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Researchers receive international recognition for a device that brings music to life for kids with disabilities
MS society representative joins Pierre Duez, Eric Wan, Andrea Lamont and Tom Chau of Holland Bloorview as they accepted the da Vinci Award at the special awards event at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
Photo credit:Paul Stoloff
A team of researchers led by Senior Scientist, Tom Chau at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital received the prestigious international da Vinci Award ® for the creation of the Virtual Music Instrument (VMI) in the recreation and leisure category.
“It is an incredible honor for our team to be recognized amongst such a blue-chip cast of innovators, all whom have pioneered technologies that inevitably allow people with disabilities to participate more fully in life,” says Chau, who is also a Canada Research Chair in Pediatric Rehabilitation Engineering. “We are thrilled to have won.”
The VMI is a computer-based instrument that allows people of all abilities to make music by using motion sensing technology. Developed in 2003, many different teams of students, clinicians, engineers and scientists from Canada, France and Australia have contributed to its continual development and clinical evaluation. MusIQKids commercialized the device in 2009.
Matthew Downing, age 11, a music therapy client at Holland Bloorview with Cerebral Palsy has benefitted enormously from the VMI. “The VMI is amazing because it allows children with limited mobility and poor motor skills to play any instrument. Music is such an important motivator for all children and especially for children with disabilities with limited mobility – like my son Matthew. The VMI allows him to play without boundaries,” says Matthew’s mother, Joanne Downing.
Benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society’s Michigan Chapter, the awards recognize the latest developments and research in adaptive and assistive technologies that enable equal access and opportunity for all people.
Hailed the academy awards for adaptive and assistive technology, nominations were received from across the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France and Denmark.
Finalists in five categories were honoured on September 30, 2010 at a special awards event at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
Video submissions for each finalist are featured at www.youtube.com/davinciawards with a special Leo or People’s Choice award presented to the finalist receiving the highest number of thumbs up votes.
About the da Vinci Awards
The da Vinci Awards were established in 2001 by the Michigan Chapter of the National MS Society (www.nationalmssociety.org/mig) to recognize individuals, organizations and corporations whose innovations are designed to enable everyone to participate in and contribute to all aspects of society. The awards celebrate people who triumph over disabilities and those who have developed new technologies that enhance mobility. Past nominations have come from all over the globe in the engineering, construction and technical fields.
The awards were named after Leonardo da Vinci because of his documented talents as an inventor, philosopher, engineer, architect and artist. The name itself captures the spirit in which the da Vinci Awards are given.
An impartial panel of judges representing the technology and disability communities selected the finalists and da Vinci Award winners in each of five categories.
A complete list of past award winners can be found at www.davinciawards.org.