From The Boston Globe Tech column July 7:It's almost always a good thing when Brown University engineers and RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) designers put their heads together.
The latest of these left-brain right-brain collaborations is Toys and Technology for Rehabilitation, a program for kids with cerebral palsy at the Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence.
Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students and their professors have developed more than a dozen toys and radio controllers that compensate for a lack of fine motor skills with controllers that strap to a child's wrist or forearm.
The Brown-RISD group hopes its toys - which include a radio-controlled car, a dinosaur, and a tabletop racetrack - will strengthen limbs weakened by the disease.
They also hope the kids will enjoy the toys.
Each has sensors that will tell doctors how often it is picked up and played with.The Toys and Technology for Rehabilitation folks next will track up to 20 kids, ages 5 to 12, to see whether the toys are strengthening their muscles.