seizures

Hearing-impaired girl creates sign language classes for police officers

Because of her condition, Catherine was worried about what would happen if she was pulled over by a police officer when she was driving.

She had heard stories of deaf people who got in trouble because of a police officer that couldn’t understand them. "If they pull you over and if they tell you to put your hands up and you can't hear then things might escalate," the young woman said.

So she decided to take action and created a class for the Mansfield Police Department to train officers in American Sign Language.

Researcher invents fabric to help blind people navigate more easily

Balkis built, after two years of research, a fabric that contains sensors that identify obstacles and vibrate or give other signals to help the blind person navigate around them, according to the researcher. The fabric is placed in the insoles of the users’ shoes.

Team develops handlebars for disable cyclists

The students, from the Étienne Oehmichen High School, located in Châlons-en-Champagne, created an adaptable handlebar to help people who can only use one arm or hand. The gadget can be attached to all types of bicycles and comes off easily. It can be used by people who are right-handed and left-handed.

“The idea came from a friend who once saw a man with an amputated hand riding a bike. We said to ourselves, hey, why not make a handlebar so that people like him can ride a bike more easily?”, one of the inventors, Clément, said.

Father invents technology to help alert about infection risks

Jacson is s statistics expert. After he lost his newborn daughter due to an infection, he was inspired to develop a software that relies on Artificial Intelligence to help to alert of the risks of a widespread infection, sepsis. The software reads patient information and issues alerts sent every 3.8 seconds to medical staff to report risks and manage the status of those who are already deteriorating.

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