I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to technology. My Blackberry is attached to my hand, I can’t imagine life without my computer, and I think Facebook is the best thing that ever happened to my far-flung family and friends.
Every once in a while, I run across a story that reminds me that technology can be used to serve a much bigger, far-reaching purpose than my own creature comforts. I found this story about how specialized glasses are helping Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, a British soldier blinded in Iraq, actually see again so incredible that I thought it needed to be shared.
Quan, aka TEMPTONE. Tony was diagnosed with ALS in 2003. The disease has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. But, the ALS hasn’t touched Tony’s sharp mind, creative energy or his desire to write graffiti. In August of 2009, artist from around the world: London, Hong Kong, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York City, converged for 10 days in southern California, converted Mick and Caskey Ebeling’s Venice Beach house into a laboratory and began to work with Tony on a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that would allow ALS patients to draw using just their eyes.