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Toyota Demonstrates Brain Control of Wheelchair

Posted by kdawson on from the left-no-left-dammit-left-puff-crash dept.

An anonymous reader tips us that researchers at Toyota have developed a brain-machine interface system that allows for control of a wheelchair using thought. The system processes brain thought patterns (such as the thought of moving one's left foot) and can turn them into left, right, and forward movements of the wheelchair with a delay as short as one-eighth of a second. That's a big improvement over existing systems, which can take as long as several seconds to analyze and react to the user's thoughts. "The system has an emergency stop that can be activated by the user puffing his cheeks. The BMI adjusts itself over time to the characteristics of each driver's brainwaves. If a person dedicates three hours a day to using the system, the BMI can reach 95% accuracy in a week, researchers said."

36 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. I want to see.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    .. Jeremy Clarkson sit in one.

    1. Re:I want to see.. by beav007 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This has already been demoed by James May on "James May's Big Ideas", some 8-10 months ago...

  2. 95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But hitting that wall or doorjamb the other 5% of the time really sucks.

    1. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by fractoid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was going to say just this. 95% sounds good until you start thinking about it - but that means that in every hour of usage, the chair is going to spend three full minutes misbehaving. I can't find exact statistics or standards for conventional electric wheelchairs but I'd be amazed if the mean time before failure is measured in minutes rather than months or years.

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    2. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by Bob9113 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I was going to say just this. 95% sounds good until you start thinking about it - but that means that in every hour of usage, the chair is going to spend three full minutes misbehaving.

      OK, sure, but answer this: When you go out for an hour walk, do you ever stumble or overbalance? Sure, the wheelchair isn't perfect -- but neither are we.

      Three minutes? I'd guess this thing is about as effective at understanding the brain's motive commands as an average six year old. That's pretty good.

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    3. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I was going to say just this. 95% sounds good until you start thinking about it - but that means that in every hour of usage, the chair is going to spend three full minutes misbehaving. I can't find exact statistics or standards for conventional electric wheelchairs but I'd be amazed if the mean time before failure is measured in minutes rather than months or years."

      Depends how you define "failure". For the type of patient that need this interface the existing interface methods would have up to a 100% failue rate simply because their disability prevents them from using it with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

      --
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    4. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by pinkushun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's 95% more than any paralyzed person can move. I'm sure this figure will improve too!

    5. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by Techman83 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but I'm envious of a 95% accuracy, if I could get that whilst walking, I'd be a less bruised man.

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    6. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by nacturation · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I was going to say just this. 95% sounds good until you start thinking about it - but that means that in every hour of usage, the chair is going to spend three full minutes misbehaving.

      Depends on how it fails for that 5%. If 95% of the time, it understands and executes the command perfectly, but the other 5% of the time, it doesn't understand and thus executes no command, then that's pretty good.

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    7. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The statement was "If a person dedicates three hours a day to using the system, the BMI can reach 95% accuracy in a week", they didn't say that 95% was the highest accuracy one could obtain. After a full month of usage, you could find yourself at decimal point level inaccuracy.

    8. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by skaet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Additionally, which 5% are we talking about? Does it fail every 57min for 3min reliably? Every 19min for 60sec? Every minute for 3sec? Or every 10sec for half a second?

      Breaking it down like that and what do you get? A very small delay between reaction times every few seconds. Perhaps not even a noticeable delay since their optimal response time is 0.125sec

      --
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    9. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by BrightSpark · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The human being has a built in risk management system. I wouldn't like the 5% failure to happen say at the train platform or near a road crossing. We take special care and do a lot of subconscious checking in more dangerous situations. True we are not foolproof, but we have a lifetime of reasoning to fall back on. The wheelchair system is a bit like a child. Kids need extra help in similar conditions becasue their peripheral vision is not great, their sense of risk and reasoning is still developing. I'm sure these wheelchair owners would be making the same calls about some overide intervention at high risk times. Good idea though. I'd sure hate it if I were stuck in a wheelchair.

    10. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by Crazyswedishguy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Granted, 95% accuracy isn't amazing, especially in situations where you can't afford to make a mistake. This being said, I'm pretty sure that such a sophisticated device could easily implement some collision/stair avoidance (for instance).

      I know I've tried putting my roomba on top of a table (or tried to make it go off the stairs), but it just stops when it gets to an edge. It also stops when its bumpers hit a wall, by the way. I don't know how much this wheelchair would cost, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could add the cost of a couple roombas without making a significant dent in the price.

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    11. Re:95% accuracy is pretty awesome. by arb+phd+slp · · Score: 2

      But hitting that wall or doorjamb the other 5% of the time really sucks.

      I have a colleague with cerebral palsy who uses a powered wheelchair and she accidentally bumps doorjambs and corners of tables all the time. I don't know if it is 5% of the time, but there's not a whole lot of paint on the the door casings in our lab. It's actually not that big a deal because she is completely surrounded by the chair so it's pretty hard for her to get hurt. And she doesn't, you know, go right up to the edge of staircases or train platforms or anything.
      I'm sure that they are working on that remaining 5% error.

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  3. Thought / Action Barrier by wasabu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Uhmm.. what happens if you can't stop thinking about moving?

    1. Re:Thought / Action Barrier by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's a difference for most of us between thinking ABOUT moving our foot and thinking TO move our foot.

    2. Re:Thought / Action Barrier by codeButcher · · Score: 4, Funny

      There's a difference for most of us between thinking ABOUT moving our foot and thinking TO move our foot.

      You've got that spot on. I spend a lot of time thinking about moving my butt out of bed. Especially now that it's winter here in the southern hemi.

      --
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  4. Captain Pike calling... by iluvcapra · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, the wheelchair can read minds, but can it flash a light to indicate "yes" or "no"?

    --
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    1. Re:Captain Pike calling... by arb+phd+slp · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You don't need a "no" response, actually. You can communicate quite well with just a "Yes". (Here is where I explain all of the humor out of the Capt. Pike joke.) The computer can automatically scan through a series of options and the user can activate when it gets to the option he or she wants. If no response, it simply assumes No and moves on.

      If you want to see examples of this system at work, check out Jean-Dominique Bauby's system in the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, where it scans the letters of the alphabet in order of frequency (in French in his case).

      Stephen Hawking uses a row-column system that scans through dictionaries of whole words large blocks at a time, each selection narrowing down the options to the word, so that he only has to resort to spelling things out for infrequently occurring words.

      --
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  5. Wheeee! by powerslave12r · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can't wait to hook it up to a Wii and play some racing games.

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  6. Here they are.. by Cyrcyr · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new brain controlling wheelchair overlords.

  7. That's nearly perfect. by zip0nada · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Oh, good, I stand a relatively good chance of being able to stop myself before rolling into traffic. Although, to be fair, I'd much rather face a 5% error rate than have no control at all. Not to mention that's only one week of training.

    1. Re:That's nearly perfect. by JanneM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Oh, good, I stand a relatively good chance of being able to stop myself before rolling into traffic."

      Which is why the brake is controlled with the breathing tube.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  8. It's called the Audeo by Ossk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This was done a few years ago in a different way: you wear an electronic collar which eavesdrops on the nerves running to your vocal chords. These signals are then decoded into words. Finally, some words, like "forward", are interpreted as intentions to move. The system is called the Audeo.

    Official site: http://www.theaudeo.com/
    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQv61899HE
    Article: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/6130

    1. Re:It's called the Audeo by Patrik_AKA_RedX · · Score: 2, Funny

      Finally, some words, like "forward", are interpreted as intentions to move.

      I can imagine how this could be very entertaining to see in action. Imagine someone on a stage giving a speech in one of these. "...these figures show clearly, we should move forward AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaah" CRASH.

  9. Re:For those who RTFA: Though-Controlled Robot!! by BluBrick · · Score: 3, Funny

    Direct brain interfaced control of a robot? meh.
    Direct brain interfaced control by a robot? Now THAT's interesting!


    (I, for one...)

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  10. Re:95% accuracy probably not good enough by Korin43 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That seems to be why there's an emergency stop built in..

  11. It must be said... by hyades1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    This technological advance screams out to be mounted on a mobile beer fridge. Far more convenient than waiting for a buddy to finish his pint, then using that time-worn phrase, "While you're up..."

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  12. meh.. post some decent articles kdawson by nawcom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Okay, i'll look like some troll already mods, but give me a second.

    I just feel that this is just another promo ad that gets sent to tech sites from some publicists to get the title of the technology spread with their name on it.

    this article, (06/29/2009)
    Brain controlled wheelchair developed at University of South Florida (02/11/2009)
    from European scientists, Brain Controlled Wheelchair (05/11/2008)
    Ambient Tech creates brain controlled wheelchair (09/06/2007)
    Brain controlled wheelchair from spanish inventor (01/29/2007)
    University of Electro Communications in Japan develop brain controlled wheelchair (08/11/2006)

    Yeah I'll stop. Mod me down. I just think it's odd that this stuff gets press like it's something brand new. Perhaps sell us by saying its much better? Something. Please.

  13. Re:Gah... brains are meant to be good at learning by nacturation · · Score: 4, Funny

    FWIW, my own idea of how to do this would be to put a few small electrodes into a person's lower arm, far away from the brain (and have a sensitive meter to detect nerve firings).

    Why not just put the electrodes into the person's feet? Then when they're walking along, the wheelchair can just follow a few paces behind them. That way, if they ever find themselves paralyzed and unable to send nerve firings to their feet, they'll find it rather convenient to have a wheelchair available.

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  14. Advertisements by FishTankX · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am professor Xavier. And I approve this wheelchair.

  15. Super balmer by arndawg · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can see it now. Balmer hooked up to an army of wheel chairs throwing themselves at you.

  16. Stephen Hawking by PlantPerson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is slightly off topic, but I hope this technology develops fast enough to get Stephen Hawking some great things before he dies. I'd love to see him given something that would allow him to type letters just by thinking of them.

  17. Just Askin' by BigBlueOx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Toyota researchers in Japan have built a brain/machine interface (BMI)...

    Is it an EVIL brain/machine interface?

    ... that has been demonstrated to control a wheelchair ...

    Is it an EVIL wheelchair?

    ...using a person's thoughts.

    Are they EVIL thoughts?

  18. Re:BMI... by mcvos · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anyone got a creative alternate title?

    Brain Control Interface? Mind Control Interface?

    That sounds like I'm gonna need a tinfoil hat.

  19. This Article Should Be Called... by manoftin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... the future of gaming. We will look back at these stories and realise this was where it all started...