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Wheelchair Controlled by Thought

Posted by samzenpus on Thu Sep 06, 2007 06:00 PM
from the just-like-xavier dept.
Technology
macduffman writes "New Scientist reports on another development in interfacing with the central nervous system. The system 'eavesdrops' on signals sent from the brain to the larynx, so even people who lack the muscular control to vocalize a command can operate it. The potential applications of this technology are as varied as human imagination, among them: allowing a person who has lost speech capability to vocalize again." From the article:"The wheelchair could help people with spinal injuries, or neurological problems like cerebral palsy or motor neurone disease, operate computers and other equipment despite serious problems with muscle control. The system will work providing a person can still control their larynx, or 'voice box,' which may be the case even if the lack the muscle coordination necessary to produce coherent speech."
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  • I'm down to help the disabled.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by daddyrief (910385) on Thursday September 06 2007, @06:02PM (#20500807) Homepage
    ...but I'm more down to play a real next-gen gaming system ;)

    I'll be in the cyberspace lobby.
    • > ...but I'm more down to play a real next-gen gaming system ;)

      Done! [atarihq.com].

      Disclaimer: Doesn't actually come with a thought-controlled interface, but what did you expect from 1982's technology?

    • I don't know what that's a reference to, but I definitely would pay top dollar to have a computer interface I can control with my mind.

      Any news on when I can buy one of these things and use it for computer input?
    • You are reading too much into this.... Wheelchairs have always been controlled by the mind.... indirectly

    • Apologies in advance (Score:4, Funny)

      by heinousjay (683506) on Thursday September 06 2007, @09:30PM (#20502695) Journal
      The Nintendo Wiilchair?
      • Processor 'upgrade'? The brain is pretty much the most awesome processor on the planet. Maybe if all you ever want to do again is play chess, or control an aeroplane then you could swap your brain for a CPU. But I wouldn't consider turning yourself into a vegetable an upgrade. Adding an FPU to your brain would be kind of handy though ;)

        Also, you either have really slow reactions, or .. you're just weird wanting to rewire yourself with glass instead of biological nerves :P You'd also need to outfit yourse
  • The video mentioned in TFA is old - I remember seeing it at least two months ago. Well, we can't blame Slashdot for this one - or, can we? No. But we can blame New Scientist.
    • > prototype [guntonfamily.com]

      That's the 1966 version. Obsolete. Get the 1982 [slashdot.org] upgrade.

      ("This is very important, Mister Gant. You must think in Russian -- you can't think in English and transpose it...")

      The tech described in the article is surprisingly like the movie [wikipedia.org], right down to Clint Eastwood's subvocalizing the commands in his head after attempting (and failing) to fire the rearward missile in English, and only succeeding when he subvocalized the command while thinking in Russian.

    • Another prototype [clara.co.uk]

      And the production version [mateengreenway.com]
      • So you're trying to tell me that, in the Kaled language, "exterminate" and "destroy" translate as "right" and "left"?

  • Over-hyped? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Jaqenn (996058) on Thursday September 06 2007, @06:06PM (#20500847)
    If it's eavesdropping on the signals sent to your larynx, does that mean that you can't talk and drive at the same time?

    Does it mean that saying "I left my keys at home" while driving on the sidewalk is going to send you hurtling into traffic?
  • We've had those at the academy forever! I don't know where Prof. Xavier got his, but he's always zooming around the hallways, honking and yelling at us "whippersnappers" to get out of the way.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Davros, is that you?

  • What about the mouth? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zouden (232738) on Thursday September 06 2007, @06:07PM (#20500861)
    Surely the mouth and tongue are also required for speech. How much information can you convey using just your larynx?
    • Not to be rude, but how is this insightful? The throat and mouth follow the commands of the brain, therefore unless they have independent intelligence they would not add any additional information.
      • The deal with this device is that it is intercepting the nerves that go to the larynx (from what I can tell from the article). I don't think that's much more than one channel.

        Consider what your feet and hands do with driving. It's generally easier to control something with a bunch of different channels available to yourself, and you get more bandwidth. Kind of like hunting and pecking versus touch typing. Or playing an FPS with just the keyboard compared to mouse + keyboard. The brain will use as many chan

    • How much information can you convey using just your larynx?
      hwt ah bt, uhctully.

    • Re:What about the mouth? (Score:4, Informative)

      by greg_barton (5551) * <{greg_barton} {at} {yahoo.com}> on Thursday September 06 2007, @10:47PM (#20503249) Homepage Journal

      How much information can you convey using just your larynx?

      Well, how much information do you really need to drive a wheelchair?

      Rotate left
      Rotate right
      forward
      stop current action

      Not much. I'm sure there are four discernible signals to the larynx, probably more. Just a quick guess, but you could probably detect the following sequences of long/short "uh" sounds:

      short short (uh uh)
      short long (uh uuuuh)
      long short (uuuuh uh)
      long long (uuuuh uuuuh)

      There's four signals.

  • Steven Hawking is getting for xmas...

  • Li'l Abner covered this (sort of) (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.lil-abner.com/ [lil-abner.com]

    Al Capp was always sending up the captains of industry. He dreamed up the Shmoos who could solve all the problems of humanity. Naturally, the captains of industry spent a lot of time making sure the Shmoos didn't proliferate.

    In one of the story lines an inventor came up with a car that needed no fuel, it was powered by the heartbeat of its driver. The captains of industry lured him up to the 100th floor of a building to demonstrate his (small) vehicle. As he was driving it down

  • Only Catch (Score:4, Funny)

    by aztec rain god (827341) on Thursday September 06 2007, @06:38PM (#20501209)
    You have to think in Russian!
  • It would be fun watching someones multiple personalities fight over the control.

  • Audeo (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SparhawkA (608965) on Thursday September 06 2007, @06:54PM (#20501377)
    For another cool demo of the Audeo and how it was developed, you can watch a 5-minute video here:
    http://www.ni.com/niweek/keynote_videos.htm [ni.com]

    It's under "Tuesday" -- the last topic titled "Algorithm Engineering, Michael Callahan, Thomas Coleman"

    Enjoy!
  • So now when somebody 'thinks' about driving suicidal ...
  • I always wonder whether embedding a glucose powered computer of some description into a new-born baby's brain would give them super math ability.. if you can fit a wireless connection in there too, that'd be nice.

    I guess there's no ethical way to do it though.
    • Wireless my ass. I've often voiced support for leash-laws on the little turds. I think it'd be much more effective for the little brat to discover that running off would mean having his USB cord pulled out, thus disabling all the drivers for his legs causing the kid to fall on his face.
  • Now if they would build that automatic spring puncher thing and the rotor blades like they had for Hawkings in the Simpsons...
  • ... a hill? Think "I think I can, I think I can!"
  • How long before we have a thought-controlled speech synthesiser?
  • And I had another idea. What happens when somebody who is in a thought-controlled wheelchair falls asleep and dreams about a wheelchair race or being chased in his chair? That could be dangerous.

    • Re:It's fo real (Score:5, Interesting)

      by greg_barton (5551) * <{greg_barton} {at} {yahoo.com}> on Thursday September 06 2007, @10:01PM (#20502897) Homepage Journal

      How long until the NSA makes us all wear one?

      For a short time in college I was on a research team looking into this kind of stuff. (Way back in '93, this was) The electrical impulses that are meant for your vocal chords, but are suppressed because you don't want to (or can't) speak are called "covert oral behavior." Anyway, even back then, we were working on training up neural networks to translate the signals into words/phonemes. I'm sure the technology has come a long way since then.

      Right around 9/11 and the whole Gitmo thing I started thinking, "I'll bet covert oral behavior detection is being used to interrogate prisoners." The thing is, the signals "leak" down your nerves when you only think words, but don't say them. The trick is being able to interpret them and translate them to words. Not easy by any stretch, but once successful it would be the closest thing to ESP around.

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