A focused light for living Palo Alto High School students design prototype laser device to help paraplegics From: Palo Alto Daily News - 01/06/2007 By: Kristina Peterson - kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com Henry Evans is understandably excited about the custom-designed remote control personally being built for him by a team of 30 students. On Friday, Evans, a paraplegic, tested out the prototype of a multifunctional device that a group of robotics students at Palo Alto High School is designing for him. With only a slight movement of his head, Evans can direct a pulsing laser to switch on lights or a television and potentially make a phone call. "Now the sky is the limit," said Evans, communicating through his wife, Jane, by angling his head toward letters on a board. With the aid of a nearly $10,000 grant from the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program, the local students hope to patent the device and make available for handicapped people nationwide. "If this is as cheap to manufacture as we think, it will revolutionize this type of device," said the student's coach Doug Bertain, who teaches engineering and computer design at the high school. Junior Daniel Fukuba said the team has been working on the device for about a month. The remote operates through a solar cell, which recognizes the pulsing laser and feeds information into a tiny computer. "With exactly the same circuit, we could make it turn on all the lights of a house or make a call," Fukuba said. "The final product will be much smaller," said junior Mike Tramiel. The current protoboards are the size of a videotape; the final product will be the size of a battery and can clip onto Evans's glasses, Tramiel said. They hope to finish the device by the end of the school year. The students started brainstorming ways to help Evans navigate his house at the suggestion of their mentor, Chris Tacklind, who formerly worked with Evans at a medical device company. "This very simple system gives him so much control of his world," Tacklind said. "Normally you can do this from a computer, but now you don't have to rely on a computer, with its million problems," said Jane Evans. Saving time She said that with four children, the time saved by using the remote will be a great advantage. "I always worry if something were to happen to me ... in an emergency, you can dial 911 with this," she said. Visiting for two days to "check in" with the students and "see that they have everything they need," InvenTeams Grant Officer Joshua Schuler said 20 high school teams nationwide have received the Lemelson-MIT program to develop inventions. Many are also "assistive technology projects" that help the elderly or disabled. Schuler said the Palo Alto project distinguished itself by being "really engineered with a specific beneficiary in mind." No other high schools in California were selected to receive a grant. Fukuba said working on the project has most of consumed the free time Of the team's 30 members. Working through the night "We have couches set up to take naps. Sometimes we're here all night," Fukuba said. He said his social life was not suffering from the project. "Fortunately, my girlfriend is on the team, too," he said. Photo caption: Michael Evans, 10, helps set up a custom-designed remote control for his father Henry Evans. A team of 30 robotics students from Palo Alto High School designed the remote control that uses a laser controlled by moving a person's head. The students received a grant of almost $10,000 and are hoping to patent the device and make it available to handicapped people. Links: Robotics team using grant to help disabled http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=4719 InvenTeams http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/