Those paralyzed from the neck down have a limited number of options to control their wheelchairs, each of which has its downside. Joysticks positioned next to the chin are cumbersome to use, often resulting in jerky movement of the wheelchair. Blow tubes get in the way and make talking difficult while being a somewhat unnatural way of controlling anything at all. There are even devices that use a magnet attached to the tongue as a joystick.
Márton Juhász and Now Technologies, a firm out of Hungary, have developed the GyroSet, an Android tablet-powered system that allows a person to use his head to guide the wheelchair’s movements. A headset is worn that constantly detects the position of the head, sending the data to a tablet that interprets the movements and sends signals to the electric wheelchair. The system is cheap to implement and removes the annoying joystick from the front of the face, giving a bit of liberation for the severely disabled.
Here’s Márton Juhász demonstrating the GyroSet:
Device info page: GyroSet…