Portable and Mobile Systems in Assistive Technology

Computing power, communications and internet access are becoming increasingly untethered from the desktop and moving to the realm of portable, wireless technology. Devices such as mobile (cell) phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) have become affordable and ubiquitous, and offer not only substantial computational power but also telephone and internet access, as well as a variety of sensors such as cameras, GPS and RFID readers. While the overwhelming majority of such devices are being marketed primarily to able-bodied users (primarily young, tech-savvy people without obvious disabilities), there is enormous potential to harness their capabilities for use in assistive technology. As of yet, however, this potential remains largely untapped, with very few commercially available systems of this type.