E-SPEAIT T14

I'd like to write about the incredible and inspiring way Stephen Hawking was able to communicate with the twitch's of his cheek muscles.  Hawking was great British physicist and world-famous scientist, hw contracted Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also referred to as motor neurosis when he was young at the age of 22. Leading to gradual degeneration of muscles, difficulty in swallowing, talking and breathing. With such a degenerative disease went on to do phenomenal work in physics on and became a world-renowned scientist. The question would be with such limited movements and a continuously worsening physical condition, how did he continue being able to interact with a computer to continue his work?

Hawking utilized an infrared switch mounted on his spectacles which he was able to move by twitches the in his cheek. The software moved a cursor across rows and columns of letters and Hawking could select the desired letter by twitching his cheek, words and sentences are formed by selecting individual letters, which the software then went on to predict and auto-fill the words he often used and thereby simplifying the process further. The software also learnt to analyze the content of a specific book or lecture he was working on to prepare sentences and words more in line with what he was probably going to write about. His speech synthesizer then gave out his sentences once they were completed. Along with providing him with capability of talking and writing the software also allowed him to utilize his email, an internet browser, and whatever else that was possible on a computer with certain modifications in order to get his mouse to track and interact with the UI. Intel had a dedicated team of engineers who worked on making the communication process easier for him. This was incredibly fascinating for me when I read about, and the work that was done on this project. Further development was planned on removing the infrared beam and replacing it with facial recognition technology to further utilize whatever movements he was still capable of such as twitching his eyebrows, moving his eyes, and cheek movements. 

This case showed me that while obviously not the greatest of life, we are able to provide a man with such a deliberating disease the capability of interaction with world to an extent that would have been impossible two decades ago. I may never understand the full pain and despair such a situation may have caused, but by attempting to put my myself in Steven Hawking situation and imagining the capabilities provided by such technology I can acknowledge the marvel and immense respect I feel for technology such of this kind. 

How Intel Gave Stephen Hawking a Voice, Wired

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