Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The Mind as Joystick

Filed under: Rehab

Ambient, a Champaign, Illinois company, demonstrated its method for mind controlling mechanical devices at the National Instrument's NI Week in Austin. Apparently the crowd was wowed as an individual drove his wheelchair by simply saying in his head what he wants to do. Take a look at this video as an example of the Audeo device in action:

To use the system, a person wears a lightweight sensor band around the neck. The band picks up the larynx nerve signals and transmits them wirelessly to a remote computer (don't worry about "mind wiretapping" -- the transmission is encrypted.) The remote computer uses NI LabVIEW and signal processing algorithms to interpret the nerve-impulse patterns and translate them into the right commands.

The system is not plug-and-play. It does require some training until its algorithms learn to "read your mind" (accuracy is above 70 percent). But at least it doesn't require Matrix-style brain interfaces or a tangle of EEG electrodes wrapped around your head.

More at Spectrum Online from IEEE...

Keynote speaker forum videos from NI Week...

The Audeo website...

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