Wednesday 26 August 2015

Stephen Hawking's speech tech released by Intel

Have you watched this movie, which is called 'The Theory of Everything' performed by Eddie Remayne and Felicity Jones? I watched this movie in December last year and the story was adopted from a biography about the scientist Stephen Hawking and his first wife Hane. Although I didn’t know this person until watching The Theory of Everything, I really enjoyed the movie and definitely I would recommend it. Particularly, I am not familiar with scientific subjects but this movie motivated me to read more about professor Stephen. Therefore, that is the main reason that I want to talk about this news.

According to "Stephen Hawking's speechtech released by Intel."(2015), Intel company invented a useful software that helps Prof Stephen Hawking to speak via a computer. The article also discussed the benefit of the software including interpreting visual signals and translating them into words to significantly improve sufferers of motor neurone disease (MND),  introduce anyone to download and experiment with the system. Moreover, Intel claims that there are a variety of different sensors experimented by their teams, and they are hoping developers will try out other options appropriate to each patient's needs and abilities. Finally, the author tells us The UK's MND Association has praised the move. Not only technology is improving very sharply and it is exciting to see new inventions emerge every year, but also the more that technology can help us express what we are thinking, the better.

From my point of views, the software or system to improve patients who suffered from motor neurone disease (MND) would be very expensive, these patients can not afford this machine. Individuals who support my perspective include the majority of low-income family; they would most likely assert that the many patients do not have sufficient money to adequate the equipment to improve their dairy life. Even it has to wait for a long time that the price of machine could slowly decrease. However, the rich who got motor neurone disease are only beneficial by the useful machine. Hence, the feasibility to take on disparity between the rich and poor is an immensely problematic. Additionally, if another  high- tech software or system on the machine is created, these rich families can have the more opportunity to utilize such communicational tools to improve their life without worrying about money.

Even though many technology tools are moving so quickly and become more affordable, medical appliance is still very expensive for the poor. Especially for these patents in low-income family suffered from rare diseases such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). For example, if professor Stephen was born into a poor family, he may not have sufficient medical resources to treat and special machine to help him communicate with other people even die early. In my opinion to solve this problem, the government should take the most responsibility to assist these patents who are poor instead of wasting money on public services which cannot provide basic life support for citizens. This factor is extremely important and that is why we pay taxes. For instance, national health insurance is an effective policy implemented by the Taiwanese government, the Taiwanese do not pay much money on medical expenses and could be treated by new medical appliance. So, it is hard to imagine if I suffer from ALS without any medical allowances in other countries.



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Reference
Stephen Hawking's speech tech released by Intel. (2015, August 19).BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33991887
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7 comments:

  1. Unknown26 August 2015 at 23:22

    Is it like an automatic wheel chair? Your article is interesting, it's new knowledge for me. Maybe I'll find the movie "the theory of everything" to watch.

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    1. Anonymous26 August 2015 at 23:48

      Hi Punn,

      Thanks for your reply. Because of professor Hawking has motor neurone disease, so he only able to talk with people by using a small sensor which is activated by a muscle in his cheek. I think that it is a fabulous invention so that Hawking is a genius in physics. If he cannot talk and no machine can help him, it would be really pity.

      Delete
  2. Peter AUA27 August 2015 at 07:08

    It was a great movie.
    And Hawking is a great scientist. I'm also reminded of an earlier where it was suggested that practice or determination could enable us to achieve anything, but I'm pretty sure that no amount of practice would ever have let me do with a fully functioning body what Hawking has done. I can't even follow his ideas except in simplified versions that give the general outlines.

    A nice blog post from Joyce as I start my daily addictive drug dose. Do you have a regular drug of addiction to blog with?

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    1. Anonymous28 August 2015 at 18:49

      Peter,

      Thanks for your reply. Yes, I think that blog post is really useful for enhancing my ability of reading and writing:)

      I agree with you that everyone has different talent, but we also have the limitation in our abilities. Most people have certain gifts in different aspects and need to practicing hard in order to have an outstanding achievement. However, certain individuals are really talented which we just can call them genius.

      I also watched the other movie in the last year, which called "The Imitation Game". The story was adopted from a biography, too. It is about mathematician Alan Turing,who crack the enigma during World War II. I found that I really like to watch biography movie.

      Finally, I have downloaded a website which I can practice my typing skill. I hope that I can type in a formal way, but it is really difficult for me. Typing the words seems like similar to play piano, which remind me that why I am a dancer, not a musician.

      Delete
  3. Unknown28 August 2015 at 00:59

    Joyce, I see your point. Although modern medical appliances are really effective, they are still too expensive for those who are destitute, particularly people living in remote area and having low income. Thus, for effective public health system, it would be good if a government could support the expense and provide them throughout the country in order to help poor patients able to live as usual.

    In case of Prof. Hawking—leading scientist in this era—that I did saw him many times in astronomy documentary, I used to suspect about the ways that he communicates for a long time, but I didn’t try seeking any answers all; How can he communicate to others while sitting in the automatic wheel chair and also what was he suffered from? Luckily, I found the answer on you blog post today already.

    Thanks Joyce

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    1. Anonymous28 August 2015 at 19:07

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous28 August 2015 at 19:09

      Hi Feem,

      Thanks for your reply.

      Yes, people who suffer from illness are not only painful in their mind and body, but also need to spend a lot of money on their treatment. That is why I think that we are so lucky, at least we are healthy, so we can learn, we can work, we can have a lot of fun from different experiences.

      And I also like to explore the new interesting fields from my friends. Sometime, I are not really interested in certain books, music or movies. However, if my friend who really recommend it. I will try to understand the piece of work in order to more realize my friends.

      Delete

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