A Brain Controlled Wheelchair?

Patients with injuries or diseases that leave them unable to move have had little hope of independent mobility in the past. BCI's or brain computer interfaces hold some promise in changing this. Spanish researches are working to develop a thought controlled wheelchair in which a BCI will translate the thoughts of a patient into movements by the wheelchair. Currently, the use of BCI's is very limited because they are bulky and must be plugged into the brain. The researches are looking to develop a smaller interface that will translate brain patterns recieved from electrodes implanted into the scalp. Generally, electrode interfaces provide a crude signal that must be decoded; however with simple wheelchair movements such as left, right and stop, the researchers feel the idea will work. The current wheelchair design has two computers to process the readings and control the wheels. Also, there is a laser to detect obstacles in the path of the wheelchair, since patients may have limited neck mobility. The main obstacle for the researchers is to minimize the size of the BCI and to make it mobile. The team plans to have a working model in 2008 or 2009.link

I felt this article was interesting because last semester we had a snbal article that introduced brain computer interfaces, but it concentrated on prosthetics. This demonstrated another use that BCI's may provide in the future.