With some spare parts and the flick of an eye, New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) student Nirmani Karunaratne has invented a machine that gives new freedom to the severely disabled.
The Sri Lankan student at NBCC’s Saint John campus has built an optical reader that can take instructions from quadriplegics by tracking only their eyes.
Karunaratne says she made the device using $100 worth of parts, some of them stripped from video games.
“For a person who can’t move their body or who can’t talk, there should be a way for them to communicate with others,” she said.
“If there’s a way for them to do their day-to-day life tasks, it would be great.”
The optical reader’s parts include a partly disassembled PlayStation 3 camera. (CBC)
Attached to the glasses, sticking out like a rear-view mirror, is a partly disassembled PlayStation 3 camera, pointing back at the student’s eye.
With the help of some borrowed software and some homemade hardware, Karunaratne’s computer translates the movement of the pupil into commands.
She’s programmed the prototype to turn on a light when the user looks to the upper right. When the person looks to the lower right, the light switches off.
‘She knocked our socks off’
The menu of commands can be customized according to the most common needs of the user.
In a demonstration, a student uses his eyes to scroll through messages such as “hunger,” “thirst,” “need company,” and “bored.”
An alarm can even be triggered if the user needs help.
“She knocked our socks off,” said instructor Peter McDevitt.
“For a student to come out and do this in such a short time frame and put in the effort to make it work with basically off-the-shelf parts, for me it’s an eye-opener.”
McDevitt says the program has a high success rate in terms of placing graduates into jobs.
Karunaratne has already landed a job at Sure Grip in Upper Kingsclear, New Brunswick.
Sure Grip manufactures parts to modify vehicles for disabled drivers.
The company was founded by Keith Howell, who was rendered quadriplegic in his teens.
Howell’s son, Cody, says Karunaratne came to his attention partly because her project piqued his interest.
He says she was an impressive candidate and highly qualified for the job.
Karunaratne says she’s excited to get to work in her field after her two-year program wraps up.
Tuition was approximately $3,500 per year, but as a foreign student, she had to pay double.
