13.00-14.45 Day 1 - Focused - NDIS
FIONA PAYNE:
Good afternoon, everybody and welcome to the session... Sorry, I have opened on the wrong page,
the Focused session, the first of our concurrent sessions this afternoon on assistive technology
development in Australia.
This afternoon we will be looking at how the technological future might look for people with
disability. It will be interesting to reflect on our speakers this morning and their thoughts about what
the future might look like.
During this session we will showcase innovation and the future possibilities for assistive technology.
The latest research and development from the Australian tertiary sector will be examined.
My name is Fiona Payne, it is my great pleasure to be here facilitating the session today. I am one of
the members of the inaugural board of the National Disability Insurance Agency, a role which I
consider to be a great privilege.
Can I begin by asking those of you in the outer reaches of this large room to move down to the flat
area at the front?
If you are comfortable where you are, you are more than welcome to stay there. Can I remind
people to turn their phones to silent? We encourage you to continue using your phone to tweet
during the conference using the handle #NDISConf.
I would also like to remind you there are some relevant procedures for the Brisbane Convention
Centre. There are some warning signs you will hear if there is an emergency situation. Rather than
go through them now, just take direction from us if you hear the alert tone or the evacuation tone.
I will now introduce our first speaker, Debra Polson. Debra is a senior academic, an independent
designer researching unique aspects of new and old technology to imagine the future of our human
experience.
Deborah is a Senior Lecturer in Interactive and Visual Design in the School of Design at the
Queensland University of Technology.
For over 20 years Debra has been an active member in the design industry in game design,
experimenting in the vibrant industry here, in China and the UK. She is a highly regarded academic in
both new design and theory.
Driven by a passion for sharing new concepts in playful ways, she leaves projects to integrate,
challenge, promote and refine relationships and practices in various contexts.
Today Debra will be speaking on this important subject, join me in welcoming Debra to the podium.
(Applause)
DR DEBRA POLSON:
Hi, everyone, this is slightly intimidating, the size of this room. I will try to get through it.
I am from Queensland University of Technology, I am from the School of Design, I studied visual
design and visual arts back in the 80s, I went on to get interface work in the very beginnings of the
world of game design, on educational games in Adelaide back in the 90s.
I have always, always... I am a big fan of science fiction as you can tell from my first slide. It is
something that constantly inspires me. At the moment I run Masters courses at QUT where I look at
how you create designs for future scenarios.
I look for opportunities in the future, on an ecological view, various different systems, and try to find
design opportunity.
This is my background, today I'm going to concentrate quickly on prosthetics, driverless cars and
virtual reality, some of my favourite topics at the moment.
Here is one of my favourite characters of all time, the cyborg. So, the cyborg to me, I am a big fan of
'Outer Limits', 'The Twilight Zone' and ‘Star Trek’.
Our future fears are played out, they also have great futuristic designs in them.
Manfred Klein described a cyborg as a synergy between human and machine that happens without
conscious thought or effort, which I think is amazing. Then when I went to art school I read a lot of
kind of techno-feminist readings, especially Donna Haraway, who said famously, “I would rather be a
cyborg than a goddess.”
What I got from this, my brother is a cyborg. He is a Paralympian, with an amputation that happened
when he was a month old.
Growing up knowing he was a cyborg, this is an interesting way to look at it. You can ask me how he
harassed me with his artificial leg, but this was a wonderful moment for me in Sydney, this
wonderful achievement by my brother.
Also, my brother was a superhero, he was most recently, this is a book I bought for his kids, he
worked at one of the largest vineyards in South Australia, he runs a winery, we like to call him 'The
Wonky Donkey', if anyone is familiar with that book.
He is no different to any other person on the planet, but this is my brother as an artist.
I am reminded of two particular occasions, we used to have to go to the rehab hospital to have his
new leg fitted, this was not the most pleasant place. There were no other children, mostly war
veterans being fitted with new limbs.
My brother was a great soccer player, he was only ever allowed to play in the goal because he had
an artificial leg. I used to think, "Once you have got a boot on, you will hurt someone anyway."
One of the reasons my brother was able to do so well in the Paralympics, some of the amazing
support of researchers in the University. One in particular, called Allan Wicks at the Royal Adelaide
Hospital, when my brother was training, Daniel teamed up with Allan and they did experimentation
with a bunch of materials from around the world.
This was 1988, he was bringing in silicone materials from Iceland and special materials from
Germany, my brother basically broke everything that was unbreakable. He got a custom fitted... As
some of you might know, no prosthesis will fit anyone but the person it is designed for. That is one
of the limitations around how to better improve access to this technology.
All of a sudden, at QUT, we have 3D printers, they can basically print all sorts of magic with them.
Associate Professor Mia Woodruff is running the lab, they are using scaffolds and bio inks to get the
cells to grow on those scaffolds.
It is interesting in the printing of artificial limbs as well. You couple that with very new 3D scanning
equipment, you can use hospital strength scanners, you can use your mobile phone, there are apps
like 123 Capture, you move around you and get a perfect 3D model of your head, whatever weird
way you want to use that.
When you have scanning technology that is accessible and printing technology that is accessible, I
am hoping some time soon and you will be able to print a custom leg at home in no time.
Jill Weinberg is an inventor of artificial limbs. That is my talk on 3D printing and prosthetics. But I
wanted to do some stories and what would be great at the end of the session is for you to come up
with some ideas. I'm interested in what you would have to say about what I say.
Driverless cars, as we heard from Jeff Cole, will be here soon. The founder of Tesla thinks that the
majority of cars manufactured will be driverless within 20 years. And 15 years after that we will
transition out of old-fashioned cars.
This, to me, says a lot about the access and mobility that we will have. Almost everyone who
manufactures cars knows they have to get into this. You can see a number of people pursuing this.
I am proud to say that Volvo will be doing a test run next week in Adelaide with driverless cars along
the south-east freeway. To test conditions in Australia. What is exciting for me, also, can you imagine
a world without cars that make a lot of noise?
This slide shows the sort of cars – a lot of people when you talk about driverless cars they have a
resistant look and that is about whether you can trust a driverless car.
What is interesting about artificial intelligence and driverless cars is their biggest strength is their
perception ability. For example, a car with cameras, radars and laser in combination is pretty good at
sensing what is going on on the road.
They work because they have a GPS embedded. They have constant information coming to them
about the lay of the land. They are also getting dynamic information about current conditions.
But the most interesting thing is the way they respond. You can see on the slide, this is a car
recognising that there is a construction site ahead. It slows down.
And what is even better is that the second image there, the car recognises movable things. That is a
cyclist. It recognises when the arm goes out, signalling it is moving into the lane and adjusts for that.
I will play you a clip... Or I may not because I am taking too much time. There is a lot of testing with
people with a disability that Google have been doing in terms of their cars.
There will be no drunk drivers in the future.
(Video plays)
SPEAKER:
You people will be the first people outside of Google to experience this.
DR DEBRA POLSON:
You can follow that up if you want to search for driverless cars. To me, why do they still have
steering wheels? As we transition from one form of technology to another, sometimes we require
the familiar to feel comfortable.
For example, your Windows interface is like an office. For the moment, we have the steering wheel
there. This is a Mercedes-Benz concept car. This is what I imagine when I think about a driverless car.
In the back, I imagine a water cooler, party time.
Where will we be going with driverless cars? What will we be doing in them while we get from A to
B? Do we need windows? We carry information about ourselves all the time and as soon as we enter
a driverless car, that car might know that we only have 10 minutes to get to our destination and we
have something to do for university, automatically the car will turn into an education suite.
Or if you are on your way to go shopping, it will show you what is on sale. It is going to be a platform
where different apps are available and will respond to you.
Cars use data from other cars on the road. I find it romantic, like a whale song. This is my favourite at
the moment, I have a studio at QUT where we have been experimenting with virtual reality. And
going back to my science-fiction roots, on the top here we have Star Trek and we have teleportation.
To me, the modern virtual reality set up is a combination of those three systems. You get teleported
into other worlds where you become a cyber being. You can see this young girl playing a first person
shooter game and she is on a visible floor, wandering around in a virtual reality.
What tends to happen at the moment with virtual reality is like with the Oculus Rift. The information
comes from the headset. You see the whole 360° around you and only now and then you get to see
your hands. We couple that with Kinect software or Leap software but mostly you are interacting by
staring at things.
But we also use game controllers. There are limitations at the moment with how you might interact
with it. But the thing we need to understand is that these will be commercially released in the first
quarter of next year and it is only half the price of an iPhone.
They will be in most houses in the next three or four years.
Like the internet, virtual reality is a platform for experiences to occur. Some of the game designers in
virtual reality respond to the limitations of only being able to sit down by putting a virtual cat on
your lap.
It is not like the 1990s, I know you are all rolling your eyes, what is most interesting about it, not only
is the technology much more stabilised, the ability to create content for virtual reality is no different
to creating content for a game.
These are the tools we use, that is my 3D artist, my sound designer, that is all we need.
(Video plays)
SPEAKER:
Sandy Williams is buckled up and ready for action. It looks and feels as if she is part of a videogame,
but it is actually high-tech rehab.
SPEAKER:
You have to challenge patients to get better, this provides a very safe environment. The virtual
reality treadmill has two belts, one for each foot, and creates different surfaces, it can adjust to the
patient's movement.
DR DEBRA POLSON:
So you can see that is helping her with her stride length, her gait, all sorts of interesting things. Now
we have virtual reality, that will change things as well.
The other thing virtual reality is allowing people to do is to be present together in virtual reality.
There is simple technology, Converge, you can download it onto your laptop. Using a headset, you
can be in a virtual world with other people.
A lot of the demo communities, the early communities using VR, going to these spaces to watch TED
talks together, presentations together. On November 22 I will be running a virtual reality festival,
you can experience some virtual reality, hear some experts talking about it.
This is a really interesting response. What Oculus did perfectly, even though it is not released until
next year, a lot of content has already been created. A lot of game makers and film makers have had
access to this technology for some years, there is quite a lot out there already.
Also, it is not just 3D worlds, 3D film has had a huge resurgence. Kodak has even made a new
camera, it is quite cheap, 360, you can put it onto the computer and see a full 360 experience.
This is for rehabilitation, they have made the Oculus Rift waterproof so that when you are under
water, you actually see creatures and challenges coming ahead. You are motivated to use your body
in certain ways. It is hilarious to watch the video, I won't show it to you now.
My friend in Singapore has made a beautiful virtual reality experience, they take people in
wheelchairs deep sea diving, film it in 360, you can then be there with them underwater and
experience and see the world the way they see it, learn a lot about how they are experiencing that
world.
Summary from the World Economic Forum, they did a 360 documentary, 'Clouds Over Syria', the
maker of that film said VR has the potential to be an empathy machine, which I think is quite
gorgeous.
It would be great if you could come over to QUT on the 22nd and experience some of this work
yourself. That is some of the exciting news that is coming on, there is already research and
development out there. We have the tools and expertise in creation of content and technology, but
you guys have the ideas.
Email us to say, "What if all of us could do this..." It would be great.
Thanks very much for your time.
(Applause)
FIONA PAYNE:
It is wonderful to think that the future is actually now. It makes me wonder about what a conference
for the NDIS might look like in five years’ time.
Can I now welcome our second speaker, Desleigh De Jonge? She is a clinical researcher with over 10
years of experience at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of
Queensland. She moved from academia back into industry, taking a position at LifeTec Queensland,
to improve the awareness and uptake of smart technologies and promote consumer and sector
engagement in the development of LifeTec’s services.
Her professional interests centre around the way in which technology and environmental design can
enable older people and people with disability to lead full lives. She has a national and an
international reputation in consumer-oriented analysis of assistive technologies, environmental
design and home modifications.
Desleigh has presented at national and international conferences and has published over 60 articles,
she currently holds an honorary position at the University of Queensland and is on the advisory
committee for a number of Ph.D. students.
Can you please welcome Desleigh to the podium?
DESLEIGH DE JONGE:
They promised me there would be a timer, it does not seem to be working. I will try to work to the
clock.
Good afternoon, it is a great opportunity to come here today to talk to you not just about the
technologies on the horizon but those technologies that are currently available for you today. To
imagine, seek, choose and live a different life using smart technologies.
I would like to acknowledge the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services,
who have funded a lot of the work that LifeTec has done in developing resources for people related
to the use of smart technology.
Today what I would like to talk about is what makes a device smart. And how devices work, it is in
understanding the devices that will allow you to understand what they offer and how they might
best be suited to you or tailored or calibrated to your specific needs.
I would like to overview the range of technologies available, it can be really overwhelming when
people keep telling you about these top end technologies. And to give you a framework to view
these technologies in and give you an idea of how smart technologies can be used to promote safety
and well-being.
What is a smart technology? Basically any technology that has some degree of sensitivity, they are
getting some information from the environment or from you. They are often mobile, they act
autonomously, they are responsive, and of course they are built on technology.
So, how do they work? They gather information and can use it to monitor the environment, monitor
your performance, they can provide immediate feedback and analyse that information, and they can
use that information and the analysis to respond to you in particular ways.
Very often you can have them in one device, it has sensors in it and responds when it senses a
particular thing in environment, smoke alarms are good example of that.
Increasingly these devices are talking through your wi-fi to each other or other devices in the
environment. When they sense something they can make something happen.
Traditional devices send information to a computer which undertakes analysis and then to someone
who is monitoring who can send appropriate resources. Those are closed systems, you can use them
in the home or with a dedicated service. Increasingly, the Cloud has provided us with incredible
opportunities to use these devices to be able to mobilise in the environment and access all sorts of
resources.
Anyone with a mobile phone can pick up that information and communicate with those
technologies.
One of the things we need to understand is the wireless mechanisms that are used. The first one is
infrared, like the remote control for the television.
Radio frequencies are often used by automated garage doors.
And the newer technologies, like Bluetooth, which allows us to use keyboards that are no longer
tethered to the computer. Wi-fi, which allows us to access the internet. And the cellular network
which has given us mobility, allowing us to access the Cloud technology of the internet to our mobile
devices.
What are some of the sensors that these devices use? Touch sensors, we use touch lights. Pressure,
so when you are sitting in the passenger seat of a car the pressure sensor tells the driver that the
seatbelt has not been connected and sets off an annoying alarm.
Those technologies are being used in the health sector as well. Moisture and light sensors that can
turn lights on automatically or take readings using photoelectric sensors.
Sound sensors. Used in a lot of medical devices. Smoke and gas detectors. G force sensors.
Temperature. Orientation, which allows your mobile device to know which way the screen is facing.
Barometer. GPS trackers. Item recognition, you can wear a bracelet so you are identifiable. If you
take a product off the shelf they know it has been removed.
And facial recognition and other biometrics to personalise and tailor parts of the technology.
They can be used in one device for one purpose or a combination. Devices such as your smart phone
have many of those sensors. You can have wearables, and there are the ones in your home.
This is a focal alarm, a smoke detector which tells people to move out of the environment.
The fall detector uses three different sensors to indicate there has been a fall. And of course, within
the home automation system a lot of those sensors can be used in the home to sense your presence
or a hazardous situation and that information can be analysed.
And a lot of the personal wearable devices which monitor heart rate and other functions. Smart
technology is no better than low technology, it is about finding the best for you and to matching it to
your specific needs. It is always useful to have a backup because invariably the battery will run
down.
These mainstream technologies are starting to take on some of the functions that dedicated
technologies used to offer.
The types of technologies that are available are about home control and security, health
management, safety monitoring. Assistive robots have been talked about this morning and activity
enablement.
The symbols on the slide are to let you know which ones are currently available in Australia. We hear
a lot about technology that is still in development and I want to share with you today things that are
currently available.
You can get a fingerprint door print sensor that allows you to unlock your front door. Door locks that
can be activated by your smart phone. A camera doorbell where you can see who is at the door via
your smart phone. A camera that will send images to your phone via the cloud.
A motion sensor sends an activation to your phone. If you leave home and think you may have left
the iron on, you can check your phone to see if that plug is on. You can remotely control the lights in
your environment.
A whole range of facilities in the house can be automated or controlled by the smart devices.
Automated appliances are for the truly committed. Increasingly smart televisions are becoming
useful. The robotic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers have been around for quite a while and we
have window cleaners as well.
Your air-conditioner, you can turn it on before you get home or check on the temperature if you
have a loved one at home, you can check if the environment is at the appropriate temperature.
Smart white goods. I have to say the jury is out on that one. I think I can make my smart phone work
for me by scanning the barcodes in the pantry, I don't need the fridge to tell me I need to replace my
cheese.
Smart microwaves can tell whether things are appropriately cooked. But exciting technologies are
about ensuring people can live safely in the community.
There are a range of regulations and standards, but there are two different types. You have the
regulated devices which are designed for people who have significant need, but there are a range of
technologies that are peace of mind devices.
If somebody who has a disability that I am concerned about and I want to make sure they are OK, I
can have all the safety and security of knowing they can call someone if they need to and not have to
sign in to expensive services.
Safety monitoring devices provide welfare monitoring or continuous support. When the hazard is
identified in the environment it sends the information either to someone in the home or it goes off
site to a call centre if you want to purchase ongoing support. Or you might have a monitor where a
group of support people in the community will receive the alert.
They detect all sorts of hazards, such as a fall detector that knows when the person is lying down.
Environmental hazards such as gas, or temperature changes. Or inactivity, if the person has not
moved by nine o'clock in the morning, there is a notification.
That is the kind of information you can access via the Cloud, to see what is happening in that
environment, open the front doors, see if there is no activity by 10.
GPS devices are useful for people within the industry, clients and carers, we have recently
undertaken a study to find out how useful people find GPS devices and how they use them, it is
quite informative.
They come in a range of types, watches, phones, increasingly down the track there will be chips you
can put in shoes or keys so you can locate them.
You can send an alert to somebody, track somebody in real time, see where they are. You can put a
geo-fence around, if they go out of a safe area it sends an alert, communicate and ask them where
they are going, assist them to where they need to be.
Speed detection. If they get on a bus and move really quickly, you need to know where that person
is.
There is a really exciting range of apps, I really like this, it provides people with an opportunity to see
if it is a tool of facility that might be useful to them before they go off and purchase a dedicated
device. The beauty of the app, you don't have a dedicated device. It uses GPS, within your phone,
you can see where all your family members are during the day, or seizure detection.
In the health management space there is a growing range of devices for medication dispensers,
these are governed by the Therapeutic Goods Act, but a little bit like the safety devices there are
things that are designed for medical purposes and things designed for well-being and health
promotion. And a lot of the things I will talk about are designed for health promotion, not approved
by the TGA.
These devices can measure electrocardiogram and the like, they have a range of wearables people
can put on to provide that quality of data.
There is also a range of health apps that allow you to collect and store information about your heart
rate, your blood pressure, how much activity you undertake in a day, how well you sleep, measuring
emotions, storing information about your diet, all of these apps can be used to promote health and
well-being.
There are a range of care apps which are useful in coordinating informal care and providing a
structure for people to be able to nominate to be responsible for certain activities.
Activity enablement, there are a range of devices which can augment people's movement, assist
with stress or pain, assist people with navigating the environment, augmented vision and
augmented hearing. There are a range of devices which can help people through specific activities,
we are working at the moment to look at context-based activity prodding, rather than just the listing
set of pre-recorded activity sets.
Of course there are a range of apps that do stress management, hearing augmenting, vision
augmenting, facilitating mobility, obstacle recognition as well.
We have heard a lot today about assistive robot systems, the driving systems, there are a range of
systems being developed that prompt people and recognise activities in the environment. Robots
that provide assistance, telepresence robots to provide support in various environments as well. And
facilitating people who have the ability to walk but perhaps need some additional support.
There are an enormous range of things available, there are a lot of considerations in purchasing
these devices to ensure it is manageable in the environment. To empower people about what is
possible and available, and to help them promote their own autonomy, health and well-being, and
to provide lifestyle choices to people, to help them do the things they love and not constrain them.
To afford social connectedness, a lot of these devices provide this opportunity. And we can really
harness the informal care support that people have and provide structure, to really be able to utilise
that effectively. And just a more integrated service delivery system.
This requires the integration of the technology, its design and development, reliability and
performance, integration with other technology, the user, their goals and priorities, the capacity of
the people in their care network.
It also requires us to really know how to go about matching the right technology to the user need
and provide adequate training and support. All of this technology requires adequate training and
support. And to integrate this, they also allow us to integrate our services and ensure better
collaboration between informal, formal and care services.
These technologies require us to reorientate our services and build the infrastructure on these
technologies and make sure we are utilising them effectively, and to really build capacity within the
industry but also in the consumer groups to ensure that they are actually able to utilise these
technologies effectively.
Thank you.
(Applause)
FIONA PAYNE:
Thank you, Desleigh, that was a great job of providing a really useful overview for us of the smart
technology that is available and has the potential to impact all aspects of people's lives.
Can I now introduce you to Dr Surya Singh, who is a senior lecturer in mechatronics at the University
of Queensland. He heads the Robotic Design Lab, the compliance and design of robotics in field
environments. He is particularly interested in projects with social functions.
He created a robotic soccer ball, the I-Ball, it contains motion sensors and a small controller that can
be uniquely programmed to suit the player. It varies the sound with the tone flowing depending on
its movement.
To close this session we will end with some fun from Dr Surya Singh.
DR SURYA SINGH:
Thank you very much. That pretty much summarises the interactive ball right there. It is a great
privilege to be here, good afternoon everybody, I am Surya Singh, I want to present some
information from work we have done at the University of Queensland with academics in the
Robotics group, this is been done in collaboration with Vision Australia, the Queensland Eye Institute
and a number of other partners we will show you.
I will give you a look back on where we are coming from and where we're going. My goal is to tell
you a little bit about the problem that was presented to us, so a couple of years ago we were
approached to help make tonal balls, balls that are used for the visually impaired to play soccer to be
more interactive.
As you will see, the old generation was a bit funny. Our goal here is actually interactive sport, not
just to get people to play soccer but also to get them to have a social experience and to integrate.
That is really what we are about. Our goal is to find technologies that help make things assistive and
make things better.
As was mentioned earlier today, robotics is a way of making that happen.
Our solution is something called the interactive ball. What you see here is a foam filled a soccer ball,
similar to what you would have in typical play. I will see if I can get the microphone to pick this up.
The core is unique, it has speakers, not a buzzer. It is programmable, we can play anything you like,
you tell us what you want and we will play it. Unlike other balls with buzzers, we are trying to make
it informative.
You are telling the visually impaired to run towards something that most people run away from, like
a fire alarm. What you see here, can people hear this?
That worked. Alright. You hear a ping and we have several modes. We have another mode, a rustling
sound. The idea with this is that is a broad-based sound, putting sound across the entire sound
spectrum.
Trying to point out to you the advantages... I can hear it. And this is courtesy of our friends at Apple,
by the way. A sound that changes as you spin the ball. There is nothing more fun than taking a toy
and tearing it open on stage, so let's do that.
Does anyone want to help me? Come on up. There is a ramp there. And my friend will prove that I
am not making this up. Hi, you are?
SPEAKER:
Angela.
DR SURYA SINGH:
Crack it open, this is some tape. Thank you, Angela. It is a bit strong. That is the part inside, I will hold
that, you spin that. It is robust and it is designed for kids. That is basically the gist of what we do.
Thank you very much, Angela.
(Applause)
DR SURYA SINGH:
That is the basic idea of the interactive ball and the technology in it. I thought I would quickly talk
through some directions we can go with this.
Let me tell you why I feel this is necessary. It is not that we don't have aids in the community, the
community works really hard, and is creative and innovative to find solutions.
For example, on the right we see a child with a simple tonal alarm ball. On the left we see a child
with a ball that is a plastic bag. As an engineer, it is hard to beat a two cent solution. And plastic bags
are universally available. The trouble is that it is not interactive and it is not what I would call socially
acceptable.
It is beautiful for working but terrible for the bigger goals. And it doesn’t make sound when it is
stationary. The other thing about current aids in general is they are not smart. If you look inside
that...
It resonates and gives a lot of sound for the amount of power. At the University of Queensland we
decided to take the technology of a smart phone, this is what you would see inside, custom-made,
what we call an accelerometer, a pressure sensor, smaller than a 50c coin.
How this goes is if you kick it further, that shows you the idea we have a speaker, change the tone
and play anything you like. What I want to point out to you is the magic is the software and to me,
this is a huge opportunity.
Not just because we can think about what autonomy does for us, it is a way to engage the
community. It can be remarkably accessible and we can use tools to help learn the art of
programming.
Why shouldn't we learn programming by doing it? These are the questions we are starting to ask. I
feel the magic is the software. And that is part and parcel of where I would like to go with this.
I was going to click on a video. If it doesn't play, it doesn't matter. But you can see Louise and Ben
showing you what is inside the box. Here we have some motion sensors, it has an inertia sensor, a
classic gyroscope, in addition to being more interactive we can be smarter and build better and
more personal aids.
I can tune the sound to be what you want and to be a better aid. To show we have taken it outdoors
and had some fun, this is Ben trying to catch the ball and you can see it works remarkably well.
We were fortunate, the ABC did a quick profile, they did a great job of describing this. I will play the
video, care of the ABC.
(Video plays)
SPEAKER:
The creation of a robotic soccer ball, they say it is the first of its kind using programming technology.
SPEAKER:
For those who struggle to see, kicking a soccer ball can be a difficult task but this is changing that.
SPEAKER:
It is about being able to playing sport interactively and socially.
SPEAKER:
University of Queensland engineers have teamed up with Vision Australia to make the device.
SPEAKER:
As you rotate it faster and faster...
SPEAKER:
It has an inbuilt speaker, motion sensors and a controller which means it can be heard at all times
and that makes it different to others designed for the same purpose.
SPEAKER:
It is the only ball that has a speaker instead of a rattle or a buzzer.
SPEAKER:
It is so critical for a family to play together. The ball can be adapted.
SPEAKER:
Health professionals say more equipment like this is needed.
SPEAKER:
Kids are able to join in, even just down to the playground to join in with their mates.
SPEAKER:
Researchers are hoping it will be picked up by major sporting brands, making it just as cool as any
other soccer ball.
DR SURYA SINGH:
That is another form of working demo. But as well as the fun of research, there is always the
unexpected challenge. If you notice this picture, if you look carefully, sometimes things don't go
straight to plan, the bits come out, that is why we think research is a great key to exercise.
I want to engage the room in this, we are basically users of tools. I like to think of myself as the
gentleman who makes the oven, not the cake, not the recipe, my hope is to make a better oven so
you can make a better cake.
Here are some directions we want to go in, but we want you to come and talk to us, how can we
help this community, be more interactive and more assistive?
I have a loudspeaker inside a foam ball, foam is the best sound attenuator, we were thinking about
making the ball wireless, making the tone different for each person, some might like Tchaikovsky,
some might like Metallica. Just play what you like, that is the fun of it.
We also thought different technologies, different ways of doing the circuitry, ways of integration and
so on. The other thing we are trying to do, we are trying to basically take advantage of audiology to
make more informative signal, we are basically mapping one signal, motion, to another signal,
sound. In so doing, we would like to make that more informative.
The hearing impaired are hyper-acuitive, with their sight being better than someone myopic like me
who wears Coke bottles.
Jokes aside, I wanted to show you this graph, the ability to perceive sound actually varies as a
function of the frequency we play. This is why Metallica concerts don't sound so loud, if you have
low frequency sound, it could be 110 dB, you think it is 100 dB.
Conversely, if something is 4000 Hz, it is 100 dB, you will likely think it is 110.
Sports people probably think - you are not the first to put smart aids inside a ball, Adidas has done it.
This is what it looks like up close and personal. We have not had the heart to tear it apart yet, we are
a little scared to do it.
Our focus is on enhancing accessibility, not sport, that is how we are different to some of the smart
aids and products that you see. The focus of our research and effort. That being said, I think it is an
objective of ours to interact with the community. There is plenty of information on the web, I would
love you to get in touch with us now or later, please get in touch at www.i-ball.info.
With that I open it up to the Q&A session later. I really appreciate your time.
FIONA PAYNE:
Thank you, Surya, it is interesting to see that Desleigh included your I-Ball in her presentation.
I would now like to invite questions from the floor. I believe we have 20 minutes, Mary, could you
please keep a track of the time for me?
As you have heard, we have had presenters today who are all challenging us to contribute to the
work they are doing in helping to utilise assistive technology to improve the world, really.
Particularly for people with disability.
Do we have someone who would like to kick-start this Q&A session from the floor? Someone over
there, Wendy?
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
Surya, I was wondering with the design of your ball, is it open source, can a maker's group have a go
at it?
DR SURYA SINGH:
Absolutely, our goal is to make it open source. We are tweaking the technology, our goal is to make
it open source. We want to get it out there so people can have it.
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
That is really great.
DR SURYA SINGH:
Keep an eye on this space. We will probably call it I-Ball 2.0, for lack of inventive naming.
FIONA PAYNE:
Do we have another question from the floor?
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
Thank you. Question for Desleigh, can you tell us about the monitoring devices for seizure detection,
how reliable they are, their value?
DESLEIGH DE JONGE:
There are two types, one is a movement based one, one is an electrical based one. The ones that are
movement based are currently being used quite extensively in the monitored systems. So they are
reliable enough for them to be using them in the paid services. The electrical ones are still in
development, from my understanding, I am not sure what level of TGA approval they have but they
are looking to do that in the near future.
FIONA PAYNE:
The lady behind?
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
Debra, I have a 'what if' question, my daughter, like many others, has a hidden disability of
movement disorder. Her body will be fine in a known environment, but when she goes into novel
situations, it is really tricky to control her body as many people do.
I am just wondering if there is a possibility of smart bicycles, the same as helping people's ability to
control wheelchairs, smart devices that could be programmed to retain that dignity when they go
out in the community?
They literally can't control their body because of a movement disorder, I wonder if there is a ‘what if’
of what people live with, in the community. Just a ‘what if’ to think about.
DR DEBRA POLSON:
That is a great response to some of the things we are talking about. Definitely a natural way to think
about how we can... Not just driverless cars but cycles and other forms of mobility, and customising
them to people's responses and reactions.
You were showed the external skeleton, robotics, it is a kind of coupling of several different types of
technology. I am mostly an interface and digital world designer, that would take robotics, but most
importantly we learn a lot about those challenges from technology. Those challenges push
technology for everybody. Excellent question. Please email me. My name does not have a 'u', if you
are looking for me.
DESLEIGH DE JONGE:
There is a simple walker that was designed for people with Parkinson's. The introduction of an
infrared light that gave them something to aim for and improve their walking capacity.
DR DEBRA POLSON:
You never know what is possible and sometimes it can be small things that help. It is about getting
people in the room together.
DR SURYA SINGH:
I will second that. It helps to get the conversation going. Many of the sensors you see inside the IBall, the ability to program them and use the smart devices, that makes it work nicely. I think you are
right, getting people in the room to...
DR DEBRA POLSON:
You don't just adapt technology, you couple that with other things. That is what we like to do, bring
a whole bunch of different technologies together around a problem for someone.
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
A question for Dr Singh. I think a lot of technology around people with solely vision impairment and I
often look at them and think, if you did one little thing it would also be available for someone who is
deafblind. I am not the engineer but if the ball flashed, it would open up a new world for people who
are deafblind.
And localising the sound would be difficult. Can I throw that in the mix?
DR SURYA SINGH:
I appreciate the insight, you are correct. This is only one step. I am not claiming it is done, per se. I
take your point that we could include a flashing device, even to some extent, one benefit of moving
the signalling from the ball to the person, you could tweak it to customise it.
I was going to point out, I think we both can appreciate, impairment is a spectrum. That was an
interesting observation to me – you don't have to think of it as vision impaired or blind. The same
thing is true for hearing impaired. There is a spectrum and I agree with you that the advantage of
tools like this, and this goes to the question about open source. We want to give the design away.
We are not trying to make a one-size-fits-all solution.
You are correct and it is something we will start thinking about. To put some LEDs on the perimeter
or change the cover to translucent instead of opaque. My short answer is, yes, there are things we
would like to start doing and I appreciate the feedback.
FIONA PAYNE:
There is a question from a gentleman at the back.
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
In 1977 I was involved in developing a prosthetic hand that could feel. It had gauges on the fingers
and we put five tabs on to a person's back and as they touched something, depending on how hard
they touched it, the pads would give a gentle electric shock. After a short time the plasticity of the
human mind is such that the person doesn't realise that the feeling is coming from the skin on their
scapular, they can relate to when they are touching the object.
Is it possible for there to be two web cams, I am not talking about something that is large, and as the
person looks at the ball, the tone could change or if they are not hearing you could put these pads
on to their chest and after a short period of time, the person would come to realise when they are
looking at the ball and when the ball is at the centre of their vision and when it is on the periphery.
This then allows them to visualise that there is a ball in front of them and whether it is coming
towards them or going away. It is also possible, if the person can hear, to vary the time that the
signal occurs, in the left or right ear.
Combining all of these effects, you could come up with something that would be superior. I leave
you with that thought. And my company, not very long ago, developed a means by which we could
recognise multiple barcodes and developed a discrete component device. We have patents on that
but I would be happy to share that sort of thing with you in an open source environment.
DR SURYA SINGH:
That sounds fantastic. I would love to catch up with you after the session and we can compare notes.
I think something interesting about the I-Ball, there are two sides to this, one of them is helping
them to play soccer. The other one is helping them navigate and build spatial awareness, thinking
about ways we can use cues to inform other forms of spatial reasoning.
If you wanted to make a version to navigate without using the display, what sound should it make to
send you the right way? And your suggestion of using 3D vision is key. Google Street view is a
representation of the world. Quietly underneath the surface, we can leverage that to make it a
better aid.
To bring it full circle, one thing that has advanced a lot in the last 10 years is the amount of
computing power that people have in their pocket. I point out to my class that 10 years ago if my
phone had a camera, I was pretty special. Now, if my smart phone does not have two digital cameras
I am unusual. My smart phone is more powerful than the computer I wrote my thesis on. Which says
a lot about how long ago I wrote my thesis.
You are right on the money, they are certainly things we can bring to bear.
DR DEBRA POLSON:
In a virtual world, a lot of it is about feedback. There is no reason you couldn't be playing with one of
your balls in a virtual reality where you are getting real-time feedback. Sound, for me, is the most
immersive of all the senses in terms of virtual reality.
If you mix vision, binaural sound, you know where the ball is coming from phonically.
Some of this can happen in complete virtual spaces. What I think is interesting is augmented spaces,
if you are using the Oculus Rift, you can deal with binaural sound and haptic technology, which I
think is really interesting.
FIONA PAYNE:
I would encourage those of you have indicated an interest in follow-up of the speakers, perhaps at
afternoon tea or via the contact details for them in the program.
Just wondering, before we close this session, if there are any other questions from the audience?
Wendy, are you up the back with someone? I might take the question at the back and then come to
the lady at the front.
No, you didn't have a question? This lady with her hand up in the second row.
QUESTION FROM FLOOR:
Robert is wanting to know about technologies for exercise for someone who uses a wheelchair, to
be able to use their arms and legs more freely.
DR DEBRA POLSON:
Like you saw in the work they are doing with rehabilitation and virtual reality, or faux virtual reality,
setting virtual challenges that motivate movement. That is still a fairly distant type of technology, it
is not actually assisting physically, but potentially it is creating an environment for you to respond in
a more playful and fun way, without having to move, really, from sitting down.
There are lots of virtual using sensors that know where your hands are, where your arms are, giving
you programs that use your capabilities. For me, a game is a progress machine, it is those challenges
that help people progress. That is where the interesting things come in, coupled with other
technology.
DESLEIGH DE JONGE:
Certainly you can get that type of technology now.
DR SURYA SINGH:
I would add one thing, there are things coming along, I agree with the comments, there are
technologies coming along the pipe, tools to help, simply, typically the elderly or people in nursing
homes who might be mobility impaired.
There are tools, for example, that are exercising aids coming along in that space, it is a very large
market. For good reason. People are living longer. How do you get them engaged in exercise and
activity and make that more adaptive?
There are other things coming along that direction as well. Sometimes I think the other part of this,
in a way we are looking at parallel big markets like mobile phones, the automotive space and so on
to find tools we can leverage to make this thing work.
I can't tell you to buy an Acme X yet, but hopefully I can tell you to buy an Acme X soon.
FIONA PAYNE:
Thank you very much for your contributions as an audience, would you join me in thanking our three
speakers for such a thought-provoking session this afternoon.
Afternoon tea is now served if you would like to take a break for half an hour and join us then for the
final session of the afternoon.
(Afternoon tea break)