In his freshman year at Stanford, Catalin Voss helped build an app for Google Glass that could recognize emotions. The software use facial recognition software to analyze expressions, and compared those expressions to a database to determine the emotion being expressed. The app was so successful that a Japanese company purchased the creation and is working to implement the technology into passenger vehicles.

The benefits of facial and emotional recognition in vehicles are clear; the vehicle can tell when a driver is distracted or upset and intervene by taking control or issuing an alert. However, the technology that Voss created is so powerful that he and others at Stanford are developing an application that could have incredible benefits for people on a very personal level.

Voss and his colleagues, Dennis Wall and Nick Haber, are adapting the software to help autistic children recognize and understand facial expressions and, by extension, emotions. Another group shares the challenges that autistic children face in processing this visual information; victims of traumatic brain injury. The software could let both groups lead a more normal life.

According to WIRED, the software “…operates like a game or, as Voss calls it, an “interactive learning experience.” Through the Google Glass eyewear, …

[subjects] are asked to, say, find someone who is happy. When they look at someone who is smiling, the app recognizes this and awards “points.” The system also records [information] … for later review. “You can plot, as they wear the glasses, how they’re improving, where they’re improving,” Wall says. “You can look at video to understand why.””

Tools like this can help victims of genetic disorders and traumatic injuries to lead a more normal life. In addition to the applications for tracking driver habits and preventing accidents, the software that Catalin Voss helped to develop could help save countless lives and improve the quality of countless others.

Even with advanced therapy and cutting edge technology, traumatic brain injury remains a devastating condition for victims and their families. The best rehabilitation in the world can’t fully restore a damaged brain, but we can hope that better technology will contribute to a better life.

In the meantime, rehabilitation therapy for TBI victims remains costly and can be difficult to find. If your loved one suffered a TBI as a result of an accident, we can help you get the compensation and the find the resources you need. The compassionate and experienced traumatic brain injury attorneys at Rocky McElhaney Law Firm can be your advocates. Contact us today for a free consultation at one of our office locations in Nashville, Gallatin or Knoxville.