Verily launches clever new spoon that compensates for disabilities
People with physical disabilities face many challenges, such as difficulty eating, something many take for granted. But now Verily Life Sciences, formerly Google Life Sciences, has launched the Liftware Level, a handheld robotic device that compensates for erratic hand and arm movements, allowing people to eat without spilling.
Level is the brainchild of Anupam Pathak who parlayed a PhD in mechanical engineering and an SBIR grant into Liftware, a company dedicated to helping people overcome motor impairments. Google purchased Liftware in 2014.
“The Level handle can calculate the orientation of whatever is attached in real-time and 3D space,” said Pathak, who is now a technical lead at Verily, in a phone interview. “For eating, we’ve programmed it to stay totally level to allow the user to scoop food. But in the future, we could have it maintain basically any kind of position.”