42
Caitlin Little writes reminders on adhesive notes of things she has to do or wants to remember .
was inspired by Caitlin Little , a teenager with anterograde amnesia who ’ s unable to retain new memories for more than a minute at a time ; and Music : Not Impossible was inspired by a gathering of young deaf people at a concert led by a deaf DJ whom Ebeling saw in an online video .
“ They were standing close to the speakers receiving the vibrations from the music and I had an aha moment ,” he says . “ A friend of mine suffered a head injury and lost his sense of smell . I realized you don ’ t smell with your nose , you smell with your brain . That made me realize you don ’ t hear with your ears , you hear with your brain . I figured there might be a way to create a music experience for the deaf through touch signals that the brain processed — a wearable technology that imparted a wide range of frequencies , and even melodic sweeps and swoons , to the user ’ s skin .”
MEMORY : NOT IMPOSSIBLE Ultimate Software , a provider of cloud-based human capital management systems , funded much of the research behind Memory : Not Impossible , the project involving people with memory impairments , although Ebeling believes the solution can eventually assist people with cognitive declines like Alzheimer ’ s disease and dementia . “ Caitlin is an extreme circumstance and if we can make it work for her , we can make it work for anyone ,” he says . Among the project ’ s team members is Silicon Valley engineer Prashant Marathay , a program manager who served stints at Alphabet , Apple , and Intel before founding his
PHOTO BY MAGGIE STEBER / VII / REDUX
DELL TECHNOLOGIES | REALIZE