UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 7, Page 1
October 14, 1993
$7 million in grants support U.D.-A.I. duPont initiatives

     Imagine a headband that allows an individual without speech to
communicate. The wearer sees a display of symbols representing words and
concepts and, by blinking an eye, can choose the words to be spoken in a
synthesized voice that is age-and gender-appropriate.
     Or consider a wheelchair-mounted mechanical arm that can recognize a
coffee cup by its shape and pick the cup up in response to a verbal
command.
     A team of researchers from the University of Delaware and the A.I.
duPont Institute in Wilmington, has received two, five-year,
multimillion-dollar federal grants to develop such innovative
rehabilitative systems that combine artificial intelligence techniques,
virtual reality and robotics, University President David P. Roselle
announced yesterday.
     The Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories (ASEL) at the
University has received renewable grants totaling $1.4 million annually for
the next five years from the National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research, Roselle said. This cooperative venture of the
University and A.I. duPont Institute will create Rehabilitation Engineering
Research centers for communications and robotics at the institute.
     "This level of support-$7 million over five years-recognizes and
affirms the creative and innovative research conducted by this talented
group of researchers from the University and the institute," Roselle said.
"This cooperative program allows us to share our strengths and build upon
them together, to the benefit of the greater community."
     According to Richard A. Foulds, ASEL director, there are 10 such
federally supported rehabilitation centers in the U.S., each in a different
topic area.
     "We specialize in both augmentative communication and robotics, so we
applied for both grants and were awarded two," Foulds said. "These are
separate, major programs. We will not only conduct research but also
provide the opportunity for clinicians, industrial collaborators, consumers
and funding agencies to observe our progress."
     ASEL includes more than 60 full-time staff, including six University
faculty members and 23 graduate students, as well as researchers and
engineers from the institute. Two additional faculty members join the team
in the summers.

Communications Center
     Twelve research projects have been proposed under the grant to advance
the communication of individuals with several disabilities. "These are
interdisciplinary projects involving computer scientists, linguists,
educational studies specialists and engineers," Foulds said.
     One project will attempt to use natural processing techniques,
allowing a computer to create messages. "Someone as disabled as physicist
Stephen William Hawking may have to spell out every letter in every word,"
Foulds said. "We would like the person to input essential parts of the
message and have the computer generate words correct for that concept. The
idea is for the computer to be able to make a good guess at what the person
is trying to say."
     Another project is a novel speech synthesizer that personalizes
electronic speech for each individual, making it male or female, old or
young. "In the long range, any voice based on a real speaker could be
used," Foulds said, "or in the case of a progressive disease, the
individual could record his or her own voice to be synthesized."
     In another speech project, researchers would attempt to create a
program to filter speech impairments such as slurred, slow speech or
eliminate unwanted sounds.
     Other investigators will explore existing software engineering
techniques to see if they can be improved.

Robotics Center
     Thirteen projects have been proposed for the new Robotics Center under
the grant, where emphasis will be on creating a mechanical arm useful for
the elderly or those with cerebral palsy, brain and spinal cord injuries or
amyotropic lateral sclerosis.
     All projects will involve sensory feedback, such as a head control
coordinated with the arm. "We want users to be in control of this
mechanical arm," said Foulds, "so they can feel and adjust movement with
their head or with shoulder movements."
     One project will work on an arm with an artificial intelligence. A
sort of portable computer, the arm will take a video picture of a surface
like an office desk, recognize items from their dimensions and respond to
verbal commands to move the objects.
     "We will also work on a powered orthosis, or assistance device, for
those who have normal sensation but extreme weakness," said Foulds. "This
type of robot would sense slight motion as you try to move the arm and
would assist by, in effect, making the arm lighter."
     Foulds said the purpose of the centers is to explore and validate new
concepts, both clinically and commercially.
     "We want to promote public participation in the research process," he
said, "and transfer information on major research innovations to industry."
                                        -Cornelia Weil