Category Archives: motor neurone

Gadget lets you control computer with your eyes

September 24, 2012   Carers, motor neurone, Multiple Sclerosis, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Parkinsons, spina bifida, spondylosis

A researcher in London has created a low-cost device which allows wearers to use their eye movements to control a computer

By Tom Levitt, for CNN
September 24, 2012 — Updated 0848 GMT (1648 HKT) |
A researcher in London has created a low-cost device which allows wearers to use their eye movements to control a computer

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • New low-cost glasses allow you a wearer to control gadgets, even objects with their eyes
  • Eye-tracking equipment could help Multiple Sclerosis and other brain disorders
  • Technology could start a new era of hands-free computing

(CNN) — Take two video-game console cameras and one pair of horn-rimmed glasses and for around $30 you have a device that will allow you to control a computer or, potentially, even a wheelchair with your eyes.

Previously, if you wanted to buy similar eye-tracking equipment it would have cost you upwards of $8,000. Now, scientists in London have pioneered a device, the GT3D, using components anyone of us can buy from the shopping mall.

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Man bids for motor neurone disease awareness

July 4, 2012   Carers, motor neurone

“MND is a rapidly progressing disease which destroys the lives of the patients as well as the whole family.

By Angela Brooks
July 03, 2012

A TERMINALLY ill man is fighting back and campaigning to raise awareness of his condition, starting with his home town of Horley.

Liam Dwyer, 48, of Balcombe Road, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2005 after going to see a doctor about minor pain in his knee.

Now unable to walk, he is on a mission to raise the profile of a disease which kills five people every day in the UK.

Mr Dwyer, who has been with his wife Anna for 25 years and has an 18-year-old son, said: “I feel I am on borrowed time at the moment. Nine people [who] I have met since I was diagnosed, all diagnosed after me, have died.

“The doctors can’t tell me how long I will live now. I could be just a cold away from dying.”

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Over 70 health charities share £6.8m

March 15, 2012   Carers, disability, health, motor neurone

Seventy four charities are to get a share of around £6.8m to “test and develop innovative approaches to improve health and wellbeing”, the care services minister Paul Burstow has announced.

15 March 2012

The winning bids included the Epilepsy Society which would use nearly £300,000 to promote early interventions for people with epilepsy in hard-to-reach groups, the Motor Neurone Disease Association would use just over £500,000 to turn its wheelchair provision into a national service, and Maternity Action will spend its £68,000 on supporting women and their employers to breastfeed on their return to work after maternity leave.

Other charities benefiting from the cash injection include the Disabled Living Foundation which will use £200,350 to deliver an online library of small electronic aids which people can try before they buy, and the Spinal Injuries Association which has won nearly £43,500 to help educate health professionals how to avoid preventable conditions such as pressure sores and urinary infections.

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