In the first place, Henry Evans's
quadriplegia
gives him a practical insight into the problems disabled people face and what
might
be their highest priorities on a daily basis. He began his work with an
idea for a head-mounted
laser pointer which would be able to turn switches on
and off. Having made a sketch of the idea
on his computer, he sent it to a
professor who worked in robotics and who assigned his students
to build a
prototype.
Later, Henry was able to test this appliance
and
others, establishing the pattern for other robotic devices which would
perform tasks such as
scratching itches, opening drawers, and even shaving.
Brian Eule's article refers to Evans as an
"idea generator and test pilot,"
ideally placed both to come up with the concept and
to test and report back
on how well it works in practice.
Henry Evans
collaborates
with robotics experts and computer scientists, providing them with interface
designs that he thinks would work best for him. This is then used as a basis when they
design
the hardware. Chad Jenkins, a computer scientist at Brown University
who works with Henry Evans,
says that having him test the robotic solutions
is a valuable part of the process
since:
If you don't get robots out of the lab and into the
world, you're
usually working with assumptions that aren't true.
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