The technology is called BrainPort, and this weekend it will be one of several jaw-dropping devices on display in Miami at the No Barriers Festival, an international gathering of physically limited athletes, wounded soldiers, disabled kids and hopeful parents, and the scientists and doctors who develop the technology that lets them match the able-bodied step for step. ''I can't tell you how amazing and surreal it has been,'' Weihenmayer, of Colorado, says of his BrainPort -- one of just three prototypes in existence. ''This sort of technology is not just ahead of the curve, it's miles ahead of anything we've seen before,'' said Weihenmayer, president of No Barriers USA, which created the festival.
Weihenmayer, who has been completely blind since age 13, is not seeing in
high resolution or color, but the images are clear enough to make out words, reach out and pet the dog or see the silhouette of his 8-year-old daughter Emma and engage in simple pleasures like playing tic-tac-toe or rolling a ball back and forth with her.
Along with the BrainPort, the festival's Innovation Village and symposiums will showcase advanced GPS devices for the blind and ''smart'' prosthetic limbs that read and react to brain signals like real nerve endings -- the latter being the creation of MIT professor and festival co-chair Hugh Herr, who has used them in recent years to resume his rock-climbing hobby. Also on hand: Molly the ''amputee'' pony.
More than the ''wow'' factor, experts say, the technology behind the devices is changing the meaning of ''disabled'' and redefining "able-bodied." 'There was a time not that long ago when most people might see someone like me -- a paraplegic in a wheelchair -- and automatically assume `disabled,' '' says Harry Horgan, a sailor and founder of Shake-a-Leg Miami, the nonprofit aquatic and sailing center in Coconut Grove that is hosting No Barriers.
The BrainPort dates to the 1960s, when neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita began working to develop an artificial sight generator. By the time Bach-y-Rita died in November 2006, Wicab -- his Middleton, Wis., company -- had developed the BrainPort.
''One of Paul's favorite expressions . . . was that you don't see with your eyes, you see with your brain,'' says Wicab President Robert Beckman. ``Paul also liked to say that if your eyes or any other sensor are damaged, you can use an alternate sensor, because the brain is not hard-wired.'' A second BrainPort prototype will be given to another test subject next week. When the device is cleared for wider use -- likely in the next few months following presumed FDA approval, Beckman says -- it will cost about $10,000.
For all the hope and buzz the BrainPort may generate, some No Barriers attendees are otherwise preoccupied. ''I'm really looking forward to the hand cycle,'' says Juan Carlos Gil, 27, a sailor and champion hand cyclist who was born with cerebral palsy and has limited use of his legs. Gil, who volunteers at Shake-A-Leg Miami, is referring to a new type of cycle that with the flip of a switch can stand upright.
That's important, Gil says, because traditional hand cycles have such wide bases they can't fit through doorways and other narrow spaces. ``So you have to rely on other people to carry your cycle outdoors and then help you out and help you into your cycle. This is another step toward independence for us.''
Kerry Gruson, a regular at Shake-A-Leg Miami, will also be presenting in a symposium at the festival.
Gruson, 61, a retired New York Times reporter partially paralyzed in 1974 when a Vietnam Veteran she was interviewing suffered a traumatic flashback and strangled her, can't move her legs. Her arms have a short range. Her head is permanently cocked to one side. Still, she holds several world sailing titles, including a few won in competitions against able-bodied sailors.
Her technological aid? A lightweight, custom-designed chair and pulley system that allow Gruson to slide with ease from one side of her boat to the other, giving her quick access to sails and rudder. ''Sailing is as much about thinking and strategy as it is the physical,'' she said. ``And that's why I win.''
Photo by AccesAnything.net
Another presenter at the festival, Dr. Mark Nash, associate professor of neurological surgery, rehabilitation medicine and physical therapy at the University of Miami's Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, works to physically strengthen paralysis patients while cures are sought. Last week, he worked in a small room at the center with Rodolfo Prinetto, who sat in front of the green screen and reached high with both hands, stretching up to grab some invisible object. He then leaned over to set the object down.
Check out the computer monitor facing Prinetto, and you see he has been placed on a virtual assembly line where he's removing boxes from an upper conveyor belt and placing them on a lower belt. He later played a game of virtual volleyball against a robot on the green screen.
''There is no cure yet for paralysis, true,'' Prinetto says, breathing heavily after the round of volleyball. ``But I can tell you that most people in my situation aren't looking each day for a cure. They are looking for ways to be independent. You don't think of it, but these machines have done so much for my upper body strength and my overall circulation that I am almost completely independent. I can move my chair. I can drive. I can do so many things without help.''
If disability is a matter of not being able to commit certain acts, then Weihenmayer is arguably more able-bodied than most people with working eyes.
Among other things, he captained his high school wrestling team and is a world-class mountain climber who has scaled the legendary Seven Summits. He got married on the side of Mount Kilimanjaro.
''I know it sounds like a feel-good cliché,'' Weihenmayer says. ``But I don't feel disabled. I feel like I'm doing the best I can with what I have. And at the same time, like everyone else -- no matter their physical status -- I'm integrating into my life tools that help me be more proficient.
''So No Barriers is about all of it, the physical, the mental, the psychological,'' he says. ``The technology is important in the sense that it helps ensure that the name of our organization isn't just wishful thinking.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/front-page/v-fullstory/story/1080510.html
Craig Kennedy plays in the puddles during an adaptive cycling clinic on this unique One Off, a off-road wheelchair / Photo by AccessAnything.net
Technology has redefined what it means to be `disabled'
