A new year in this technological era could only mean one thing, new technology of course. What do scientists have in mind for 2012? According to the website www.theengineer.co.uk, people may soon be able to steer their wheelchairs by simply looking in the direction in which they want to go. Currently, there are wheelchair models that allow you to get around by using a joystick to control your speed and direction. There are also models which allow users to use their mouth and tongue to steer, but these are quite costly.
Currently, a team led by Dr. Prashant Pillai of Bradford University has created a model that can capture the user’s gaze using an infrared camera headset. By shining infrared LEDs onto their iris, Dr. Pillai uses technology to record the signals reflected from the user’s eye. This is then converted to a signal which feeds information to the steering motors of the wheelchair.
‘When someone sits in it for the first time, it takes a while to train and get used to it, because most of the time we keep looking around everywhere,’ Dr Pillai told The Engineer. His team is working on removing the time delay between when the person looks where they want to go and when they actually begin to turn towards that direction. Dr. Pillai also wants to remove the head set and instead place cameras on the front on the wheelchair pointing up to the eyes.
In the future, they hope to create a fully technology assisted home. In such a home, a user would simply look at their light or television for example and it would turn on. These are all still on the drawing board. Who knows what this year will actually bring to the market. What do you think of this wheelchair that is controlled by your eyes? Please leave your comments below. If you do not see the comment box below this article, try clicking the title of the article and then the comment box should be visible.
Source :
Czyzewski, A. (2011, September 29). The Engineer. Retrieved January 19, 2012 from http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/medical-and-healthcare/news/iris-technology-could-soon-help-electric-wheelchair-users/1010437.article#ixzz1jv6d8x51
