Does technology replace human assistance for the disabled?

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New technologies are created to serve a purpose, to meet a need. At a time when technological progress is continuing, today’s and tomorrow’s inventions will be able to respond even more precisely to our needs, and almost even to anticipate them. In order to improve our living conditions, the assistance provided by these technologies is proving to be more and more important especially for the disabled.

With this in mind, innovations on the path of disability service seem to be a very revealing subject of this evolution. Indeed, the help provided by new technologies to people with physical or mental disabilities now seems to make their place in the lives of these people and their loved ones. Allowing a better adaptation and interaction with their environment, technology and assistance to these people, therefore seem to go hand in hand and compensate for this inequality of means. Thus, the purpose of this file is to show here what are the innovations currently, what uses they meet and what are their limits? Is human intervention with these people still necessary?

Technology: the arm must disabled people

In the current demographic context, the lengthening of the life span and the decrease of the birth rate cause handicapped people new difficulties for their adaptation in our society. New technologies present themselves as valuable tools for the disabled, ensuring greater independence and better socio-economic integration.

Improve the daily lives of people with physical disabilities

Difficulty or inability to move, inventions are numerous, and constantly evolve to meet the needs of people with physical disability. In order to provide them with a certain degree of autonomy and to detach themselves from a non-technological assistance, these innovations apply to people suffering mainly from motor problems.

Starting with the development of wheel chairs. Destined for people who can not or can not walk, these inventions do not date from yesterday but modernize to become machines that can now perform many other functions that simply allow the physically disabled to move. Take for example the case of the smart health connected wheelchair created by the association between the German institute Fraunhofer and the medical technology manufacturer Otto bock. This chair allows the user to connect his smartphone or a pc on a dashboard, the latter to take control of the chair by this device. The options can then be increased if the user has other smart health connected objects at health home. Indeed, he could then settle everything from his chair, air conditioning, light, sound. A kind of Charles Xavier (Professor X “X-Mens”) without his powers of telekinesis.

Otherwise, to adapt to this physical handicap, there are obviously the prostheses. Very used in the sports field, especially during Paralympics where the phenomenon is the most publicized.

This accessory makes it possible to fill the absence of a limb (arm or leg) by a mechanism articulated or not, is seen continuously improving over the years and thus makes it easier for the physically disabled. Indeed, the advances are quite spectacular in that we can now find the sense of touch through the prosthesis developed by DARPA, with a system of electrodes smart health connected to the sensory cortex of its user.

The prosthesis of Konami, a articulated plastic arm, is quite futuristic also when it connects directly to the nerves and muscles of its user to be controlled. In addition, it also incorporates a USB port to charge a laptop, a work lamp, a laser light, a digital watch and one operational drone. Yes our head also did exactly the same as yours. A prosthesis that would plunge us into the path of cyborgs and transhumanists? Perhaps. In any case, this device turns out to be a real gem!

To end in beauty, the point that plunges us directly into the field of science fiction is the emergence of exoskeletons. Devices especially developed by society Indego who developed an exoskeleton allowing paralyzed people below the size of to be able to get up and walk again. A system that attaches around the legs, knees and hips where the user leans forward to walk and back to sit.

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Otherwise, the Honda exoskeleton, meanwhile, aims to “fight against the aging of his nation“By allowing users to get help from the device when they walk. This exoskeleton is therefore rather reserved for the elderly and the elderly, but can also, in some cases, assist the physically handicapped.

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Improve the daily lives of people with sensory disabilities

The sensory disabilities are problems that some people encounter on their sensory organs : difficulty to see, to hear and to speak. Several objects and technologies have been created to respond to these handicaps visually impaired and to dumb.

In order to allow visually impaired to accommodate themselves more easily to their environment, several diverse and varied objects were born. Starting with the Orcam glasses that explain orally what is in the environment of the wearer. This pair of glasses is able to analyze any signage, which is essential for driving around the city and also to allow the user to read.

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In another style, he has the Handisco smart health connected rod. This innovation, resulting from the research of 5 French engineering students and equipped with infrared sensors and ultrasound, allows to detect obstacles who are in the path of his user by communicating information to him by vibration. Also incorporating a GPS and auricles smart health connected in Bluetooth, this accessory will be a very good companion for people with blindness.

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There is also the Finger Reader, a ring that aims to restore the taste of reading to the visually impaired. This ring equipped with a mini-camera and of mini speakers allows you to scan a text and then transmit the words scanned orally.

The deaf and dumb Nor are they forgotten by technological progress with many objects specially designed to meet their disability. One example is the Unitact bracelet for the hearing impaired, which offers an alternative to sign language. communicating by means of vibration. A little in 50 shades of vibrations mode, the different elaborate vibrations are quite varied to the point of constitute a real language.

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Otherwise, the giant Silicone Valley also thought of the hearing impaired. Indeed, Google and its Google glass allow its users to read as subtitles what their interlocutors say (a bit like the subtitles of a film in VO). To watch your life in VOSTFR, just say this sentence that is not too loud because it seems a little stupid to talk glasses: “Ok Google, recognize this” (Ok Google, recognize that). Yes, Google can recognize everything except ridicule apparently. Finally, a news that will please at least one …

Improve the lives of people with mental disabilities

The mental handicap regards people who have a cognitive dysfunction. Considered to be one of the most important public health challenges in modern medicine in France, this is 300,000 to 500,000 people who face these problems, including 60,000 people with autism according to autisme.com.

Surely the most difficult, the mental handicap was still taken into account by some companies creating specialized inventions for these people who suffer from it. Indeed, this is the case for example of WatcHelp and its application. This application is for autistic children to make them a little more autonomous.

(Embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ysxBKOt9U (/ embed)

The application (available on Android) is added to a smart health connected watch who comes to directly assist his user in his day by reminding him of the tasks he has to do. Once these tasks completed, the wearer of the watch has only validated the task on the screen of the watch to be able to move to the next. Tasks are therefore programmed via a smartphone. If the user does not do his tasks, a notification is sent directly to the programmer’s smartphone. An invention that can be as useful for people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or hyper activity.

There is also Reveal, the smart health connected bracelet which makes it possible to apprehend the anxiety of autistic people, especially children. Of course, the anxiety is specific to each and depends on many factors such as the environment of the child or the way of reacting to his environment but this small object can already allow you to apprehend a small little better his stress level. Useful to prevent his behavior or to anticipate a crisis.

Specifically, the device is placed around the wrist or ankle and detects by measuring its heartbeat, sweating and body temperature each time the child prepares a crisis and informs the person in charge by notification on his smartphone.

Can technology replace human assistance for the disabled?

Technology is becoming more and more efficient, particularly in the area of ​​assistance to the disabled, and is about to become indispensable. This is already seen in some cases where people with disabilities help themselves only by their devices. Electric wheelchairs, prostheses … These inventions that continue to evolve are enough to manage the handicap of some people. However, should human assistance to these people be forgotten? Is human assistance still essential for the disabled?

On the face of it, it is true that there are many more people with disabilities who are becoming more independent and more free of human assistance thanks to technological assistance. If we take the case for example paraplegic people who by combining urban amenities, adapted public transport, vehicles specially designed to meet this kind of handicap, managed to self-manage without human assistance through their devices.

Human assistance to the disabled, an indispensable economic sector

Despite these advances, technology is not yet sufficient to cover all the disabilities of integration and interaction of these people. Indeed, the disabilities are sometimes too strong and hindering for these new tools to fully support the disabled. Mentally handicapped (autism, trisomy 21, cerebral dysfunction) and physically handicapped deeply affected (as in the film “Untouchables”), these people are often too limited in their actions to be able to fend for themselves. Human intervention therefore remains more than necessary to deal with it. Many specialized institutions, associations and services disabled people have been active for a long time and are far from having enough work. We can also count on many trades such as facilitator, mobility attendant, medico-psychological help, school support worker, homeworker, nurse. All these professions alone reveal the extent to which human intervention with people with disabilities is necessary and that technology is just another way to manage certain disabilities.

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