Danbury, Connecticut: Developer, Roy Keating, has spent a decade designing a new monitoring device that aids people on the Autism Spectrum live an independent life. He developed some of the first artificial intelligence based software in the 1980’s for Wall Street.
Soon Keating began to think artificial intelligence based software could help people like his brother, James who suffers from autism. Keating decided to work on developing a process which would help provide his brother independent living.
It soon became apparent that one of the areas of concern was making sure that daily tasks were performed. Most people on the autism spectrum have a difficult time in determining whether they have done their daily tasks. Things like brushing your teeth, taking a shower, putting on clean clothes prove to be a challenge.
Keating developed a program where motion sensors are placed in the home and feed data through a software program to analyze and determine if daily tasks were performed. The project launched this summer is called yrConnected will focus on the senior market.
He has begun to integrated the Picture Planner program developed by his other brother Tom Keating who is CEO of Cognitopia. Picture Planner is an electronic picture based icon scheduler which enables others to remember to complete their tasks.
This has proven to be extremely helpful in allowing James to live independently. Ray says,
“James was able to experience independent living that he couldn’t have otherwise enjoyed. I’m happy I was able to help my brother.”
This past March, Cognitopia’s new “Shark Tank” app won a $10,000 award during the Autism Speaks Autism Investment Conference. This app is still in beta which provides a library of training / how to videos “on the go”.
More can be found out about these two apps from their website here.