Texas frees users

Freeput – a portmanteau of freedom of input – is looking for partners to complete the development stage of its wearable technology. The product increases ease of use of computers for people with temporary and permanent mobility impairments.

Created by Vincent Liao, a biomedical engineering student, the company came out of the Longhorn Startup Lab seminar in 2013. The seminar is run by the University of Texas at Austin, and has students form interdisciplinary teams to start real companies.

The company was bootstrapped during its first year, until alumna Geneva Castellanos joined the company as chief executive and helped the company secure $1,000 through the university’s Undergraduate Research Fund in December 2013 – the only such fund on campus. Wearable technology is currently focused around fitness and gaming, and Freeput has a unique opportunity to establish themselves as the company improving the life of physically impaired people.

The company is hoping to produce its device for a hardware cost of no more than $150, and sell it for $400, with discounts for people on Medicare and Medicaid. The device runs on proprietary software. Freeput is hoping to launch its product in March 2015, just in time for the SXSW festival in Austin – a famous breeding ground for new technologies. The 2007 edition of SXSW allowed Twitter to gain early traction and buzz, while the 2009 edition saw the launch of Foursquare.

Geneva Castellanos said: “In five years I hope to see Freeput changing the way we interface with computers. Our devices are getting smaller and wearable. I believe that the traditional mouse and keyboard will become obsolete, which will prompt a new method of interfacing with computers, especially on the go.”