ERICA An Amazing Technology.

[DawnCt1]

One of my DSs has returned to college to become a respiratory therapist. He has been working with ventilator dependent patients. One such gentleman has ALS, the same disease that has incapacitated Stephen Hawking and claimed Lou Gherig, the baseball player. This one particular patient can only move his eyes at this point in his life yet he loves to converse. It takes him some time to construct a sentence but even questions that he could answer with a monosylable, he answers with full, complete sentences. His voice is synthesized through the computer so you actually hear a speaking, male voice. My DS is so impressed with this man's courage and tenacity and his upbeat spirit. He told me that to see ERICA in action is truly amazing. If the patient is moved, the camera moves back and recalibrates but it is always focused on his eyes. Here is a link to the product. What amazed me was the cost. For what it does, it is modestly priced.
http://www.axistive.com/erica-eye-tracking.html

The newly released ERICA computer control system gives users complete control over their computer system solely by using their eye. It enables succesful use of "eye-gaze" and "eye-tracking" as computer control. The system takes under half an hour to install and prepare and can then be used to type and perform other functions successfully.



Initially, the firewire camera is aimed and directed on five spots on the screen - one spot for the focus, and others for four corners. Erected on a tablet PC, the system has full touch-screen capabilities built-in. This makes the system ideal for ALS and for other degenerative issues.

Available for more than $20,000 USD a few years ago, this level of technology is currently available for $7,000 USD.

 

[momof1princess]

that is incredible! may i ask, what is involved in becoming a respiratory therapist? i considered it, b/c my nephew is asthmatic and has a lot of breathing difficulty, but the closest college with a program is over an hour away.

 

[DawnCt1]

that is incredible! may i ask, what is involved in becoming a respiratory therapist? i considered it, b/c my nephew is asthmatic and has a lot of breathing difficulty, but the closest college with a program is over an hour away.

He already had an associates degree and had additional college credits. Now he is getting another AD in health sciences but he had all of his pre requisites done including Anatomy and Physiology I and II and microbiology. He was going to be a science teacher, developed Crohn's Disease and had to drop out of college due to the acute onset of it. While he was waiting for the next semester to begin, when he got better, he took a job selling RVs. It was quite lucrative for awhile, particularly during the post 9/11 "fear of flying" days, but he saw the writing on the wall and begun applying to allied health related fields. He was thinking of nuclear medicine and then respiratory care had a real appeal for him. He attends a college with trimesters, so there is no "summer break". Three weeks is the longest break and that is coming up soon. He graduates in April.
Some of the courses he has taken are Respiratory Anatomy and Physiology. Cardiac Anatomy and Physiology. Respiratory Science. Blood gasses. He is taking a ventolator class now that is very demanding. Right now he has one day of clinical that is 8 hours long in a hospital that provides long term care.
That gives him a lot of ventalator experience, experience cleaning trachs, doing blood gases, etc Next semester, he will have two days of clinical in a large acute care hospital. He was always a squeemish kind of kid, but he loves it. He has so much compassion for the patients, some who are younger than he is. Right now there is a 19 year old girl with Guillain Barre who is paralyzed from her neck down. They are hopeful she will get better over the next year, but 10 to 15% do not recover. Then there are the young people with spinal cord injuries, motorcycle accidents, etc. Some have been hospitalized for 10 years or more.
He never had all that much patience with his younger brothers, but he spends his free time "chatting" with the man with the ERICA. He knows it makes him happy to have someone to talk to.

 

[DebIreland]

That's amazing technology. Anything that can help these patients is good news. Is it that the patient looks at the letter on the screen to make up the words and the computer 'says' them then? If so it sounds brilliant and I agree 7k is very cheap. I think there was a patient in Scrubs using it in one episode. I wonder did Christopher Reeve use an earlier model of this?

I thinks that's a very noble career for your DS.

 

[Longsx3]

Thanks for the post My my Mom has ALS but it is very slow progressing, so far it has really impacted the use of her hands and the quality of her speech has declined. I will have to look into this technology.

 

[DawnCt1]

That's amazing technology. Anything that can help these patients is good news. Is it that the patient looks at the letter on the screen to make up the words and the computer 'says' them then? If so it sounds brilliant and I agree 7k is very cheap. I think there was a patient in Scrubs using it in one episode. I wonder did Christopher Reeve use an earlier model of this?

I thinks that's a very noble career for your DS.

DS says that it even responds to pupil constriction and dilitation. Christopher Reeve had more function I think. DS said that a lot of patients have a straw like tube they blow through.

 

[momof1princess]

He already had an associates degree and had additional college credits. Now he is getting another AD in health sciences but he had all of his pre requisites done including Anatomy and Physiology I and II and microbiology. He was going to be a science teacher, developed Crohn's Disease and had to drop out of college due to the acute onset of it. While he was waiting for the next semester to begin, when he got better, he took a job selling RVs. It was quite lucrative for awhile, particularly during the post 9/11 "fear of flying" days, but he saw the writing on the wall and begun applying to allied health related fields. He was thinking of nuclear medicine and then respiratory care had a real appeal for him. He attends a college with trimesters, so there is no "summer break". Three weeks is the longest break and that is coming up soon. He graduates in April.
Some of the courses he has taken are Respiratory Anatomy and Physiology. Cardiac Anatomy and Physiology. Respiratory Science. Blood gasses. He is taking a ventolator class now that is very demanding. Right now he has one day of clinical that is 8 hours long in a hospital that provides long term care.
That gives him a lot of ventalator experience, experience cleaning trachs, doing blood gases, etc Next semester, he will have two days of clinical in a large acute care hospital. He was always a squeemish kind of kid, but he loves it. He has so much compassion for the patients, some who are younger than he is. Right now there is a 19 year old girl with Guillain Barre who is paralyzed from her neck down. They are hopeful she will get better over the next year, but 10 to 15% do not recover. Then there are the young people with spinal cord injuries, motorcycle accidents, etc. Some have been hospitalized for 10 years or more.
He never had all that much patience with his younger brothers, but he spends his free time "chatting" with the man with the ERICA. He knows it makes him happy to have someone to talk to.

thanks for the information, dawn you've raised a wonderful young man.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

Incredible technology, Dawn. Thanks for posting the info.

My SIL died from ALS in 1992. For two years prior to her death, she could not move at all. She could only blink her eyes. She had an alphabet chart in her room, and we would move a pointer over the chart and she would blink, spelling out words, letter by letter, her only way to "speak". The chart also had frequently used words and phrases, but it was VERY slow going. She was very frustrated trying to communicate. I so wish this technology had been available for her.

Bless your son for his patience and compassion. He sounds like a wonderful young man. to him!

 

[Pigeon]

That sounds like a great technology and like your son is going to have an amazing career!