Students of the Technological Institute of Celaya developed a wheelchair that can be directed by electrical brain signals.

To do this, the young students developed an algorithm that interprets brain electrical signals received through a headband with sensor placed on the head of the wheelchair user. A microcontroller interprets the electro-encephalographic signs to activate the motors that allow the movement of the wheelchair.

The project called “Brain-computer interface for wheelchairs”, won the ViveconCiencia (LivewithScience) contest, organized by 23 institutions and coordinated by the Scientific and Technological Advisory Forum. The students of the Celaya Institute of Technology, Eber Garduño López, Mariel Saraí García Hernández and Oscar Cantera Cantera won in the area of “Public Health”.

The prototype only works in a state of deep concentration. According with Garduño Lopez, the patient needs to be relaxed and concentrated to be able to generate a continuous movement in the wheelchair. So, he explained, the user needs training and practice to use the headband, because it is like a muscle, exercising would help you reach more advance levels.

According to the young scientists, the challenge is to make as affordable as possible, since electric chairs controlled by (joystick) cost about 35,000 thousand pesos (US$  1,636) and chair controlled with the mind are not yet commercialized.

“At the beginning of the research project, which took more than a year, it was thought to use a headband of electrodes with a cost of around 16,000 pesos. When we realized the price was still too high, we did some improvements and obtain a new headband that would have a cost of 2,500 pesos, which would represent a significant improvement, since the cost of the wheelchair would be reduced to less than a half, and more people would have enough resources to acquire it,” said Cantera Cantera.

The students will present their innovation as their final project to receive their degrees. However, they plan to continue working in the project; and they will invest the prize of 50,000 pesos to improve their innovation.

 

Source: Agencia ID