Wow! This is maybe the most profound thing we’ve ever featured here on the Jailbreak. The Graffiti Research Lab, openFrameworks and The Ebeling Group have come together to create a device that allows you to write and draw using a part of your body normally reserved for sight.
The EyeWriter is “a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus and custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.”
The good folks over at F.A.T. have a detailed explanation of how the still-in-development mechanism actually works, as well as a series of videos that show this baby in action.
Check out a quote about the project and two of their videos after the jump.
http://www.vimeo.com/6188625“The EyeWriter project is on ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people, who are suffering from ALS, with creative technologies. The project began in Los Angeles, Caifornia in 2009, when members of the GRL, FAT, OF and TEG communities teamed-up with a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist, named Tony Quan, aka TEMPTONE. Tony was diagnosed with ALS in 2003. The disease has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. But, the ALS hasn’t touched Tony’s sharp mind, creative energy or his desire to write graffiti. In August of 2009, artist from around the world: London, Hong Kong, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York City, converged for 10 days in southern California, converted Mick and Caskey Ebeling’s Venice Beach house into a laboratory and began to work with Tony on a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that would allow ALS patients to draw using just their eyes.”
