Born without arms, Tenley Stoker is finally getting to experience some of the simple joys of life that her parents always dreamed of for their 10-year-old daughter — and it’s all because of a robotic feeding device that somewhat resembles the bouncing Pixar lamp Luxor Jr.
The fifth grader from Stevensville, Mont., used to eat her lunches in a special room at her school with an assistant whose job was to feed Stoker one tiny bite of food after another. All that changed two years ago when her parents learned about the high-tech feeding device known asObithat scoops and serves up food on a spoon, enabling people like Stoker — who have limited upper body movement — to literally feed themselves.
“It has really empowered her and changed her as a person,” Stoker’s father, Mathieu Stoker, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “With this [device] she’s in the normal lunch room visiting with her peers, eating all the same foods they’re eating at her own pace.”
Mathieu Stoker
Engineer and inventor Jon Dekar, 34, is happy to know how much the device he created and launched in 2017 has transformed the lives of its users, whose disabilities include multiple sclerosis, ALS, cerebral palsy or birth defects.
courtesy Jon Dekar
“Eating is something that able-bodied people take for granted,” says Dekar. “Living with a physical condition that prohibits you from having that independence takes a serious toll. We wanted to restore the enjoyment of eating and socializing with other people.”
For more on Jon Dekar’s invention Obi, pick up a copy of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Dekar was first inspired to create Obi during his freshman year in high school after watching his grandfather slowly lose his independence due to a degenerative neuromuscular condition and being forced to rely on his wife to spoon-feed him.
Obi’s easy-to-control robotic arm and simple two-switch operation allows the device to scoop food out of four different bowls and deliver it to the user’s mouth.
“It’s about giving back a sense of independence,” says Dekar, who explains that many users often cry when they first use the machine. “Being able to truly eat independently just means the world to them.”
source: people.com
