Page 11 - The Mobility Project, April 2020

Gleason, the former pro football player turned ALS activist. When Gleason chal- lenged a group of Microsoft employees to create a system allowing him to drive his wheelchair with his eyes, they answered the call.
After Microsoft decided not to go into the medical device sector, Beavers and his part- ners created their own company and began to sell the Independence Drive system, which combines a power wheelchair, tablet computer and eye-tracking camera.
“The thing that I think robotics will
do that will really impact this industry is provide for more independent living and to reduce the need for 24-hour caregivers,” Beavers said in an interview, referring to the ability of the eye-gaze system to give independence back to users.
Prior to founding Braze Mobility, Viswanathan spent time researching and interviewing wheelchair users, listening to their concerns about damage in their homes and the myriad issues that come
Steve Gleason with the Independence Drive power wheelchair control system he inspired and helped to create.
with navigating tight, indoor spaces in power chairs.
“We realized that the issues here
were very, very different to what [previous engineers] thought they were,” Viswanathan said.
Through working with users of her product, Viswanathan found that end users were used to being treated as “study
participants” rather than feeling shared ownership in the process of developing a product.
“The participants often don’t get a sense that their input is really valued, and they don’t often see where that input is going,” Viswanathan said. “We really flipped
that model around and said ... ‘You’re really the experts in telling us what the challenge is. You’re the expert in the pain point, and we can execute.’”
Ding, the University of Pittsburgh professor and researcher, has also sought to ensure that engineers consider the experience of patients. While working with some “hardcore” engineers on a robotic arm project, Ding noticed that the engineers were more focused on devel- oping a newer algorithm than how the patient would react to it.
“They care about the final performance, but not the whole process, the user involvement, their acceptance or adop- tion,” Ding said.
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