Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411220002
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV16 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS STAFF WRITE|
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Two years later, the Voice Activated Control System has mushroomed into "the electronic room," a fully computerized dorm room where residents can control dozens of functions, from the most simple to the most complex.
In the process, its creator has suddenly become a celebrity.
"For right now, it's a pretty good feeling," said David Boyes, a 24-year-old computer science major who first thought of VACS as an undergraduate research project two years ago.
To family and friends, Boyes is a humble, soft-spoken farm boy - a computer whiz who learned to play the banjo and milk the cows on his parents' small farm in Lexington.
To technofans around the world, Boyes is a magician, one who has created what is ballyhooed as the most comprehensive and inexpensive computer program ever designed for the disabled.
The results have been a media blitz.
Boyes and his VACS have been featured in newspapers and magazines across the country and have made the airwaves of Cable News Network.
"It's been a lot of positive feedback," Boyes said. "It's also been a lot of sharky, shady people who want to buy me out."
Good or bad, the attention keeps coming - even from Glamour magazine, which plans to publish a piece about Boyes in their column devoted to the country's most eligible bachelors.
"Yeah, well ...'' Boyes sighs and shrugs, smoothly avoiding the issue of being a nationally known eligible bachelor. "I'm excited but not exactly cocky about it all, although I did jump around my room when I first made CNN."
After being featured on CNN, a network producer was inundated with calls from people who were interested in his system but did not know how to find Boyes or Radford University. CNN subsequently reran the piece for several days, giving the university's location.
Within days, Boyes received phone calls from companies all over the world that have been trying to develop systems with similar capabilities but have either been unable to do so or unable to do so at a low price.
They all want his secrets.
```It's magic' is the phrase I use a lot,'' Boyes said. "That's the polite way of saying`I'm not going to tell you.'''
Boyes said VACS costs about $4,000, which is thousands less than systems already on the market that control only one or two simple functions.
VACS, which was funded by a university honor society and two local Lions Clubs, can control more than 30 functions, including turning on lights, opening and closing drawers and operating an entertainment center
Boyes said the system runs on a fairly simple computer, which is connected to a helter-skelter collection of inexpensive parts, mostly from Wal-Mart and Radio Shack.
"I just take off-the-shelf products and make them talk to each other," Boyes said.
But as simple as it seems to Boyes, others understand what all the fuss is about.
"Financially, I can't put a price on it," said Patricia Meyers, a 29-year-old junior with cerebral palsy who lives in the room. "It just makes life so much easier for people like me who are in wheelchairs. It's priceless."
Boyes said his immediate plans are simply to graduate from the university and continue improving VACS. He also hopes to create a new computer system for the disabled, such as a work station for the blind that would be operated by voice-activated commands and could print materials in braille.
Boyes said it is the computer systems, and not the system's creator, that deserves the publicity.
"I don't want to be recognized because I've been on CNN," he said. "I want to be recognized because we're doing some pretty good research really inexpensively."
Chances are, however, Boyes will continue to be recognized for VACS - a system that has already been called the stuff of genius.
"I've never claimed to be a genius or even a computer whiz," he said. "People have specialties, and mine is computers. I can't even figure out what's wrong with my own car, so how smart am I?"
by CNB