AT inventor Tony Ellis

Futurecare

My name is Tony Ellis, I am a professional inventor and have licensed 65 toy, game and gift products some selling in multi-millions. Around 2 years ago I turned my attention to design Assistive Technology and Assistive (Social care) robotics. I now have developed 9 groundbreaking AT devices and a working Assistive Care Robot the “ALTAIR” series.

My first AT device is MBT that allows a user to control Alexa, Google Home etc to be controlled via processing their breath (no speech required). I have successfully tested MBT with a young man with CP and it worked well.

I must stress that all the AT devices are PoC (Proof of Concept) but do work. My AT work is currently self-funded from my pension - I am looking for Angel Investment (or similar) so I can kickoff manufacturing and start full trials of my AT devices.

steve51

Hi @Futurecare

Good Morning & Welcome.

I am one off the Community Champion’s here at Scope.

This sounds very interesting.

I will forward it onto a senior member to see how they feel.

Please please come back to me if you need any further help/support !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi @Adrian_Scope @Sam_Scope  

Hi, can you both offer some help and advice with this post????

Many thank’s

@steve51

Futurecare

Hi Steve

As an example of my AT work, here is a video of my MBT tech where a user can control Alexa, Google Home, Siri etc by breath alone (no speech).

https://youtu.be/6mlnRpM1eQU

Best Tony

steve51

Hi @Futurecare

That’s great, yes doing by breath sounds awesome ? 

Please please come back to me if you need any further help??

@steve.

Futurecare

Hi @Steve

Here is a video of my (Alexa enabled) ALTAIR Assistive (Social) Care robot first recognising then pouring a drink. https://youtu.be/XrZKfJ1aP3c

I believe that my tech can help millions around the World and this is what I am working very hard to do!
Best Tony

steve51

Hi @Futurecare

Many thanks I love it.

Lots of people will benefit greatly from your ideas ? ? ??????

Yes “Alexa” is definitely the way forward for now & the future.

@steve51

Chloe_Scope

Hi @Futurecare and a very warm welcome to the community! This all sounds super interesting!

I have moved your post to a different section and I hope this allows other members to provide support and guidance.

Futurecare

@steve51
Thanks for the kind words! 
Is there anyone at Scope that deals with AT, it maybe possible to so some small trials of my tech with people on this forum. I have done a number of showcases in 2019 including 2 at the Houses of Parliament .

emmarenshaw

Welcome to the community @Futurecare  Your work sounds fascinating and vital.

Futurecare

Thanks @emmarenshaw , I just want to help people - I have had a successful professional inventor career and now want to give something back to society! Best Tony

emmarenshaw

@Futurecare I think that’s exactly what we need in the world. 

Garza

have you thought about things like kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites, your local business community may do something like a dragons den style event, perhaps there is a list of white knight/angel investors somewhere with an interest in this sector, possible even approach people like amazon if you are making alexa more suitable for others 

Futurecare

Thanks @Garza, I did approach Amazon, while they were initially very interested in my Alexa based tech nothing came of it.

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Futurecare. I'm going to tag @Ryan_Assistive or @Andy_Assistive in case they have any suggestions about how to move this forward.

Futurecare

@Adrian_Scope, thank you so much for your help here - Andy Hall already knows about my work. I greatly appreciate any help that you can give as all I want to do is help people.

JenCo

Futurecare said:

Thanks @Garza, I did approach Amazon, while they were initially very interested in my Alexa based tech nothing came of it.

That is such a pity Tony. Who did you speak to and when? 
In companies that size it can all come down to who you speak to and when.

Futurecare

Hi @Jenco Thanks for replying, I really appreciate your interest - I have made over a hundred calls/emails to people in the disability/elderly sectors and nobody seems interested, they do not even ask for a demo. It seems that their is no place in this country for a lone inventor producing radically new AT. Everything that I have done so far (9 low cost AT devices) has been self-funded from my pension. Some of the companies/charity's are Scope, MND Association, Leonard Cheshire, Communication Matters, SEHTA, various NHS and many more, these contact attempts were mostly made in 2019. Best Tony

JenCo

@Futurecare
Have you built any business cases for how much cheaper your various AT devices are to run versus the average cost of round the clock care? If you compare, for example, the cost of an on-call carer (depends on the organisation I suppose) to a full-time, in house carer and the cost of installing and running one of your devices that might be persuasive.
So, how much would installation and 1 year of running the MicroBlow Alexa access system (which could contact an on-call carer) cost compared to having 1 full year of in house care?
There's the obvious benefits of freedom and dignity but companies are only ever interested in revenue. Ideally, you should be able to say to a carer organisation "My device can save you XX man hours while still generating revenue for having carers on call"... or similar. I'm sure you've already done this or similar, I'm just typing as I think

Futurecare

Thanks @Jenco, MBT-Alexa needs no installation and would cost around £100 for the device and £49 for (say) an Alexa Dot so I think it would be very cost effictive.

My Social Care Robot's cost could be amortized in as little a 6 months - this is based (in care home situation etc) that the robot could assist/help with 2 x 4 hour (a day) shifts of a care worker paid with the minimum wage (£8 per hour). Tha ALTAIR robot cost will be around £10.000. Here is a video of my ALTAIR robot first (object) recognising then pouring a drink.

https://youtu.be/XrZKfJ1aP3c

JenCo

Hi Tony, how's it going? I was just reading up on voice assistant tech and thought of you. Have you spoken to anyone at Microsoft about Cortana working with your AT? All you'd need is a Windows 10 laptop/desktop and one of your fantastic inventions. It's more a "straight out of the box" solution than the Google/Alexa approach would be perhaps. 

Futurecare

@JenCo my Voice Companion is my "straight out of the box" solution at the moment and utilises the Alexa Eco-system with very robust speech recognition. Thanks again for your interest in my work, the new Conceptioneering website will be up in a couple of weeks and will show some pretty neat AT and Assistive Care Robotics devices. If you want to contact me direct for more info then ping me an email to toymaker.tony@gmail.com. Best Regards Tony