Toyota develops system to control wheelchair movements with thoughts
Toyota scientists have developed a system to control a wheelchair with thoughts. The system uses a cap fitted with five electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors to monitor the areas of the brain that control movement. A laptop computer mounted to the wheelchair picks up the signals and sends commands to the motor. All of this allows the user to go forward, left, or right, just by thinking about it. While similar “mind reading” technology has been developed in the past, the problem has been speed.
Earlier attempts took several seconds to pick up the user’s thoughts and convert them into movements. Toyota’s system works in 125 milliseconds, about a third of the time it takes to blink. As each person’s thought patterns are unique, the system takes a while to learn how the user thinks. According to Toyota researchers, it takes about a week for the system to become familiar with a user’s thought patterns. After this initial training period, the system is 95% accurate, making it one of the most accurate thought control systems ever developed. While the system allows a user to control the chair’s movements with thoughts, stopping requires a little extra: puffing out a cheek.
An additional facial sensor detects cheek movement, stopping the motor. The system is not ready to be released to consumers yet, but Toyota is planning a variety of applications, with the first likely being in the medical field.
To see a video of the system in action, click here: http://www.tinyurl.com/mp66wr . If clicking the link does not work, copy and paste the link into your browser’s address bar. Note: the video is in Japanese only and, due to high demand, may be slow.
