Story by Judy Holmes
jlholmes@syr.edu
Phone: 443-3784
Story ran in the April 6, 1998 Syracuse Record

 "Every device we tried had a predetermined functionality written into the software," says Warner, Nason Fellow and founder of the Center for Really Neat Research (CRNR) at Syracuse University. "I couldn't adapt a tool to a patient because I had no way to manipulate the software to make it functionally specific for the patient."

 At the time, Warner was enrolled in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Frustration with existing technologies inspired him to open what he calls an "unfunded, rock `n' roll science laboratory in California" to develop technology that would transcend the barriers.

 It was in that laboratory that Neat software, the predecessor to NeatTools, was developed with the help of programmer Jo Johansen. Warner also developed generic interface devices called TNG-1 and TNG-2 (acronyms for "totally neat gadget" and pronounced "thing"). The Neat system was designed to be more flexible and cheaper than the existing technology he had experimented with, which at the time cost $20,000. TNG-1 and TNG-2 were built with electronic devices obtained at Radio Shack and mail-order electronics suppliers for less than $200.

 News about Warner's research spread beyond his California laboratory, and he was invited to share his findings at conferences all over the United States. Twice he came to Syracuse, to speak at conferences sponsored by the SUNY Health Science Center (HSC) in 1993 and 1995. It was during the second conference, involving virtual reality and telemedicine, that he met Edward Lipson, SU professor of physics, who was also a member of the HSC's telemedicine planning committee.

 When Warner moved his laboratory to SU, he and Lipson became collaborators. Last January, Lipson developed TNG-3, a 16-channel device that can receive both digital and analog signals. A chief component of the device is a microcontroller circuit, a PIC chip--sort of like a computer on a tiny chip-which is found in hundreds of consumer items, including television remote controls, thermostats and electronic automobile ignitions.

 PIC chips are "high-end" computer chips that are mass produced and therefore cheap, Lipson says. TNG-3 costs about $100 and is more versatile than TNG-2, which has four channels that can receive only analog signals. TNG-1 was designed to be used only with sensors that pick up signals from muscles.

 TNGs capture signals created by body movements, such as blinking eyes or twitching cheek muscles. The signals are converted into a stream of data that Neat and NeatTools can understand. The data is translated into computer commands.

 Neat enabled users to move objects around on a computer screen, play video games or operate radio-controlled toys. But a major obstacle remained-building a mouse driver into the system that would give users full computer access and, ultimately, Internet access.

 At SU, Warner met Yuh-Jye Chang, a programming theory doctoral student in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. Chang had gained international recognition by winning the 1996 Java Cup for a project he designed through SU's Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC). Within a week, Chang built a mouse driver for Neat software. Shortly after, he joined Warner's research team. They scrapped Neat and began building NeatTools.

 "Neat was leading edge in thinking and philosophy, but it was not the leading edge technology," Warner says. "There were tons of things you could not do with it. So we started over from scratch. It was a painful decision."

 Chang is a "world-class programmer," Warner says. "I write the prescription for code. Yuh-Jye is a code pharmacist."

 The result: a computer technology that goes far beyond the early frustrations that gave birth to its predecessor, a technology whose potential CRNR researchers are only beginning to realize. NeatTools' can be programmed to accept virtually any input or output device, Chang says. It is a visual programming tool that can be used to solve simple or very complex problems. "It's like a black box-it can be anything," he says.

 When viewed on a computer screen, NeatTools looks like a virtual erector set, complete with building block modules and a virtual tool box. The program can be manipulated by arranging the modules and connecting them on the computer screen.

 A simple experiment with NeatTools starts by connecting an input module, an output module, a display module and a virtual switch in a series on the screen. Next, a user connects TNG-2 or TNG-3 to any kind of sensor device (magnetic sensor, light sensor, bend sensor, etc.). The TNG sends the data to NeatTools, where it looks like a squiggly line on the display module.

 NeatTools uses the information collected to give commands to the computer. The commands can be used to control the external environment via a parallel port from the computer. A light or radio, for example, can be turned on or off and attenuated for brightness and volume control.

 "When we connect the boxes, we're writing a program," Warner says. "Instead of typing little lines of obscure, nerd-speak acronyms, we connect the blue box to the red box. The program is being written as you connect the boxes." Lipson-who has become a self-described "serious hacker" of NeatTools-manipulated the software to develop a program that allows Eyal Sherman, a 17-year-old who is totally paralyzed, to precisely control the speed of the computer mouse with his chin joystick, which is attached to TNG-3. Called the JoyMouse Network, a NeatTools application, the system uses mathematical principles and a continuous flow of data from TNG-3 to give Eyal proportional control over the mouse. That, in turn, allows him the precision needed to position the cursor on a virtual keyboard, which he uses to communicate.

 To make the JoyMouse work for Eyal, Lipson made hundreds of connections among NeatTool modules. The JoyMouse is an example of the many applications possible for NeatTools, Lipson says. Other applications include developing patient-monitoring systems for use in the rapidly growing field of telemedicine and creating educational tools and programs for elementary and high school students.

 "The real goal is to make enough money with toys and science kits so that we can give this stuff to people who are disabled," Warner says. "The disabled are not a market, they are a population."