A reminder once again of the potential for technology to have a significant positive effect on our lives.

Oculus Rift is used here not for gaming purposes, but to help a terminally ill grandmother experience the great outdoors once more, something she cannot physically do.

Jean-Dominique Bauby, an editor of the French version of ELLE was tragically struck down by a massive stroke. He suffered locked-in syndrome: and had to transmit his experiences through the only organ left of his that could move, his eyes.

He wrote out a book detailing what it felt to be stuck within physical confines that were imposed on him by painstakingly blinking one letter at a time with an assistant. One of the lines that has haunted me the most is when he asks “Does the cosmos contain keys for opening my diving bell? A currency strong enough to buy my freedom back? We must keep looking.”

One can’t help but think that if, through some miracle, he had managed to hang on for a few more years, he would have been able to find the keys and currency he was crying out for.