62 | JUNE 2011

Go ’s Annisa Rochadiat looked up some amazing Jordanian startups that are using innovative ideas to assist quadriplegics

Technology

A s the Jordan IT scene flourishes with various innovative IT-driven startups and business

ventures, local university students have also begun to carve out their share in the market by mapping technological solutions to help address social challenges in Jordan and beyond.

Two recent innovative projects created and driven by Jordan’s finest IT students worthy of mentioning are I Can, U Can and Project Horizon. Both of these initiatives aim at assisting people with four-point disability — those suffering from paralysis of the four limbs and torso — to more easily use computers to interact and communicate on cyberspace.

Founded in October of last year by “Imaginists,” a team of student software developers of Petra University, I Can, U Can is an open-source collaborative-based software program built on Touchless SDK (software development kit) technology; a special software tool that uses a webcam as a data input source. This particular technology allows quadriplegics to move the mouse by merely moving their heads. I Can, U Can's system also makes it possible for users to type on the computer by using a color patch. The “Imaginists” are made up of second and third-year students Yaser Saleh, Mosab Aboulkhair, Sara Abood, and Maysa

NEED TO KNOWI Can U Can's software was

developed purely for humanitarian and

educational purposes so it's available free of charge for anyone in

need!

www.facebook.com/ICanUCantwitter.com/iucan

for a Greater Good

Jabali. And the team runs under the supervision of Dr. AbedElKareem Al Banna.

Apart from quadriplegics, Al Banna says that I Can, U Can accommodates those suffering from arthrogryposis (a congenital disorder characterized by stiff joints and abnormally developed muscles), spina bifida (a birth defect that involves the incomplete development of the spinal cord or its coverings), severe cases of muscular dystrophy, and amputees.

“Team Imaginists” recently came in second in the Imagine Cup Jordan 2011, a nation-wide student technology competition sponsored by Microsoft. The competition’s first place winners, “Team OaSys,”

is a joint-developer team comprising students of Petra University (Mohammad Azzam), Princess Sumaya University (Monir Abuhilal), and the German-Jordanian University (Hani Abuhuwaij). They also came up with a technology for quadriplegics known as Project Horizon — a system that allows users to maneuver the mouse and type on a computer using head movements registered via an infrared device and a Wii remote.

As current titleholders of the Imagine Cup Jordan 2011, “OaSys” team members will be representing the Kingdom in the worldwide finals in New York this July.

www.facebook.com/ProjectOaSystwitter.com/ OaSysTeam

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I Can, U Can's system makes it possible for users to type on the computer by using a

color patch

COMMUNITY

Dr. AbedElKareem Al Banna, supervisor of Petra University’s “Imaginists” states that…Around 24,000 people — which translates to about 1 in 250 people — in Jordan suffer from spinal cord injury-induced paralysis. Roughly half of the country’s quadriplegics reside in Amman.And the main cause of these injuries, at 44%, is vehicle accidents. FA

CTS O

F LIFE