Controlling a wheelchair by thought !
The wheelchair is simply controlled by detecting the level of concentration and winks
Control the speed and direction of an electric wheelchair motor that uses brain waves picked up by Mindwave headset: the idea that came to Karim Ait Abderrahim, laboratory director and Esme Sudria Energy Systems, an engineering school. The project was commissioned three students from the class of 2014, Pierre Pagliughi Lerondeau Gregory and Kevin Martins.
Success is complete as the prototype of this "thought control" is now functional. An electronic card 10 cm by 8 retrieves the Bluetooth headphones signal EEG (electroencephalogram) and controls the motors of the wheelchair. "There is an experimental system in Australia, but a computer and sensors is required," explains Pierre Pagliughi Futura-Sciences. There's the advanced technique: the system is simple.
It is based on the handset Mindwave, Neurosky society, one of the most popular of its kind that has not, however, only one of the electrodes. The collected signals are pretty basic and do not come as the brain itself, but also the muscles of the face. Engineers (in the process of becoming officially in October 2014) are housed is by extracting two types of signals: one associated with the concentration used to control the speed and the other blinking, which to choose the direction. The device is used by people with strong physical disabilities. "There are two adjustments made to suit the individual. Minutes or even hours maximum sufficient for the user to use it." How to go from the PCB to the movement of the chair of a business model? "The usual order is a joystick. We attack there. But we believe that a more direct system."
The budding engineers have every intention to continue the adventure. His achievement had already been selected for the 2014 Symposium of the school, as Handi'Light we speak. She is also the recipient for innovative projects in the Ile-de-France East, earning him the promise of using € 45,000 if a partnership is engaged in a business. "We are in talks with the incubator of the Institute of the brain and spinal cord," says Peter Pagliughi. The craft must be adapted to the specific needs, but the concept is there.
No Comment to " Controlling a wheelchair by thought ! "