Typeface

Typeface was the winner of the first Hoya Hacks hackathon at Georgetown University. The goal was to build a device that would allow even a fully paralyzed individual to communicated at a reasonable rate with loved ones.

The proof of concept device leverages the Muse Headband - a consumer product prices at less than $300 and targeted towards helping individuals meditate and improve mindfulness.

The UI of the project was inspired by stories of “tap codes” used by Vietnam Prisoners of War to communicate with each other without relying on the more complicated Morse Code. This system is inherently intuitive and, during open demonstrations, users were capable of achieving speeds upwards of 10WPM - blazingly fast for this class of assistive input device.

Because the device takes unary input (either focused thought, or - slightly easier - blinking), it means that it offers a mode of communication for nearly any mode of paralysis. With practice, we were able to reach typing speeds of 15WPM, in part because of adaptive auto-complete text integration.

This proof of concept was shared with researchers at Atlanta’s Shepherd Center - a thought leader in assistive input technology - and will hopefully inspire new innovations in flexible, easy-to-learn assistive technologies.