1. COMMUNITY
Technology
for a Greater Good
Go’s Annisa Rochadiat looked up some amazing Jordanian
startups that are using innovative ideas to assist quadriplegics
A s the Jordan IT scene flourishes with various
innovative IT-driven startups and business
ventures, local university students
Jabali. And the team runs under the supervision
of Dr. AbedElKareem Al Banna.
Apart from quadriplegics, Al
have also begun to carve out their Banna says that I Can, U Can
share in the market by mapping accommodates those suffering
technological solutions to help from arthrogryposis (a congenital
address social challenges in Jordan disorder characterized by stiff
and beyond. joints and abnormally developed
Two recent innovative projects muscles), spina bifida (a birth
created and driven by Jordan’s defect that involves the incomplete
finest IT students worthy of development of the spinal cord
mentioning are I Can, U Can and I Can, U Can's system or its coverings), severe cases of
Project Horizon. Both of these
initiatives aim at assisting people
makes it possible for muscular dystrophy, and amputees.
“Team Imaginists” recently
with four-point disability — those users to type on the came in second in the Imagine Cup
suffering from paralysis of the
four limbs and torso — to more computer by using a Jordan 2011, a nation-wide student
technology competition sponsored
easily use computers to interact and color patch by Microsoft. The competition’s
communicate on cyberspace. first place winners, “Team OaSys,”
FACTS OF LIFE
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.
Founded in October of last year by is a joint-developer team comprising students
“Imaginists,” a team of student software of Petra University (Mohammad Azzam),
EDTOKNOW
developers of Petra University, I Can, U Can NE I Can U Can's Princess Sumaya University (Monir Abuhilal),
is an open-source collaborative-based software software was and the German-Jordanian University (Hani
program built on Touchless SDK (software developed purely Abuhuwaij). They also came up with a
for humanitarian and
development kit) technology; a special software educational purposes so technology for quadriplegics known as Project
tool that uses a webcam as a data input source. it's available free of Horizon — a system that allows users to
This particular technology allows quadriplegics charge for anyone in maneuver the mouse and type on a computer
need!
to move the mouse by merely moving their using head movements registered via an infrared
heads. I Can, U Can's system also makes it device and a Wii remote.
possible for users to type on the computer by As current titleholders of the Imagine Cup
using a color patch. The “Imaginists” are made Jordan 2011, “OaSys” team members will be
up of second and third-year students Yaser Saleh, representing the Kingdom in the worldwide
Mosab Aboulkhair, Sara Abood, and Maysa finals in New York this July.
SCAN
HERE FOR SCAN HERE FOR FACEBOOK
FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/ICanUCan www.facebook.com/ProjectOaSys
twitter.com/iucan twitter.com/ OaSysTeam
62 | JUNE 2011