Wheelchair control by sensor-shirt
December 14th, 2006 | by dnw |
Researchers at Northwestern University’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation have developed a high-tech fabric which promises to help wheelchair users.
Adaptive, sensor-laden garments could provide a new way for quadriplegics to control their wheelchairs. The system, which is still in an early stage of development, identifies the ideal set of movements that can be employed as control commands for each individual user.
The garment is printed with “52 flexible, piezoresistive sensors made of electroactive polymers that change voltage depending on the angle at which they are stretched.” By dynamically sensing the direction and intentions of the user, it can channel the signals to motorized chairs in order to propel the chair.
No Responses to “Wheelchair control by sensor-shirt”
By Roy Blumenthal on Dec 15, 2006 | Reply
Wow!!!! My mind goes straight into science fiction overdrive, and this is what comes out…
If the fabric can be used to control the movements of a wheelchair, it can ALSO be used to control the movements of a motorised exoskeleton.
So… we have our favourite quad clad in some futuristic kevlar clothing. His neck tenses up a little to the left, and that’s the gesture the clothing recognises as ‘get up’. And he gets up.
Heck… if the Sony Aibo robot dog can run around and catch balls and stuff, surely the same tech can be used to help quads??????
And I have to say this… it would seem to me to be an inevitable development that someone in the US miliary might jump on such a device. ‘Hey, guys, we can make our soldiers go where we want em to go! No more deserters!!! Just press this "march" button, and in they go, no questions asked.’
(On a serious note, the way to get a clothing idea like this to go from a ‘blue skies’ tech notion to something real and useful to quads IN OUR LIFETIME is to throw a military slant to it, so that real budget can be assigned. Wow!!
Blue skies
love
Roy
By Dave the Lifekludger on Dec 17, 2006 | Reply
Hey Roy. Great hearing frm you again. Certainly getting into sci-fi realms this.