Intel

Intel has today unveiled a new open-source communication system created especially for Professor Stephen Hawking, which can be adapted for the three million people worldwide who suffer from quadriplegia and motor neurone disease.

The development of the system, called ACAT (Assistive Context Aware Toolkit), has been exclusively detailed in the latest edition of WIRED. ACAT is the result of years of collaboration between Intel and Hawking – with the last three years in particular being instrumental to the system's development. Intel believes it has the potential to become the backbone of a modern, customisable system that other researchers and technologists can adapt to help those with disabilities.


"We are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with technology, without it I would not be able to speak to you today," said Hawking speaking at a press conference in London today. He added that he believes "the development of this system has the the potential to greatly improve the lives of disabled people all over the world". "My old system was over 20 years old and I was finding it very difficult to communicate effectively. This new system is life changing for me and I hope will serve me well for the next 20 years."

ACAT has seen Hawking typing rate double and saw a ten times improvement in common tasks. Thanks to technology integrated from SwiftKey, he has to type 20 percent fewer characters overall.

Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. Over three million people around the world are affected by motor neurone disease and quadriplegia and because the system created for Hawking is based on open-source software, it could potentially be adapted to suit many of them. Different functions can be enabled by touch, eye blinks, eyebrow movements or other user inputs for communication.

Hawking and Intel hope that because the system is open and free it will be adopted by researchers who will want to use it to develop new solutions for those with disabilities.

You can win a ticket to attend WIRED's upcoming Q&A with Stephen Hawking by proposing a question to ask him here.