New Israeli technology will give the disabled control over their device, enabling them to access the wonderful world of the smartphone.   

An Israeli hi-tech company has developed another unique Israeli innovation, technology that makes the smartphone accessible to people challenged by a variety of physical disabilities.

Sesame Enable, founded by Oded Ben-Dov and Giora Livne, is currently working on a extraordinary smartphone, called the “the Sesame Phone,” which is specifically tailored to assist people who have limited or no use of their hands due to conditions such as paralysis, Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and ALS.

This technology is the first device designed for people with limited or absolutely no use of their hands, offering touch-free accessibility.

The system enables control of the smartphone with a combination methods such as small head movements and voice recognition.

The Sesame phone works by tracking the user’s head movements using the built-in, front-facing camera on the phone. These tracked movements are combined with cutting-edge computer vision algorithms to create a cursor that appears on the screen of the phone, similar to a cursor on a computer screen.

The phone also has an “open sesame” voice command.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx3iiIapSPY

A Mission and Expertise

There are many uses for movement recognition technology. “We feel the focus on the disability market is both a mission and an expertise developed by daily visiting different people with disabilities. Nevertheless, as is with many accessibility solutions, once perfected where the need is high and real, it can disseminate to other more widespread uses. Just like a wheelchair ramp is also enabling for baby carriages, bicycles, shopping trolleys, etc,” the site states.

Ben-Dov, the inventor of the Sesame Phone, told The Times of Israel: “We’ve developed a completely software-driven system that could be used with any Android phone…. It’s not a software patch, but a complete re-engineering of the Android OS to allow users to control devices using just voice and head gestures.”

“Our slogan is ‘touch is overrated,’ and with our device, touch is not even necessary,” Ben-Dov said. “For those who don’t have use of their limbs, this is so far the only solution that lets them use a standard smartphone, with all that means today.”

This essential technology is suitable for the Android operating system and will be available for iOS in the near future.

Shipping is scheduled for March 2015.

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Author: United with Israel Staff