It’s estimated that 15 million people suffer from strokes every year, with sufferers typically losing both the power of speech and vision, leaving them in a pretty parlous state.

I wrote earlier this year about an iPad based intervention that aimed to help such people recover their powers of communication.

Users of the app can select the tasks they wish to work on, with the app then providing them with a steady stream of challenges based upon their scores on previous tasks.  Alternatively, a medical professional can manually select tasks for the individual to undertake.

The research highlighted how enthusiastic patients were for working on their condition.  On average, they would spend over four hours a week using the app, with the more enthusiastic among them wracking up an impressive 17 hours per week.

Regaining powers of communication

Another app hoping to help stroke victims is called I.am.here, which has been developed to aid stroke victims in their communication.  The app utilizes the brain computer interface to translate the emotions of stroke victims into audible statements.  The makers believe it will allow sufferers to express simple emotions such as happiness or boredom.

The app was developed by the Russian stroke foundation in collaboration with the software developers Yarr and the comms agency AdWatch Isobar.

The app monitors the brain of the user, before then filtering it into something easier to understand.  The software then isolates the emotional data from this and translates it into language, which is displayed on the screen of the app.

“When we learned that brainwaves can now be picked up, we immediately thought of paralyzed people. After we went through a very thorough set of consultations with neuroscientists, and studied brain-computer interface technologies, we knew for sure that this was a task we could complete. With this app, we analyze data from Emotive EPOC and transform it in a simple and clear form. I.am.here for iOS and Android translates BCI data into human language and gives opportunity to go through all history of communication between paralyzed people and their relatives,” the makers say.

The app is available on both the App Store and Google Play, and will hopefully provide one extra tool to help stroke victims get back on their feet.

You learn more about I.am.here via the video below.