|
|
 |
 |
Turning Thoughts Into Actions
Can you imagine a computer reading a person's mind? Incredible as it sounds that may soon be true. A new invention for guiding a wheelchair turns thoughts into actions. The device uses a neckband and some sensors to read signals that are sent from the brain and then tells the wheelchair where to go.
The invention is called the Audeo, and it also helps people with diseases that make them unable to talk. Here's how it works. Whenever you speak, your brain sends electrical signals that tell your larynx, or voice box, in your throat how to move. Using your larynx you make the words that people hear.
Some people can't talk because they can't control the muscles that move their larynx. Even so, their brains still send the electrical signals. The Audeo reads those signals and tells a computer to sound out the words which tell the wheelchair to go forward, back, left or right.
There are still some problems with the invention. The computer needs time to understand people's signals. Even then, it only gets the words right 70 percent of the time. It will be a few years before the invention is ready to help people who need it. But it's exciting to think that one day disabled people will be able to move around and communicate in ways they never could before.
I'm Isaac and that's what happened in technology this week.
Photo: Ambient
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
