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/