Cornell Tech Students Developing Pallette - Tongue Controlled Wireless Device To Allow Quadriplegic Patients At Roosevelt Island's Coler Goldwater Hospital And Elsewhere To Perform Everyday Activities Independently

Cornell Tech is open and teaching its students from the Google HQ in Chelsea as its Roosevelt Island campus is now under construction and scheduled to open in 2017.

A team of current Cornell Tech Connective Media students have been busy developing a wireless technology called Pallette that may eventually help quadriplegic patients at Roosevelt Island's Coler Goldwater Hospital and elsewhere perform everyday activities in an independent manner using a tongue controlled device. According to Pallette:

... People with quadriplegia are unable to use their hands, arms or legs to interact with the world around them. We have created a way for them to perform everyday tasks more independently.

The way Pallette works is simple: it has been designed behind the idea of a computer mouse. It contains a joystick to control movement and 2 buttons to indicate actions. It sends a Bluetooth signal to our mobile app, which redirects the signal to different devices connected to it.

These devices then map the signal to a corresponding action. They can be simple actions such as opening and closing doors or turning lights on and off, or more complicated ones such as moving a wheelchair around....

Image From Challenge Post/Pallette

Here's more on the Pallette tongue control technology.



Pallette is participating in the The AT&T NYU Connect Ability Challenge:

... a three-month global software development competition leveraging mobile and wireless technologies to improve the lives of people living with disabilities

This new initiative strives to help millions of people with disabilities by matching developer talent and client users with disabilities. Together you can imagine, create and refine new innovations that break down barriers to independence and self-expression....

Cornell Tech Professor Mor Naaman tweets a request to vote for Pallette to win the Connect Ability Challenge. (Public voting ends July 10.)

Vote for this important project by my @cornell_tech students! Pallette connects quadriplegics to tech, to the world http://t.co/PAw3dSU9V3

— Mor Naaman (@informor) July 2, 2015

@Rooseveltisland @cornell_tech great idea but far from testing -- I'll let the team know @rj_here

— Mor Naaman (@informor) July 2, 2015