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The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) today announced that it has made significant progress on a wheelchair that can be controlled using brain activity scanners.
The technology, smaller than a matchbox, identifies and classifies the user's brain signals (also called electroencephalogram (EEG) signals). This is translated into commands to control the wheelchair, which is assisted by robotics and computers.
Photo: One of the PhD students and the wheelchair. (Credit: UTS)
Currently, the team is working with Australian commercialisation company UniQuest to find a way to bring the technology to the market. According to UTS, this may be reality in three years.
Dubbed "Aviator", the technology was developed by the university's Centre for Health Technologies. The idea for the project came from Professor Hung Nguyen, who had previously developed electronic systems for the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, and is also currently the dean of UTS' Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.
"I knew it was going to be a terribly complicated concept to work on, and at the same time I knew it would be very rewarding," Nguyen said in the announcement.
Photo: One of the PhD students and the wheelchair. (Credit: UTS)
