Contents
- Twenty-eight Center projects are now moving toward commercialization. We identify these projects and show
their current status.
- Al Sacks writes about the new climate favoring R&D commercialization
with the passage of the Technology Transfer Act of 1986.
- Eric Sabelman reports on aspects of the design development
process at the Center.
- Dave Jaffe highlights DEXTER, a finger-spelling hand
which helps deaf-blind individuals communicate more directly.
DEXTER - A Finger-Spelling
Hand
David L. Jaffe
Dexter is a mechanical hand that enables an individual who is deaf-blind to
receive tactile messages during person-to-person communication - substituting
for a human interpreter and to gain access to computer-based information.
Dexter's finger movements correspond to the one-hand fingerspelling alphabet
which is already in wide use by deaf people. During communication, the
deaf-blind user touches the mechanical hand as it moves and translates the
finger positions into the letters of the message. In this way, the problems
with and dependence on human interpreters are eliminated.
Messages can originate from a variety of sources: an able-bodied person
typing on a keyboard, a computer, a TDD (Telecommunications Device for the
Deaf) user, or a modified closed-captioned device for the deaf. Thus, users of
Dexter can receive information from people who aren't familiar with
fingerspelling, from computer systems, from deaf telephone users, and from the
television. The telephone application of Dexter might be supported by the
telephone company in states that collect fees for the purchase of specialized
telecommunications devices for disabled people.
For the 20,000 deaf-blind individuals in the United States, Dexter promises
to open communication with people and with electronic systems currently
inaccessible with traditional manual fingerspelling techniques.
A second generation Dexter prototype is now undergoing clinical evaluation.
It was initially tested by a deaf-blind woman who is extremely proficient at
receiving tactile fingerspelling. Her many suggestions have been incorporated
into Dexter's design to improve the intelligibility of its letter shape
configurations. Subsequently, the device was introduced to twelve deaf-blind
people during their annual retreat. Their ability to initially understand
Dexter's particular fingerspelling 'dialect' varied considerably, and long-term
evaluations are now planned.
The device uses low-cost servo motors, available at hobby stores for
radio-controlled (RC) models to flex its Delrin fingers. The motors rotate
pulleys connected to wire cables which are the fingers' tendons. An inexpensive
microprocessor system translates incoming messages into control signals that
operate the motors in a coordinated fashion. It is anticipated that commercial
versions of Dexter would be portable and could cost less than $500 if built in
quantity.
Dexter is intended to serve deaf-blind users as a complete receptive
communication system, useful beyond face-to-face situations. It can also be
used with a TDD to provide deaf-blind people with telephone communication and
be connected to computers to provide employment opportunities.
Mechanical drawings, software listings, and technical assistance are
available for further development of Dexter. Please contact me at the Center if
you have additional questions about this project or are interested in pursuing
commercialization of Dexter.
Commercializing rehabilitation products
today
Alvin H. Sacks
Commercializing rehabilitation products has been a challenge under the best
of circumstances. Typically, the products faced a limited market, were costly
to develop, sold to people of limited means, involved third party payers, and
were subject to many Federal regulations. Investors and manufacturers were
often hesitant to address this market, even though the need for the products
was great.
The situation in Federal Laboratories was even more complicated, because
publication was encouraged, but the patents, if filed, usually belong to the
Federal government and were not easy to license exclusively. In addition, the
shadow of conflict of interest tended to discourage aggressive efforts to
commercialize new devices.
This was our situation as Rehabilitation R&D Center within the Veterans
Administration . An important part of our mission is to develop assistive
devices which will directly benefit disabled veterans. The problem we faced was
how to get these devices manufactured and then made available to users.
With the passage of the Technology Transfer (TT) Act of 1986 (PL 99502), the
picture changed dramatically. The impact of that Act is substantial with
respect to the marketing of rehabilitation products, although that was not its
purpose. The Act was passed because of a realization on the part of Congress
and the business and research communities that the U.S. was falling seriously
behind in innovative commercial technology, despite the fact that we had a
clear lead in research. Since much of that research is carried on in government
laboratories, it made sense to encourage the commercialization of Federal
Technology. Toward that end, the TT Act sought to remove many of the
restrictions and obstacles to the commercialization of products and processes
developed in Federal laboratories. It further set out to reward Federal
employee inventors for their inventions and their participation in
commercialization of those products.
Specifically, the TT Act of 1986
provides that:
- Local Federal laboratories can be authorized by their Agency to negotiate
and enter directly into Cooperative R&D Agreements with private industry to
work together toward the development, manufacture, and marketing of a specific
device of mutual interest. Such Agreements need be approved only by the General
Counsel of the Agency involved.
- Under such Agreements, there can be an exchange of personnel, and services,
although funds can flow only INTO the Federal laboratory. (Outgoing funds
involved a government contract, which requires different procedures).
- In exchange for such funds, the local Federal laboratory is authorized to
license, even exclusively, any patentable devices developed during the life of
the Agreement. Under such license, the laboratory may receive royalties which
can be used to further its R&D work and for specified other purposes.
- Federal employee inventors MUST receive at least 15% of all royalties taken
in by the Federal laboratory on each invention. Such royalties are in addition
to the
- There are provisions for maintaining confidentiality of proprietary
information.
As you can see, this new law has changed the atmosphere in the Federal
Laboratories to one which not only encourages but rewards entrepreneurial
activities on the part of Federal employees. Of course, conflict of interest is
still a concern, and decisions will need to be made on new or unusual
situations. But a number of Federal Agencies, including the Veterans
Administration, have now issued, or will soon issue, "generic"
Cooperative R&D Agreements to be used as a basis for negotiation.
In our own laboratory, the new
law has sparked increased activity in efforts to commercialize our products,
particularly those which have reached the prototype stage. At this time, we
have twenty-eight such products (see page 4). We have therefore formed a new
Technology Transfer group within our Rehab R&D Center. This group serves to
advise, organize, supervise, and coordinate all of our TT activities. It will
serve as a resource on TT matters to other investigators within the Center,
will explore and maintain contacts with industry, arrange workshops, and will
prepare agreements and carry out negotiations when appropriate.
We are now in the process of developing a working database which will
contain information on all of our products and projects, as well as information
on the TT process, which will help Center investigators to participate in the
transfer of their particular products. We are also just beginning to circulate
this newsletter. "OnCenter" will appear every six months to highlight
new developments and opportunities in Tech Transfer, to report on specific
products or projects, and to solicit your ideas, suggestions, and inquiries
about our work and its transfer to the private sector for commercialization.
Where do the ideas for rehab products
come from?
Eric Sabelman
Motivation
Before the seed for any rehabilitation design project is planted, a human need
is perceived. It may be a need strongly felt and championed by a single person,
or it may be a more general response of the society to a particular class of
disabilities. In either case, the beginning of the process is an opening of
communications between the person experiencing the need and the designer.
At the Center, an individual need must somehow make itself known to the
engineers and designers who can work to satisfy it. Usually it means someone
walks in or talks to us by telephone or at a meeting. Two examples of care
providers who asked for solutions to specific problems are Dr. Rod Hentz, who
needed a better surgical table for joint and tendon repair of the hand, and Dr.
Conal Wilmot, who had tested existing methods for transfer of acute spinal
injury patients and found them in need of improvement. Representatives of
industries that provide services to the disabled community increasingly contact
us to explore joint efforts to improve the quality of interaction. A different
and unique example is the end user who is also a designer and can create the
solution to his or her own problem with the resources of the Center. Peter
Axelson, a paraplegic sports enthusiast, developed the "SitSki" while
employed by the VA.
A sense of public need starts with representatives of those in need bringing
the matter to the attention of the government and its research and care-giving
agencies. Thus, the VA has established priority areas for R&D: spinal
injury, prosthetics and orthotics, aging, and sensory aids. The government
encourages work in these areas by issuing RFPs (requests for proposals) and by
opening opportunities for inter-center collaboration.
Process
Now that the designer knows a problem exists, how does he or she begin solving
it? If the present technology for meeting the need is inefficient or
ineffective, what can be done about it?
One strategy is an interdisciplinary knowledge shift - move an idea to a new
territory. An example is the combination of an industrial robot with
voice-controlled communications software to create a self-operated aid for the
quadriplegic. The same approach was taken to produce a visual language
communication system ("C-VIC") for the aphasic by adapting the
Macintosh computer's facility with icons and animation to work with the
capabilities of the aphasic user. For this approach to work, the designer must
be familiar with current progress in a wide variety of fields.
A variation on the idea-moving scheme is to borrow an idea from somebody
already working in the same field. Most often, the spreading of ideas from
their origin is done with the cooperation and approval of the originators, who
may have completed and published their work or may have no more funding to
continue.
Sometimes, there might be a spirit of competition, and we ask ourselves if
we couldn't do it better by taking a fresh approach. One such case is a
Center-sponsored engineering student class project to design a lever-drive
wheelchair. Others have built alternatives to the hand-rim propelled wheelchair
without succeeding well enough to replace the older type. We supported the
project to see if there were any insurmountable obstacles to the concept.
If ideas do not seem likely to flow from elsewhere, then one must generate
them on site. We do this either by quiet one-to-one talks, passing alternatives
back and forth until a likely possibility is agreed upon, or we may convene for
collective brainstorming, shouting out interesting, even if unlikely,
candidates as fast as the note-taker can copy, for later mulling over and
sorting out. Whichever way the expansion of ideas is done, the list must at
some point contract down to a few well-chosen concepts that meet specific
criteria; this occurs at regular design review meetings.
Once the best option has been selected, the next step is to try it and see
how it works, perhaps by means of a computer model or bench-top prototype. A
student design project is a favored method of generating, selecting and
prototyping first-cut solutions to problems. After evidence is in hand
suggesting that a solution is feasible, we can prepare proposals for more
formal establishment and funding of the project.
Follow Up
Having solved one problem and developed a body of expertise, we tend to look
around for new problems to which the same knowledge could be applied. One
example is a current pilot project to examine causes of falls in the elderly,
which grew out of a project to measure relative head / body motion by
accelerometry, which in turn came from Dr. Wilmot's need for improved spinal
immobilization. Another such reuse of technology is an ultrasonic head
controller originally used for an electric wheelchair being adapted to program
the movement of a mobile robotic aid.
Through this highly interactive, interdisciplinary process of design and
development, the project reaches the stage of evaluation with real users. Our
objective is to create working devices or systems which can be handed off to
private companies for commercialization. Then they may come within reach of the
users who can benefit by them.
RR&D Development
Projects
Issue No. 1 - June, 1989