When attending the Synapse Summit, viewers are subjected to the latest launches in tech and other startups. Most tech systems are designed to be relatively helpful; however, these four friends designed tech software that goes above and beyond in terms of functionality.
Co-founders: Ian Troisi, Joey Cerar, Connor McFadden, and Justin Deegan created a software system that utilizes brain signals and other habitual muscle signals to control technology using ESP (extrasensory perception).
This passion started with CEO Ian Troisi, who unfortunately lost one of his best friends, also his first cousin, to a brain tumor.
“Because of that experience, I ended up taking a lot of the old sensors and stuff that they had from treating her and putting them into my computer, so I could play CSGO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) … and it evolved from that after I showed it to Justin.”
After working on the coding and creating a basic prototype, they were able to create Imagine Technologies, a tech startup that uses machine learning and smart home devices to assist disabled and paraplegic persons.
“For example, If you’re a paraplegic young man and you’re laying in bed and want to turn off the light across the room, it’s a bit of a process, but with our device, they’re able to take a picture of the light, set it up (referencing the tech system), look at it, and focus to turn the light off.”
The team spends the majority of their time coding and running software in their garage. Stating that each day introduces new challenges- having to run hardware, build processes and scales, and ultimately be able to work through issues that arise within a reasonable timeframe. The biggest tribulation they’ve faced thus far was “figuring out where to [start]” … “the biggest hurdle we’ve gotten over is that a person can take one picture of a whole bunch of objects, even in the size of this arena, and be able to tell the difference between them just by looking around.”
Their plans for the product are to break out into the consumer market, specifically the paraplegic market, and utilize their system to assist users at an affordable price.
“We’re able to give them something that’s a lot easier to use. And if they’re in a hospital bed, or a chair, a lot of basic functions of your day-to-day life are kind of taken from you. So if we’re able to give that back in an easy and affordable way, we’d love to see people become as well-versed as possible and give them everything they could want to do.”
The group has been friends since high school and is planning to continue pursuing this dream together. “It’s really given us a lot of resilience and helped us come to where we are today. I think there’s a million times where things should have fallen apart, but just having the sheer will and saying, ‘no, we want to do this, we want to be able to do something great.’ has helped us get through a lot of problems.”
