Thanks to the Ice Bucket challenge, or the ice bucket challenge, ALS or Charcot’s disease has become a little more known to the general public. World-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking also has this rare disease, which is characterized by the progressive degeneration and death of motor neurons responsible for muscle function, resulting in limb paralysis. This fast-growing and almost always fatal neurological disease directly attacks the nerve cells (neurons) responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.
Heavily handicapped, Stephen Hawking has lost the use of speech, but he communicates with the outside world thanks to software designed by the computer company Intel in the late 90s.
Now available to everyone, Intel’s Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT) software is open-source and could improve the lives of millions of people with disabilities.
To improve the lives of patients, the company Emfasys designed a device developed in September 2014 EyeSwitch. Switching on the light or the television will soon be possible with the blink of an eye. Indeed, the Japanese company Emfasys has developed a kind of remote control, to support patients with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or Charcot’s disease in their daily lives.
Charcot’s disease, a rare disease with a fatal outcome
There is no cure for this disease. “In 90 to 95% of cases, Charcot’s disease manifests itself quite by chance, without there being any clearly associated risk factors. The patients do not have a family history of the disease and their family members are not considered to be at increased risk for developing this disease, ”recalls the Charcot disease association.
Each year in France, it is estimated that 800 new cases are discovered.
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Charcot’s disease: a remote control to empower patients
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