Mentally controlled wheelchairs

Cool, and great to allow the disabled more freedom and independence. [Link]

Major advantages of the new technology

• Commands for smooth left and right turns and forward motion of the wheelchair are processed every 125 milliseconds by analyzing brain waves using signal processing technology.
• Brain-wave analysis data are displayed on a screen in real time, giving neuro-feedback to the driver for efficient operation.
• This technology is expected to be useful in the field of rehabilitation, and for physical and psychological support of wheelchair drivers.

The BSI-TOYOTA Collaboration Center (BTCC; Hidenori Kimura, Director), has succeeded in developing a system which utilizes one of the fastest technologies in the world, controlling a wheelchair using brain waves in as little as 125 milliseconds (one millisecond, or ms, is equal to 1/1000 seconds). BTCC was established in 2007 by RIKEN, an independent administrative institution (Ryoji Noyori, President), as a collaborative project with Toyota Motor Corporation (Akio Toyoda, President), Toyota Central R&D Labs, Inc. (Takashi Saito, President), and Genesis Research Institute, Inc. (Kiyoshi Nakanishi, Representative Director of Research). Also collaborating in the research were Andrzej Cichocki, Unit Leader, and Kyuwan Choi, Research Scientist, of BTCC's Noninvasive BMI Unit.

Recently technological developments in the area of brain machine interface (BMI) have received much attention. Such systems allow elderly or handicapped people to interact with the world through signals from their brains, without having to give voice commands.