A new social cause — Smile Mumbai — has recently been incorporated by Mission Mumbai. This cause has engineer students of Veermata Jigabai Technology Institute developing something quite extraordinary: an eye-controlled wheelchair.
Details on the Wheelchair
This eye-controlled wheelchair is being developed under Technovanza, which is an annual techno-managerial festival. This festival is scheduled to take place at the end of this year, from December 28th to December 30th.
As of now, this wheelchair is thought of to be very helpful for those people who are quadriplegic who currently use a wheelchair with a joystick, but still have to depend on others. A low-cost mobility solution for quadriplegics has been developed by building a motorized-wheelchair that can be guided by eye-to-eye movement. This has been achieved by working with the fact that the cornea of the human-eye differs in electric potential from the back of the eye. This difference can be measured by using sensitive electrodes and highly accurate instrumentation amplifiers.
In order to properly understand what specific types of wheelchair quadriplegics are using, students visited several NGOs. It was this process that helped them discover that while many happen to use a joystick wheelchair, they still have to rely on other people for assistance.
The plan for this particular wheelchair is to include safeguards so that there isn’t a risk for an accidental collision or of falling down steep slopes (i.e. staircases). As well, a variety of features offered from this chair will be displayed at the conference this month, such as: controlling switches of a fan, light, the television, and much more through the convenience of voice command.
What Are Your Thoughts?
Is this the way of the future? An eye-controlled wheelchair? Though these types of chairs may not be available in stores this Christmas, it’s still quite impressive to see how wheelchairs are progressing! What are your thoughts?
Cutter has been featured in various online magazines and print anthologies, showcasing his short stories and poems. In addition to his work as a writer, Cutter works as an actor in the San Diego area, his experience varying from local commercials to independent features. He currently works at CreativeMob as a web copywriter.
