 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
As a former forward for Dover High School's women's basketball team, Lindsey Kennell understands the value of teamwork.
Working together, communication and never going into a game with the wrong attitude, she said, are all necessities in order to pull off a win. These days Kennell may be on a different court and traveling by motorized wheelchair instead of by foot, but that same teamwork from her basketball days is proving valuable in her current endeavor: the search for normalcy in the wake of tragedy. Three years ago, Kennell, a Dover High senior, was involved in a car accident that left her without use of her legs or left arm and only minimal control of her right.
Now, Kennell's teammates include players from Northeast Passage and the University of New Hampshire's Engineering and Occupational Therapy departments. Their goal is to help the teen participate in activities normal for many of her peers.
Kennell and her family approached Northeast Passage, a group of UNH-based therapeutic recreation specialists, in search of new ways to socialize and spend time with her friends in her post-accident state. They submitted a list of activities, both fun and practical, that the teen was interested in gaining access to. Fishing, paintball and elevator operation were among the suggestions, but Keller's top pick, playing the Nintendo Wii, was accepted by the electrical engineering department as their first challenge.
Chris Bancroft, an electrical engineering graduate student at UNH, oversees the work of four undergraduate students who are working hard on Kennell's project. As the project's coordinator, he and his team are developing alternative methods for operating the gaming system to meet Kennell's severe physical limitations.
"Basically the project involves adapting current technology that a lot of people can use normally into something for someone with limited functionality," said Bancroft. "What we're looking to do is restore some sense of normalcy so she can still do all the things that a lot of girls her age would be able to do."
Enabling Kennel to operate the Wii requires manipulating the various components of the remote, the system's typically hand-held controller. During set-up, a sensor bar is placed either above or below a television screen that contains infrared points on each end. These points are detected by a tiny camera located in the front of the remote. The camera controls the cursor on the television screen by judging the distance and angle of the remote from the sensor bar as players move it.
Because Kennell lacks the ability to hold and direct the controller with either hand, the team has relocated the camera to the nose-bridge of a pair of simple safety glasses frames.
She retains motion in her neck and head, and thus, will be able to direct the controller by swiveling and nodding her head while wearing the glasses.
The proximity of a player to the television screen is inversely related to the amount of movement necessary for control. By situating herself closer to or further from the screen, Kennel will be able to control the amount of effort that goes into game play, and simultaneously, the stress of the motion on her neck.
The next step in the project's development concerns the buttons atop and underneath the controller.
The students are looking to mount them on a plane that Kennell will be able to access with the limited motion in her right hand. Bancroft said she has medial and lateral flexion in her right hand, the ability to swivel her hand to the right and left, as well as swing her hand forward and backward from the elbow.
Through careful placement of buttons on a flat plane where Kennel can access them, the team hopes she will be able to press them with her right hand. The team said the possibility of a joystick equipped with Velcro as an alternative to the directional arrow control has been discussed, but has yet to be tested.
The project is currently in trial stages. Each member works independently and the team congregates weekly to monitor and discuss progress.
Junior occupational therapy major Angie Royer is on hand to monitor the equipment being designed by the group, making sure it meets Kennell's needs and keeping concerns like the stress the adaptations will have on her body in mind. Electrical engineering majors Alex Evangelou, a senior, and John Burdett, a sophomore, physically make the alterations to the equipment.
Nicole Muir, a junior Occupational Therapy major, lends assistance when she is able. With the exception of Muir, the students involved receive university credit, but Dr. John LaCourse said the experiential value the project holds for them goes far beyond the credits they will receive. "Electrical engineering students tend to get boxed in laboratories with computers and instruments," he said. "In this particular case you're working with a human being, a client. It's the human element that a lot of the electrical engineers do not get and the occupational therapy students get the electrical engineering side or the computer engineering side so it's a real multidisciplinary activity. A collaborative effort is what I call it."
LaCourse, the chair of the electrical and computer engineering department, describes his role in the project as a kind of mentor to the students involved, as he has done work in biomedical engineering. The project isn't intended to be groundbreaking or create a patentable product, said LaCourse. Its intention is to offer experience to UNH students and provide Kennell increased normalcy. She already uses a variety of adapted technology that is commercially available to individuals with her disabilities.
"I've noticed that if I look more for certain stuff that I know I will be able to use, it's out there," she said. "You just have to look for it."
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