Demand for miracles is on the upswing.
Nudged by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), which began taking effect this year, businesses are looking for ways to make their workplaces far friendlier places for physically and mentally handicapped people.
That need has translated into growing market demand for technology-driven miracles: software that can translate text into speech for the blind, computer keyboards that can accommodate paralyzed hands, devices that permit the deaf to talk on the telephone and the crippled to ascend stairs and maneuver through office buildings.
Some of the latest inventions for the disabled -- and their employers -- were on display earlier this month at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The 30 inventions, the result of a national search begun last year by the Johns Hopkins University, employed the latest computer technologies to aid the disabled. Among the inventions: a portable device that allows the deaf to see messages sent from any Touchtone phone, an electrical stimulation system that restores limited motor skills to paralyzed limbs and a software program that uses sound to guide blind users.
Johns Hopkins' 1991 search -- with a $10,000 first prize -- represented the second time in a decade the school has sent out a nationwide call to inventors to come up with computer applications to help the disabled. The first search, in 1981, yielded inventions that have become industry standards.
One invention to come out of that search was a computer that could tell blind users what was on the screen. The inventor, Deane Blazie of Street in Harford County, subsequently created a spinoff -- a hand-held device that converts Braille into speech. The Braille n' Speak personal dictation system is used today by thousands of people who are blind.
Likewise, an eyetracker communication system that won third place in the first national search has since won widespread acceptance. The system, developed by a team at Carnegie Mellon University, allows paraplegics to synthesize speech through the movement of their eyes.
The original system that took up the better part of an exhibit booth in 1981 is today smaller than a breadbox.
Paul Hazan, assistant to the director for advanced computing technology at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory and director of the school's national search project, said the chances of inventions making it into the mainstream this time are far greater than a decade ago because of the disability act.
"With ADA taking effect this year everybody has a sense of what's coming up, and what they're going to need. This [national search] is the enabler to help make ADA practical," said Mr. Hazan, who also presided over the 1981 search.
The new law promises to bring unprecedented opportunities for the disabled and for makers of what the industry calls assistive devices for the disabled (ADD).
The Electronic Industries Association's assistive devices division, which represents makers of devices for the disabled, estimates that 43 million Americans are physically or mentally limited. Those limitations range from minor hearing loss, common among the elderly, to extreme physical and mental disabilities.
That customer pool has remained untapped, largely because of supply and demand: Mainstream manufacturers haven't been hit with a big demand for assistive devices, so they've concentrated resources elsewhere. Smaller makers, by comparison, haven't been able to muster the marketing muscle to force the issue of technology for the disabled to the surface.
The advent of ADA should go a long way to change all that, said Jeanne Chircop, a spokeswoman for the electronic association's assistive devices division.
"People are mandated to buy products to assist employees to do their jobs and it's opened up new opportunities for manufacturers," she said. "It represents the most explosive opportunity for electronics manufacturers in years."
Commercial opportunity has forced manufacturers to take a second look at the ADD market. That would include Ms. Chircop's own association, the 68-year-old Electronics Industry Association, which didn't establish an ADD division until four years ago.
There are other signs that assistive devices are on the verge of entering the mainstream. Once relegated to special trade fairs aimed at the disabled, ADD makers are beginning to show up in unexpected places.
Take the Electronic Industry Association's own semi-annual Consumer Electronics Show. A group of assistive device makers held court at the show in Chicago last June, representing the first time that assistive devices have been on display at the glitzy trade exhibit, which is a must for anybody who is anybody in consumer electronics. By the show's end, thousands of industry representatives from 11 countries had visited the booth, Ms. Chircop said.
The ADD booth may have been an odd sight among the acres of high-definition televisions, state-of-the-art sound systems and video extravaganzas. But it suggested that assistive devices, as far as the industry is concerned, have finally arrived, Ms. Chircop said.
The ADD makers followed up their debut with a second appearance at the Consumer Electronics show in January and plan to be there again in June, Ms. Chircop said.
A number of industry heavyweights, International Business Machines Corp., American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and Sony Corp. among them, have divisions that specialize in developing technology for the disabled. For large companies with established sales and distribution channels, getting inventions from the drawing board into the commercial marketplace is relatively easy.
But the task can be daunting for small entrepreneurs, who often don't have the resources or know-how to see a product through to commercialization. But it is getting easier thanks to ADA and exposure from programs like the one sponsored by Johns Hopkins.
Take Glenn Dale-based Microflip, Inc., for example. The family-owned business makes a computer software package called "FullTalk" that helps deaf people communicate over the telephone. FullTalk, developed by a deaf engineer, was a finalist in Johns Hopkins' 1991 technology search.
Gunam Emmanuel, Microflip's president, said several police -Z departments in Maryland are considering using the software to help meet ADA requirements for 911 operations. Likewise, he said several 911 operations in New Jersey are considering using it for the same reason.
"Until ADA, nobody bothered," Mr. Emmanuel said.
That formerly included the major computer companies, which haven't expressed much interest in FullTalk. But that may be changing soon, according to Mr. Emmanuel, who says two "major computer companies" that dropped by Microflip's exhibit at the Smithsonian last weekend have followed up with visits to ** the company's offices.
Likewise, Bethesda-based Computer Assisted Medical Solutions Inc. said its weekend exhibit at the Smithsonian sparked a lot of interest in its invention, a thumb-sized medical tag that uses compression technology to store medical information.
Arthur Kaufman, Computer Assisted's president, said representatives from Hospital Corp. of America and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration have expressed an interest in the tag, which can be programmed to hold a patient's X-ray, ECG and up to nine pages of text.
The tag uses a unique compression technology, pioneered by Mr. Kaufman's partner, Lloyd "Hal" Woodward, that can transmit the data without losing any.
"Nobody can market our product for us -- we have to do it ourselves -- but this [national search] has given us insight as to how to go about it," Mr. Kaufman said.
Program director Mr. Hazan, meanwhile, says he doesn't plan to wait another 10 years before launching Johns Hopkins' next technology search. Given the groundswell of good ideas -- 30 inventions made the finals, but 800 ideas were originally submitted -- Mr. Hazan said he'd like to stage another search in about four years. That should be enough time to allow the technology to advance -- and for entrepreneurs to figure out creative ways to use it to help the disabled, he said.
"We're looking at this [national search] as a journey, not a destination," Mr. Hazan said. "Where will lead us, I do not know. But I do know it is going to be a continuing thing."
Contest winners
FIRST PLACE -- $10,000
Unicorn Smart Keyboard. Submitted by Arjan S. Khalsa, president, Unicorn Engineering Inc., Richmond, Calif. $10,000 prize.
The flexible keyboard has 576 small keys that can be grouped to form larger custom keys and can be used with pre-programmed overlays that the keyboard recognizes.
SECOND PLACE -- $5,000
"Switch Ensemble" music software. Submitted by Jonathan Adams, computer programmer and music teacher, Cambridge, Mass.
Music software for Apple IIGS computers that allows students with physical and cognitive disabilities to create music. The program provides background tempos and an orchestra's worth instruments.
THIRD PLACE -- $1,500
Audio-enabled graphic user interface for the blind. Submitted by Frank A. McKiel, IBM programmer, Trophy Club, Texas.
Computer program uses stereo sound to allow blind people to work on a computer that is controlled by using graphic symbols. The program uses sounds to let blind users know where their cursor is. Volume and pitch change as the cursor is moved around the screen.