The MATTER (Maximizing Abilities through Technology, Education, and Research) center recently held a workshop on “The future of mobile technology.” The event represented an opportunity for experts in different disciplines to brainstorm about how mobile technology could be made more effective for people with special needs, as well as how to redesign the technology to better fit the needs of elder users. The workshop, which took place on November 9 at the UCSC Silicon Valley Center, was organized jointly with The Blindsight Corporation.
MATTER is formed by a combination of faculty members in Engineering, Psychology, Nursing, and Rehabilitation from UCSC, UCSF, and UCD. The center covers a broad spectrum of activities under the common umbrella of technologies to help persons with special needs in their activities of daily living. Examples of these activities include: mobility and information access for people who are blind; stroke rehabilitation and recovery through robotic exoskeletons; lifelogging to support persons with memory loss; serious games to promote exercise for overweight children; brain-machine interfaces for neurologically impaired patients. MATTER is supported by both CITRIS and QB3 (the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences).