Design Squad Nation has always believed that an engineer’s job is about making dreams come true through engineering. The EyeWriter project is a perfect example of this message.

EyeWriter is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people who are suffering from ALS with creative technologies. Specifically this project was started to help a graffiti artist named Temptone who was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, a disease which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. Unable to create his beautiful artwork using normal graffiti practices, the EyeWriter team wanted to come up a way for Temptone to continue to share his vision with the world.

Taking advantage of his ability to move his eyes, the EyeWriter team developed a system that allows Temptone to actually draw by tracking his eye movement. Collaboration between Temptone and the Eyewriter team was essential to the success of this project. By understanding exactly how Temptone created his art, and what his new physical capabilities were, the engineers were able to create a stronger product. This process of designing for the user and their capabilities is called Human Factors Design.

Check out this video of the design process behind EyeWriter. To make this EyeWriter system work, Temptone uses these special glasses that track his eye movement.

And this is an example of the artwork that Temptone created using the EyeWriter system…

FONTE: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/

Video: http://vimeo.com/6376466