CyberRealm

With Ranga Kamaladasa

Computer accessibility for the Differently-abled

Inspired by a small child who played cricked by bowling with his shoulders because he had no arms to bowl, Mr. M. A. Prince Chandresena came up with this invention nearly 4 years ago. This innovative piece of head gear allows people that cannot use their hands to move a mouse, to move it with a small tug of the head.

The concept here is also quite simple. Sensors are placed above the head, below the chin and on sides of

the face that is sensitive to touch. When the head moves to the right, the mouse will also move to the right. The left mouse button is pressed by blowing a small gush of air through a tube while the right mouse button is pressed by taking in a gush of air from the tube. Though it's uncomplicated, according to Mr. Chandresena, it really works.

"I could have used an infra red motion sensor or some other fancy equipment," says Mr. Chandresena. "But that would make the equipment too sensitive and be nuisance to the user."

He also went on to say that the pins in the prototype were adjustable and therefore would be able to fit into a head of any shape and size. A local patent for the product has been claimed by Mr. Chandresena but he says that it's not financially feasible to get an International patent without any investors to sponsor him.

At the time of invention (in 2002) a lot of media coverage including Television and Press had been bestowed upon our inventor, but as Mr. Chandresena says, it's hard for a Sri Lankan inventor to actually achieve something and see that it turns into a reality.

Inventor: Mr. Prince Chandresena

Contact: 037 2299149, 0777155125

Computerized Elections?

So far the collecting and counting of ballots and everything that happens in between the election is done manually. Only the statistical analysis is computerized in Sri Lankan elections. But according to the inventors of this new technology, if the elections commission and the government are ready, Sri Lanka is just steps away from a technology that can computerize election centers.

The project which was done as a final year project by the Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering undergraduates in the University of Moratuwa, is able to fully computerize the ballot taking process.

Tough security measures are implemented including a 48 bit secure serial number and a separate key to

 activate the machine. The equipment has been designed as to look very similar to that of a sheet of paper that one receives to cast their vote. The name of the party is clearly visible along with the logo and color of the party. A separate section had been made for the casting of preferential votes.

According to the graduates who designed the system, Angela, Baherathan, Niroshan and Pradeepan, the system is quite is quite secure and multiple votes can be easily recognized because the NIC number of the voter should be entered before hand. This makes it also possible to centralize the NIC numbers to a server and see if there was a multiple casting of vote in several electorates by the same person.

Staff advisor: Dr. Chulantha Kulasekara, University of Moratuwa