The NeuroSwitch is an advanced assistive communication device that enables users with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Motor Neurone Disease, spinal cord injury, and cerebral palsy to control their environment, wheel chair, or a computer using their body's own EMG signals. NeuroSwitch uses AssistiveWare‘s Proloquo4Text word prediction and text-to-speech software, which enables users to write swiftly and have their words spoken aloud. Proloquo4 Text offers many features, including self-learning word prediction, history and sentence prediction, and 96 free natural-sounding voices in 15 languages.
The NeuroSwitch also provides increased computer usability to those with paralysis, loss of speech, or loss of motor control. With the NeuroSwitch, people can communicate with family members, caregivers, and clinicians using text-to-speech [TTS]; send text messages and e-mail; surf the web; watch videos and movies; and more. The NeuroSwitch can also be connected to environmental control systems in the home, so users can do things like control the lights; answer the phone or an intercom; control devices like TVs and stereos in place of a standard infrared remote control; and open and close doors, window shades, and blinds. This technology, which has been fine-tuned for over 7 years, offers settings and capabilities that can be customized to each individual user.
The NeuroSwitch comes with the following 4 items: 1) The NeuroSwitch Liberator, a pocket-sized EMG monitor that allows users to communicate with their computer via Bluetooth wireless, 2) the patient cable which connects the NeuroSwitch Liberator to non-invasive sensors placed on the user’s skin, 3) a new 13 Apple MacBook Air laptop with standard Apple software, and 4) AssistiveWare‘s Proloquo4 Text software.