Frank Moss: Tech to Help Those Who Can't Help Themselves
From: New Scientist - 03/17/2010
By: Jeremy Webb

Frank Moss, head of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), says there are real opportunities in developing technology
for disabled or disadvantaged people, and believes they will translate into
great commercial hits. For example, MIT's Rosalind Picard is creating a
system for people with autism that can tell from a person's head movements
and facial expressions if they are confused, interested, or disagreeing. The
system then feeds the information to a display in the corner of a pair of
glasses. "The idea is to supply autistic people with the cues they would
otherwise miss," says Moss. Meanwhile, MIT's Hugh Herr has designed a
supportive exoskeleton that enables a person to run with the same energy they
would normally use to walk. And MIT research assistant John Moore has built
an artificial intelligence system that collects information from a patient
and creates a report for the doctor. The patient talks to an avatar, which
uses natural language processing to interpret what the patient says. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527516.200-frank-moss-tech-to-help-those-who-cant-help-themselves.html

Links:
Fran Moss
http://www.media.mit.edu/people/fmoss

Rosalind W. Picard
http://www.media.mit.edu/people/picard

Hope on the horizon: Mitigating Autism
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/hope-picard-0521.html

Hugh Herr
http://www.media.mit.edu/people/hherr