A wearable eye-tracking device for patients with ALS helped a University of Rhode Island student take first place at the Rhode Island Business Plan competition last Friday.
“I knew I did well, but I wasn’t really thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I won’,” said Cara Nunez, senior at the university. Nunez is a double major in biomedical engineering and Spanish, who put together her project for the new class, Wearable Internet of Things, offered at the university. “I joined it just because I had space and I thought it would be really cool to learn,” she said.Â
The project, called “ALwayS In Control,” is a wearable eye-checking device which can control a type of robotic limb or motor controlled device for patients with ALS. Nunez said her project was focused on a robotic arm, and the camera in the device looks at the pupil and moves in whichever direction the pupil moves.
“We’re moving upwards in implementing it,” Nunez said. “We started out with a claw and then moved to a more appealing model. Now we have designed an actual arm-like model.” She and her partner created a three-dimensional print of the project and presented it to judges in the form of an elevator pitch.
Nunez studied abroad in Spain last year and worked on a research project on haptic simulation of a finger while she was there. “It definitely helped with building the wearable technology,” she said. The way research is conducted over in Europe is similar to the United States according to Nunez.
The first place prize was $250. Nunez said that although the prize is not enough to start up a business, she and her partner are able to build the majority of the system with it. “This is a school project for me and something I find really interesting and something I hope becomes a reality,” she said.Â
Nunez is applying for graduate school and says she can see herself going into the industry with some of her ideas. “I like helping people,” she said, “that’s really rewarding knowing you can help someone.”