IPhone App Helps Paralyzed to Regain Mobility

A seven-member team of five students and two lecturers from the School of Engineering of Singapore's Republic Polytechnic have created an app that allows smartphones to read and interpret signals from the brain, sending and communicating movement commands to a wheelchair, which can move forward, backwards, right or left.

Users must focus on an object at a distance to propel and direct the wheelchair, which comes to a pause only when the user stops focusing.

The movement control iPhone app requires a special headset that converts brain waves to electrical signals that the iPhone can read, as well as a powered wheelchair fitted with a control box.

The entire process, from detecting the stimulation to the execution of the movement, takes about five seconds, and users must be specially trained to use the app.

The beta version of the prototype runs at approximately $5,000, but the team is hoping to bring down the cost by collaborating with industry partners, which may allow the product to come to market by the end of next year.

One issue that the developers are currently troubleshooting is the high fatigue factor that operating the wheelchair via iPhone can face. The process of focusing on an object to propel the wheelchair to move can tire users quickly, but the research team is working to solve the issue.

But while the iPhone app may still have to work out some kinks, the team at Republic Polytechnic still has created an app that will bring movement to the disabled with a combination of technology and altruism.