PSNC and the INSENSION project in Psychology Today

2023-07-24

PSNC and the INSENSION project in Psychology Today
The latest issue of the American bimonthly magazine “Psychology Today” features an interview with Ed Fennell, with whom Michał Kosiedowski – Head of the Future Internet Services Department at PSNC – is working to prepare the next stages of work in projects developing technology to support interaction with the environment for people with profound multiple intellectual disabilities.

In an interview with Psychology Today, Ed Fennell (personally the grandfather of a girl with profound intellectual disability) of the International Foundation of CDKL5 Research, raises the extremely important issue of interacting with a person with a significant disability, sometimes both intellectual and physical. In most cases, these people are completely dependent on family and carers to help them with basic daily activities due to physical or sensory problems. IT solutions developed at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre can help these people.

One such pioneering project being developed at PSNC is the INSENSION IT platform. The system, the prototype of which was developed as a result of the project work, is designed to detect the so-called non-symbolic behaviours of people with profound complex intellectual disabilities, interpret them as intentions to maintain or change the situation in the user’s environment and, if necessary, take the necessary actions. The system gives people with profound complex intellectual disabilities the ability to communicate their needs to their carers via short text messages, turn on their favourite music or control devices in their smart room.

Read the full article.