Wyes, connected glasses to communicate with the eyes

People with the “lock-in syndrome” are lifelong prisoners of an unresponsive body, while keeping their mental faculties intact. Cut off from the world, this interior confinement plunges patients into extreme and unbearable loneliness. The causes of this complete paralysis are well identified. They are the culmination of neurodegenerative diseases or consecutive to a cerebrovascular accident.

When the brain stem is damaged, all motor skills including the use of the muscles of the throat and therefore of the vocal cords then become impossible, only the eye movements remain intact. In order to give voice back to all those who are deprived of it, three French engineers have developed a pair of connected glasses called Wyes Origin.

For autonomous and independent communication

The device incorporates sensors that record and analyze the blinking of the eyes independently of the natural beats of the eyelashes, explains Maxime Loubar, co-founder of the Wyes project.

“When I was a child, my grandmother was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease, which I was able to observe the evolution which ended in complete paralysis of all the limbs of the body, up to total immobility and without power. communicate. Only his eyes could still move! When I arrived at engineering school with the idea of ​​finding a way to give voice back to all those affected by the “enclosure syndrome”, I met my best friend Sarah. Together we imagined that the solution would be to use a pair of connected glasses », explains Maxime Loubar.

Then, he details the operation of the device: “The Wyes are equipped with sensors capable of differentiating a voluntary blink from a natural blinking and this blink of an eye acts like a click of a mouse on all digital communication interfaces, on computers, tablets or smartphones. . The paralyzed person can write text, have it read by the device, send emails, manipulate files, activate home automation commands, and so on. Our system allows them to carry out a completely autonomous and independent communication, to “dialogue” in a way with their loved ones, but also with the whole world easily and without having to resort to cumbersome and overpriced technologies. he says.

An award-winning project

These 3D printed connected glasses were developed with the participation of people with disabilities, their relatives, clinical staff and patient associations. The multi-award-winning Wyes project received the “Innovate for Aging Well” prize from Enactus France and the insurer Malakoff Humanis on June 3. This technology developed by Sarah, Maxime and Pierre is now patented, they have created a young shoot to ensure the sustainability of the project.

Last step, our engineers launched a crowdfunding call on the French platform KissKissBankBank in order to produce 50 pairs of Wyes glasses in an almost definitive preview. They will serve as the final validation test before they are marketed, with people whose only means of expression is now only through the eyes.

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