Click and Wheelchairs
Andre Willers
19 Feb 2011
Synopsis
A simple Click language is used to navigate a wheelchair .
Discussion :
See NewScientist 4 Dec 2010 p24 "!Kung inspire wheelchairs that move at the click of a tongue."
Apparatus developed by Ravi Vaidyanathan of the University of Bristol , UK .
A simple microphone picks up low-frequency sounds made by four types of distinct tongue-click (the simplified Click language) .
The resultant electronic signal is sent to a simple processor that recognizes the type of click , and sends the commands to the wheelchair .
The four tongue-clicks can be learned in few hours .
Simple , quick to learn and unambiguous .
The requirements of a proto-language .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com blogs on "Click" , starting about Aug 2009 .
Will click make a comeback ?
Possibly .
As an international language with no histotical baggage .
But a complete redesign would be necessary .
This can be done .
Clickety-clack instead of yakkity-yak .
Andre
No comments:
Post a Comment