A simple Arduino UNO to make a paralyzed teenager smile

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At the age of 14, Jacob Smilg, an American teenager, designed an electronic device to help his paralyzed friend Ethan Kadish after being struck by lightning in 2013. Ethan could not communicate with his friends and entourage only by blinking. With the creation of his friend Jacob, based on an Arduino UNO, he can now answer yes or no by moving his head, which greatly facilitates communication.

In 2013, while the young Ethan Kadish was playing Frisbee on a sunny day, without a cloud on the horizon, he is suddenly struck by lightning. The team of the holiday camp where he stayed then intervenes quickly then arrive the help but the teenager does not breathe more and his heart stopped. He will finally come back to him, but his brain will suffer young Ethan finds himself paralyzed, he will not be able to walk or speak. He will spend long months in the hospital and little by little he is making progress and starting to communicate very basic, blinking to answer yes or no to the questions put to him.

Technology at the service of the human

His friend Jacob Smilg then has an idea and looks on the Internet how to build an electronic device allowing Ethan to be able to communicate more easily. The latter can move his head a little, Jacob then boards on a device allowing his paralyzed friend to answer yes or no. Passionate about technology, the young teenager will then use a Arduino UNO, an electronic circuit with a USB port, a sort of micro PC somehow, like the Raspberry Pifor example, to make the device that will make Ethan's life easier. Another example of what technology can do to help people in pain.

Its creation consists of the Arduino UNO, smart health connected to a small screen equipped with LEDs displaying "Yes" and No "and two large buttons, placed on the sides of Ethan Kaddish's wheelchair. The latter will only move his head slightly to one side or the other depending on what he wants to answer. The screen and the micro PC are placed in a box that Jacob made using a 3D printer, funded through a crowdfunding campaign, launched by someone touched by the young Jacob's initiative. " With my device Ethan can communicate more easily with a group and he is overjoyed to finally have real conversations Jacob said.

A simple Arduino UNO and a little curiosity

One can only be moved by such a story of friendship. Finally, you do not have to be an engineer to create objects that make life easier for disabled or paralyzed people. Young Ethan says it's easy to get the items he used to create his electronic device and that by searching a little on the Internet, it is possible to find all the necessary resources to design such objects.

Source: Arduino blog

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