I blogged about the exciting new technology of thought-powered wheelchairs a few months ago (you can read my previous blog here), and hot damn, there’s already another news story out on this very subject.
Is this a sign, being that Toyota is now all over it (with Japan itself helping front the cost of the research), that thought-powered technology is not only on the rise, but should be taken seriously as something that may be available to high quads, people with advanced Parkinson‘s, and anyone else interested in using it (Oracle from Birds of Prey) very soon?
As you can see from Hiro Nakamura pictured above (kidding. It’s an unnamed Toyota scientist), another, not to mention expensive new wheelchair, to go along with the thought-reading technology, is no longer required. All that’s required will be their skullcap, which is implanted with several brain-reading nodes, a laptop with their special software that interprets the brain waves, and of course a power wheelchair. The technology can tell when a brain wants to turn on/off the wheelchair, drive it, and turn it left or right. And the response in which the software detects the brain waves is almost instantaneous now too they’re claiming. This is a big improvement from the previous several-second-delay versions
Ever since seeing my first thought-powered wheelchair on the WB’s show Birds of Prey in 2003, and watching the futuristic paralyzed character Barbara Gordon/Oracle (who was previously known as Batgirl until The Joker paralyzed her in graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. March 1988), I’ve been insanely jealous. Watching her be able to talk with BOTH hands as she rolled down the sidewalk chatting….oh so cool. I’d love to have both hands free and drive my chair simultaneously!
I have one concern though: The skullcap. There’s no way I’m going out in public looking like a swimmer with an electrocution death wish. Can’t they come up with something less obvious? Say, nodes you can stick to your scalp (under you hair) that can be read wirelessly?
We shall see!
- Discussion on thought-controlled wheelchairs by people with disabilities
- A random non-sequitor that makes me laugh, Why Being in a Wheelchair is Like Being Paris Hilton
