An interview with Peter Shann Ford, President/CEO of Control Bionics, Inc., and the inventor of  NeuroSwitch®.

 

Q.  What is NeuroSwitch?

A.  NeuroSwitch is an assistive technology (AT) system that offers communication and device control to people with Locked-In Syndrome, (that is they are mentally alert but unable to move or speak due to a traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease] cerebral palsy, or other motor neuron disease).

If you’ve seen the recent motion picture The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - the biography of  Jean Dominique Bauby, the former editor of Elle magazine who, at age 42, suffered a stroke, producing Locked-in Syndrome - you’ll know the range of people we’re working to help, including nearly 200,000 Americans.

(For a recent NBC TV news feature on NeuroSwitch, please click to www.controlbionics.com)

 

Q.  What got you focused on the needs of the physically disabled, especially conditions caused by ALS (Lou Gehrig Disease) and stroke?

A.  In “Omni” Magazine around 1975, I read about astrophysicist Prof. Stephen Hawking who was hailed as the next Einstein, and diagnosed with ALS.  I thought then – at the dawn of personal computers – that it seemed feasible that this new technology could be used to shunt neurological signals around trauma sites and enable a person to communicate and even remobilize limbs paralyzed by accident or disease. 

 

Q.  How did you get started?

A.  I began in 1982, after being invited to become a programmer/analyst at the first Rehabilitation Research & Development Laboratory established that year at the U.S. Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) in Atlanta. 

The first system I wrote was called “JoyWriter II,” which enabled a person to operate a word processor on an Apple II using only the joystick to select characters, edit text, save and recover it, and print it out.  The first person to test it had severe cerebral palsy and was able to use it to communicate by text for the first time in his life.  He was 19 years old.

For the next 15 years or so I developed a number of computer interfaces other than the keyboard and mouse, and began focusing on electromyography (EMG) signals generated by patients and captured on a portable diagnostic device.

 

Q.  What breakthrough events have you experienced?

A. In 1998, I was asked by the late Dr Bernard Brucker – one of the great pioneers in EMG diagnostics and therapeutics—to consult for a patient in Texas who was so debilitated by a car accident that he couldn’t even blink.  The only signals he could generate were very faint EMG signals in his left biceps, which Dr. Brucker used to diagnose his neuromuscular state.

I wrote a program to take those signals and use them to make the computer BEEP if the patient generated a certain kind of signal.  That first BEEP in the patient’s ward was one of the most exciting sounds I’ve heard.  For the next three years, I refined the program to become more sensitive, with more complex pattern recognition algorithms.  And the single BEEP has evolved into a wide range of vocabularies and languages, and commands to electronic devices, all controlled by the user through EMG sensors.

 

Q. Why do you refer to what you do as “bionic” rather than simply “biofeedback?” 

A.  Because NeuroSwitch doesn’t just generate signals to which the user responds cognitively.  The system actually adapts itself to the user’s EMG status many times each second.  It becomes a co-responsive system in a bionic relationship with the user.  Instead of locating and activating a separate switch, the user actually BECOMES the switch.

 

Q.   What’s the difference between your NeuroSwitch technology and other conventional assistive technology switches?

A.   Whether they’re contact switches, pneumatic “sip-and-puff” switches, or eye-activated switches, other conventional Assistive Technology switches need to be located and activated each time a person uses them.  Some of them are also affected if the user is distracted, or becomes emotional.  However, once a person is connected to NeuroSwitch, THE USER becomes the switch: when they wish to activate it, they need only initiate the same signals we make when we decide to lift a finger, or move a muscle.  Many of our clients with motor neuron diseases come to NeuroSwitch after other conventional switches no longer work for them.  A NeuroSwitch user IS the switch.

 

Q.  What obstacles have you encountered?

A.  The obstacles are almost always technical, but each has led to breakthroughs in programming or electronics that have established new processes and standards in bionic technology. 

 

Q.  How did Professor Stephen Hawking become involved with NeuroSwitch?

A.  Professor Hawking has always been interested in the newest technological developments.  In November 2002, he invited me to his home in Cambridge, England, to show him what we could do.  He has a brilliant ability to assess both software and hardware and is very demanding of the technology.  Working with him has been among the most challenging and rewarding collaborations of my life.  He has Beta tested more than twenty evolutions of our NeuroSwitch technology, including a system that we loaded onto his powered wheelchair for him in 2003. 

 

Q.  About your company’s Philosophy statement – in the introduction you state that [the Company] “is committed to developing technology that enables people to overcome severe physical disabilities to realize their abilities, worth and dignity.”  How important is this commitment to the management and operation of Control Bionics?

A.  My ultimate goal has always been to develop technology to enhance the dignity of the user. 

Motor neuron diseases, spinal and head trauma and other conditions often leave people completely reliant on others for every vital personal need, from feeding and hygiene to communication.   We want to help them become more self-reliant and independent, with a commensurate reinforcement of self-esteem.

We are working diligently to ensure that NeuroSwitch provides people, who are living with Locked in Syndrome, with the ability to communicate eloquently and to control devices to not only communicate with the world, but to continue making valuable contributions.  As we say in our mission statement, “we seek to enhance the dignity of the user.”  For most of us, dignity is something we value as highly as life.

 

Q.  Does the Company have any programs/initiatives to get this technology to those who cannot afford to purchase a NeuroSwitch system? 

A.  We have introduced the NeuroSwitch Award for Excellence, in which we give a complete NeuroSwitch system to a person whose example of overcoming severe disability is a singular inspiration to everyone around the world.  Our first winner is Jeff Young, who has ALS, and who writes a newsletter to more than 3,000 of his “Warriors” worldwide – see www.FriendsofJeff.com.    The Award winner also receives free software upgrades and hardware support for life.

In addition we are negotiating with a global bank and an international service organization to establish foundations in each of their respective countries to provide NeuroSwitch systems to people who need them but have no other way of affording them.

 

Q.  How can people reading this help in the mission to further deploy NeuroSwitch?  What kind of collaboration is available?

A.  Word-of-mouth is still the most powerful tool for that.  If people could see what NeuroSwitch does by visiting our Home Page -- www.controlbionics.com -- and viewing the videos of people using NeuroSwitch, then spread the word, they will be doing enormous good. 

If they would like to donate a NeuroSwitch System to someone or help raise funds for one in their community, we will help them do that.

The most rewarding thing for my colleagues and me is that we are working to develop the most advanced technology to help people with the most severe disabilities; to help them regain independence, and say to themselves and to the world, “This is what I can do.  My life matters.  I matter.” 

 

Control Bionics Homepage:  www.controlbionics.com

NeuroSwitch® Mission Page: http://www.controlbionics.com/neuroswitch_mission.htm