April 29, 2011 Reston, VA – Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder are invisible wounds. TBI has been called the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. While anyone suffering from a head trauma can experience TBI, returning U.S. soldiers are in great need of care and ongoing treatment to help them cope with this life-altering injury.

Attention Control Systems, Inc. (ACS) and AFrame Digital, Inc. are working together to help TBI patients navigate through their days with a research project "Increasing Independence after Brain Injury with Autonomous Sensing, Planning, and Cueing"  funded by DARPA and another project "A Conversational Independent Living Assistant for Cognitive Impairments" funded by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Other organizations participating in the projects include the Department of Veterans Affairs and the University of Rochester.

ACS has developed an Android-based version of its PEAT™ handheld computer system, which helps individuals with memory, attention and cognitive disorders by cueing (prompting) them through daily activities, monitoring progress, and adjusting their schedule in response to changing situations (such as completing tasks early or late). For the project, AFrame Digital’s MobileCare Monitor™ will gather continuous heart rate and motion data of individual TBI patients to create a real-time biofeedback loop that enhances PEAT’s ability to adjust its cuing and scheduling support in response to changing anxiety or stress levels.

"We're very pleased that AFrame's unique wireless sensors have become available at the same time ACS is moving PEAT to an Android-based mobile platform," says ACS CEO Rich Levinson.  "This technology will potentially benefit millions of individuals suffering from TBI or PTSD, including wounded warriors, and augments PEAT's efficacy, which already has been demonstrated in clinical trials in the U.S. and Europe."

“We are proud that we offer the only FDA-cleared, HIPAA-compliant platform that supports applications like PEAT, which benefits individuals across the entire health, safety, and wellness continuum,” says AFrame Digital Founder and CEO Cindy Crump. “Our technology partnership with ACS and our previous experience with DARPA demonstrates the stability and innovation in the AFrame Digital monitoring system.

“Government-funded research for military care is often an important catalyst for research and innovation,” says Crump. “With DARPA and OSD support, we see tremendous technology strides just ahead that will improve the lives of wounded veterans and also civilians who suffer from these injuries.”

About AFrame Digital, Inc. (Reston VA) 

AFrame Digital is a technology company specializing in research-based, innovative mobile wireless health and wellness solutions.  Its commercial MobileCare Monitor™ system provides real-time, continuous health and safety monitoring of seniors, patients managing chronic conditions and other at-risk individuals.  AFrame Digital’s advanced, FDA-cleared, HIPAA-compliant solution detects fall and issues proactive, exceptions-based status reports and alerts based on personalized wellness profiles to help caregivers quickly attend to or avert crises.  The system currently is installed in senior living, hospital, and individual home settings.  Since 2005, AFrame Digital has received support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institutes of Health and continues to work closely with medical researchers in large military treatment facilities.  Learn more at www.AFrameDigital.com.

About Attention Control Systems, Inc. (Mountain View, California)

Attention Control Systems was founded in 1996 by Richard Levinson, a robotics researcher at NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. In the early 1990s, Levinson began studying the neuropsychology of human planning in order to increase autonomy for NASA robots. In 1995, he proposed a computer model of human frontal lobe function. That computer model led to the development of PEAT, the only commercially available, customizable cognitive aid that uses automatic planning methods to help people manage their time, instead of requiring a person to replan and reschedule when schedule changes occur. Based on three U.S. patents, PEAT offers help to people with a wide range of cognitive and attention disorders, including brain injury, stroke, MS, Alzheimer's disease, developmental disorders, autism, and others.  Learn more at www.BrainAid.com

For Further Information Contact

Kelly Besecker

571.308.0147

info@aframedigital.com

www.aframedigital.com