[gui-talk] Fwd: Article: ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE. Creating Software That OpensWorlds To the Disabled.

[Steve Pattison]

From: Kay Malmquist
To: blindtech at yahoogroups.com

12/18/08 NYTimes Business Section
ENTREPRENEURIAL EDGE. Creating Software That Opens Worlds To the 
Disabled.
By JAMES FLANIGAN.

ONE computer program would allow vision-impaired
shoppers to point their cellphones at supermarket shelves and hear
descriptions of
products and prices. Another would allow a physically disabled person to
guide a computer mouse using brain waves and eye movements.
The two programs were among those created by eight groups of volunteers 
at
a two-day software-writing competition this fall. The goal of the
competition,
sponsored by a nonprofit corporation, is to encourage new computer 
programs
that help disabled people expand their capabilities.
The corporation, set up by computer science students and graduates at 
the
University of Southern California, is named Project:Possibility. It grew 
out
of an idea two years ago by Christopher Leung, then a master's degree
candidate in computer science and engineering at the university, who was
working
on a project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
As Mr. Leung explained in a recent interview, 'The project manager came 
to
me and said: 'Chris, we have several blind students coming to work with 
us
this
summer. If you can think of anything we can do for them, let me know.'
At the time, Mr. Leung said, he was working on a solar system 
visualization
program. I came up with a project called 'touch the sky' where a blind
person
would use a forced feedback device to feel three-dimensional
reconstructions of terrain on other planets,' he said.
The experience inspired him to think beyond just one group of students 
and
one project. It was apparent that there was a need for a larger 
organized
effort,
a community of developers and disabled persons to conceptualize projects
that can help people,' Mr. Leung said. So I gathered colleagues into a 
room
at
J.P.L., pitched the idea and asked for their help. Several of them and
dozens of others since then have taken on the challenge and brought
Project:Possibility
to where it is today.
The effort is centered at the University of Southern California and led 
by
volunteers, including Ely Lerner, an information systems developer at 
Amgen
Inc.; Elias Sayfi, a senior software engineer at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory; and Stanley Lam, an undergraduate business student at the
university.
In 2007, they organized a competition called 'Code for a Cause' in which 
25
students in five teams engaged in a weekend of intense computer
code-writing.
The event attracted assistance from executives at Google, Amgen and the
propulsion laboratory. This year, in October, the competition expanded 
to
50 students
in eight teams with mentors from Google, Amgen and the laboratory, as 
well
as judges from Lockheed Martin and Amgen and encouraging words from a
Microsoft
executive.
The competition was won by Bar Code Reader, the program to help the
visually impaired read information on grocery items. Second place went 
to
Mind Control,
which allows the physically disabled to guide a computer mouse by neural
impulses. All the code, written in 12-hour sessions on a single weekend,
made
progress, but also left room for further development.
The Bar Code Reader team 'didn't hook up a cellphone, so we used a 
Motorola
simulator,' said Michael Crowley, an associate professor of engineering
practice
who was the mentor for the team.
James Han, founder of ProsForPros, an Internet hosting and consulting 
firm
for small businesses, was the mentor of the Mind Control team. We were 
able
to leverage open-source codes for mouse control and link to the neural
actuator in the first 12 hours,' Mr. Han said. In the second 12, we 
created
the
user interface. I believe implementation of the program is currently in
development with similar devices.
Project:Possibility directors have plans for more ambitious projects.
First, there will be a competition in February with teams of computer
science students
at the University of California, Los Angeles, in hopes of multiplying 
the
number of programs to help the disabled. The project also plans to 
create a
worldwide
open-source Web site on which disabled persons and software developers 
can
collaborate on new ideas and add to existing programs.
Imagine a specialist Facebook or MySpace-type social network in which 
users
would be involved in designing the tools they want and need,' said 
Stephen
A. Lee, a British software developer who operates Fullmeasure.co.UK and 
is
a director of Project:Possibility. Students would talk to users and work 
on
projects that meet needs as well as be exciting.
He estimated that 'an active online community may well take six or more
months to organize, as there is inertia and shyness to overcome. There 
will
also
be costs to create such an online community, he said, 'for Web hosting,
associated technology costs and set-up labor.
To date, Project:Possibility has operated without revenue and without 
pay
for participants. Its programs belong to the nonprofit project and to 
the
University
of Southern California. Its sole source of financing was a $15,000 grant 
in
early 2008 from the Mozilla Foundation, an organization that promotes 
the
concept
of the Internet as a public resource open to everyone.
Nor does Project:Possibility intend to be a commercial venture, Mr. 
Leung
said. We do not plan to earn revenue through a spread of our programs. 
In
fact,'
he said, 'we plan to be completely open-source -- our programs can be
downloaded, modified and used by anyone at no cost -- in hopes that 
similar
programs
will spread to other universities and around the world with or without 
our
involvement.
But, at a project meeting early this month, the directors decided to
establish a paid position. We are looking to grow and that will require
people to
dedicate even more of their time to this project,' Mr. Leung said. So it
will be necessary to 'compensate for our core positions and perhaps one 
day
to
have a full-time staff.
Mr. Leung lives and works these days in Beijing. I'm a Chinese-American 
who
grew up in Northern California and never spoke Chinese,' he said. So I'm
learning
Chinese and working here, but keeping in touch online with
Project:Possibility.
To pay for staff, the project will continue to depend on grants from
companies and charitable groups. At some point, it hopes to establish
regular fund-raising
efforts for its nonprofit operations.
What's great is that companies like Google and Mozilla support our
projects,' Mr. Leung said. The companies gain by getting ideas on
technological breakthroughs
and seeing ways to adapt them to everyday products. One 
Project:Possibility
program, for example, called Community Captioner, integrates subtitles 
with
YouTube 'so the hearing-impaired can have sound with their videos.
. PHOTO: Students at the University of Southern California working on a
software competition entry intended to help blind people. (PHOTOGRAPH BY 
J.

EMILIO FLORES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) .

Regards Steve
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