Week 7

As mentioned in our last blog post - we found a need: Giving ALS patients a way of doing things on their own, while without their therapist. We verified that need with our contact - the ALS patient, or specifically with his therapist who really liked this idea. So our next step is trying to think of as many solutions to address this need. Many things came up while brainstorming - some sort of music instrument that can be played by moving your eyes, a tool to play audiobooks independently, or listening to music. But we really liked one idea - making some sort of pillow that would be placed on the ALS patients neck that has sensors in it and can be controlled by the patients moving head. This pillow would be wireless, and the patient can use it on his own. We thought of many uses that the pillow can have - from playing music, too controlling things in the environment and calling the therapist easily while not in front of a PC. What we have to do next is to research how this pillow can be made - what sensors will it use, can it be used easily by ALS paitents and many more questions.