Hasta La Gadget!

The wheelchair might have a rather simple design for the most part, but given the advance in technology, it is not surprising to see advancements made to the design to help those who might be more several disabled. We’ve seen how some wheelchairs have the ability to grow legs and climb stairs, and how some of them can be controlled using their tongue, so what about a wheelchair that can be controlled simply by using our thoughts or facial expressions? That’s pretty much what a Silicon Valley startup called Emotiv is hoping to do. (more…)

Emotiv Launches Designathon To Create A Mind Controlled Wheelchair original content from Ubergizmo.

We’ve seen Emotiv’s Epoc headset control cars and trapeze acts, but now a small posse of students at Columbia University is teaching it how to control a robotic arm. The appendage, aptly named ARM for Assistive Robotic Manipulator, was envisioned as a wheelchair attachment to help the disabled. According to the team, the goal was to keep costs in the neighborhood of $5,000 since insurance outfits Medicare and Medicaid won’t foot a bill for assistive tech that’s much more than $10,000. To keep costs low, the crew built the limb from laser cut wood, and managed to keep the final price tag at $3,200. Since picking up EEG signals and interpreting them accurately can be tricky, the group says it settled on monitoring EMG waves, which are triggered by muscle movements, for additional reliability.

Lifting your eyebrows makes the device open its grip, clenching your teeth shuts it and moving your lips to the left and right twists the claw, while other motions are currently handled by using a PlayStation 2 controller. In the lab, the contraption has seven degrees of freedom, but it was reduced to five when we took it for a spin. It was hit or miss when this editor put the headgear on, between making sure facial gestures were spot on and the equipment’s attempts to pick up clear signals.

Filed under: Robots, Alt

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