TED - Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist

I love TED talks, in-case you are't aware of what it is, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)is a U.S private non-profit foundation best known for its conferences held all over the world devoted to what it calls "ideas worth spreading".

I blogged recently how I have BBC news open up every morning through an AppleScript, I've done the same thing with TED podcasts, effectively making them my alarm. I download the latest one a night before and stick it on my "alarmPlaylist" on iTunes. This way it gently wakes me up every morning, giving me something to think about every day.

Last week I woke up to what has to have been one of the most inspirational talks that I have seen in a long time, I had forgotten to delete it off the playlist so it played again this morning and just reminded me how fantastic it was.

It is a talk by Mick Ebeling who founded the Not Impossible Foundation and he tells the story of how he and a team of collaborators built an open source invention that gave the graffiti artist TEMPT (who suffers from the nerve disease ALS, leaving him completely paralysed) the means to make art and communicate again.

More information can be found about TED and here is the full link to the talk.