Here's a Stroke Victim Sending Email for the First Time in 12 Years- With a Kinect

As we age, so do those who love and cared for us during those messy diaper years. So it's heartwarming to see a video like this. Here is wired-in son, Chad Ruble aka dad hoc, helping his aphasia-afflicted mother reconnect through technology.

My mom has lived with aphasia ever since she suffered a serious stroke twelve years ago. In the meantime, there’s been a revolution in communication – powered by social media. Like a lot of people, I use the phone less. One of my areas of interest has been bridging the digital “keyboard gap” for people like my mom.

As shown in the video above, the Kinect-assisted email program uses a series of pictograms --emoticons for expressions, signal strength bars for modifying the intensity of those emotions, eg "a little upset" to "extremely happy"-- to allow Rubles's mother to compose simple emails to friends and family. It's a small step, and Rubles notes he's still working on improving and expanding the system, but you wouldn't be able to mistake the look of clear elation on his mother's face as she completes a message for the first time.

"I might also send the emails to a Posterous account so that she can have her own blog," Rubles adds warmly. I'd read that RSS feed.

Via dad hoc.