$20 stopped the silence

March 18, 2018

$20 stopped the silence

Nick Bryan and his grandmother after successfully communicating with each other. Photo: Supplied

A young engineer has created software for $20 that has allowed an elderly woman to communicate after two years of silence.

Nicholas Bryan’s family was paying more than $2000 a month for a communication device for his grandmother, who was unable to speak or move after suffering two brain aneurysms.

The device was not effective because it could not pick up random pupil movement that she could not control.

Mr Bryan spent a year coming up with a replacement machine and found he could develop a device to do the same thing more accurately for 0.1 per cent of the cost.

“Her eyes would spasm by themselves. I had to code that bulk movement out so it wouldn’t affect the reading,” he said.

The engineer graduate spent $20 on some glasses, a small camera and a USB adaptor. Then he successfully created a pupil-reading device which connects to computer software to determine letters on a digital alphabet board.

This enabled his grandmother to complete simple sentences.

Bryan’s sister, Christie Bryan, went to see the change for her grandmother who was living in Australia. She said she never thought of a moment she would see her grandmother communicate again.

“A wave of emotions flooded the room. Happy, sad, proud, surreal, unbelievable. No words can really describe the raw feeling.”

The chief executive of the Medical Technology Association of New Zealand, Faye Sumner, said the association was always interested in these types of devices and software.

“Anything that is going to support patients and help them have a better quality of life, we’ll certainly support.”

Ms Sumner said the next step for Bryan would be to trial it on multiple patients to develop evidence-based research.

After being offered hospital placements and investor proposals, Bryan says he is ready to make final adjustments to the software before testing it on more patients.

The experience of communicating with his grandmother and her following death has sparked a passion to help more people.

“To have any sort of response from someone who has been unable to talk for a number of years is unbelievable.”

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