Researchers at California State University-Northridge and UCLA Olive View Medical Center are developing a powerful new machine that uses brain-interface technology to help those with physical disabilities.
The product, a motorized wheelchair that can be navigated with a user’s brainwaves, is not yet market-ready. The technology, however, has the potential to provide a new degree of freedom to disabled users.
Brain-computer interface, or BCI, already was being used for a variety of purposes. Gamers have long been familiar with BCI headsets, for example, which allow them to navigate virtual universes.
Dr. C.T. Lin, a professor of mechanical engineering at CSUN, wanted to see if BCI could be used to assist paraplegics or other users who had lost the use of their limbs.
“I thought, ‘Well, why not take the existing available device and explore the possibility of whether that device can be used for any engineering application?’”
The project began in earnest in August 2010. Lin and his team, which includes undergraduates as well as graduate students, developed a wheelchair equipped with a laser sensor, a laptop computer and a headset. Electrodes on the headset are able to absorb brainwaves, which are then translated into “motion commands” such as left, right, forward or backward.
The wheelchair can operate in an autonomous mode in which the computer makes navigating decisions or in a hybrid mode where the user gives commands.
