Award Data

ALTHOUGH TECHNOLOGY IS ADVANCING AT AN EVER INCREASING PACE,ITS APPLICATION FOR USE BY HANDICAPPED INDIVIDUALS HAS BEEN SLOW. SEVERELY IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS OFTEN REQUIRE SOME TYPE OF "HIGH TECHNOLOGY" MEANS TO ENABLE THEM TO HAVE A DEGREE OF MOBILITY. THE SPECIFIC AIM OF THIS PROGRAM IS TO INVESTIGATE THE POTENTIAL OF USING ELECTRO-OPTICS AS A MEANS FOR THE HANDICAPPED TO EFFECT CONTROL OF HIS/HER ...

LEARNING ABILITIES IN MATHEMATICS AND THE SCIENCES ARE NOT MAXIMIZED BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF VISUAL INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS. THE IMPROVEMENT OF THESE SKILLS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE BETTER SCIENCE AND MATH ABILITIES ARE NEEDED IN THE UNITED STATES IN ORDER TO KEEP UP WITH OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS. OUR PROPOSED SOLUTION IS TO USE A NEW TECHNOLOGY, THE TOPOLOGICAL PANORAMA CAMERA, TO CREATE COST-EFFE ...

Purpose: Braille is the primary medium of written communication for persons who are blind. Prior research shows that Braille literacy strongly correlates with stronger reading habits and the pursuit of higher education, whereas Braille illiteracy negatively impacts students' academic performance and ability to navigate the everyday world. A recent report found that there has been a dramatic declin ...

Trusted biometric validation of individual identities has never been more important. Several contributing factors are the increase in global terrorism, identity theft and the increase in legislation which are driving the accelerated adoption of biometric technology. Unfortunately, the biometrics industry has not actively responded to the changing market conditions being driven by the explosion in ...

X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy is a widely used and extremely sensitive analytical technique for qualitative as well as quantitative chemical analysis. Superconducting Transition Edge Sensor (TES) microcalorimeter detectors have now been developed that achieve an energy resolution of 2 eV (full width at half maximum) for 1.5 keV X-rays, which is sufficient to enable the measurement of the small s ...

This Phase 1 project enhances safety and independence for wheelchair and scooter passengers riding in fixed route transit and increases quality of life and community participation through improved accessibility to vehicle safety systems for individuals with mobility disabilities. The goal is to create and demonstrate the feasibility of a novel forward facing wheelchair passenger station (FF-WPS) b ...

This project develops FluentBuddy, a prototype application for iOS and Android platforms to assist in the treatment of speech and communication disorders with a focus on the physiological and anatomical system (i.e. voice disorders, speech sound disorders, motor speech disorders, and other disabilities in children and adults). The project has three goals: (1) enhancing sensory and motor function t ...

This project develops an ambulatory remote operated Tactile Awareness Prompting (TAP) system to be used within educational and clinical environments for students who have social skills deficits. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit deficits related to social initiations and conversational skills. Children with such disabilities often do not have the necessary social skills to m ...

This product develops and evaluates a proof-of-concept, mobile speech-to-sign translator that integrates continuous speech recognition software with natural language processing and Vcom3D’s Signing Avatar animated American Sign Language technology. This speech-to-sign the application is designed to run on iPhone/iPod or Android smartphones, providing Deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) learners the ...

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (Deaf/hh) persons rely heavily on facial movements for communication, whether in American Sign Language (ASL), Signed English (SE), or Spoken English. In ASL, signers add “mouth morphemes”, similar to speech movements, to signs to distinguish concepts that use the same manual sign. Hard-ofhearing persons who use spoken communication, read mouth shapes to distinguish si ...