utter tetraplegia : In many ways , it is the worst potential medical diagnosis , little of close at hand end . Total physical paralysis from the neck down can result from spinal electric cord injuries or diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ( also known as Lou Gehrig ’s disease ) . Sufferers become altogether subordinate upon others , but they often sense isolated because they have lost the ability to talk . Most of us take for granted the power to walk from one elbow room to another , but for the severely handicapped , even this common action postulate assistance from someone else .
Imagine , then , that a completely paralyzed soul could control a mechanise wheelchair just by think about it . By go around damaged face , such a gimmick could open many doors to independence for handicapped people . In this article , we ’ll study a company that is working to make that " what if " into reality . We ’ll also feel out how the same technology could mend language to people unable to utter .
Whenever you perform a strong-arm action , neurons in yourbraingenerate arcminute electric signaling . These signals move from the brain and travel along axons and dendrite , give through your uneasy system . When they progress to the correct expanse of the physical structure , motor neurons trigger the necessary muscles to complete the action .
Almost every signal overtake through the megabucks of boldness inside the spinal electric cord before go on to other parts of the consistence . When the spinal corduroy is hard damaged or cut , the break in the anxious system prevents the signaling from getting where they postulate to be . In the case of neuromuscular disease , the motor neuron stop functioning – the signals are still being sent , but there ’s no way of life for the body to interpret them into actual muscle action .
How can we empty the problem of a faulty skittish organisation ? One way is to intercept signals from the brain before they are interrupted by a break in the spinal electric cord or degenerated neurons . This is the solution that the cerebration - command wheelchair will put to practice .
Ambient Audeo System
Michael Callahan and Thomas Coleman ground Ambient , the company that develop and markets the Audeo system . Audeo was initially envisioned as a style for severely handicapped hoi polloi to transmit , but Ambient expanded the control systems to admit the power to control a wheelchair or interact with acomputer .
The Audeo is based on the idea that neurologic signaling send from thebrainto the throat domain to lead up speech still get there even if the spinal cord is damage or the motor nerve cell and brawniness in the pharynx no longer crop properly . Thus , even if you ca n’t take form intelligible words , neurological signals that map the specify language subsist . This is know assubvocal speech . Everyone performs subvocal speech – if you think a word or sentence without say it out loud , your Einstein still broadcast the signal to your mouth and throat .
A lightweight receiver on the theme ’s cervix ( a small array of sensors attached near the Adam ’s apple area ) intercepts these signals . It functions much like anelectroencephalogram , a gadget that can pick up neurological signaling when commit on a subject ’s scalp . The Audeo experience specific spoken communication - associate signals because it is placed at once on the neck and throat surface area . The sensors in the receiver observe the diminutive electrical potential difference that represent neurological activity . It then write in code those signals before sending them wirelessly to a computer . The computer process the signals and interprets what the user destine to say or do . The computer then sends command signals to the wheelchair or to a voice mainframe .
Here is an example of the Audeo arrangement in action : You desire to say , " Hello , how are you ? " and say it silently in your mind . Your brain sends signals to the motor neurons in your mouth and pharynx . The signal are the same as the unity that would be sent if you had really state it out aloud . The Audeo receiver placed on your pharynx registers the sign and sends them to the computer . The computer have it away the sign for unlike parole and phonemes ( lowly units of spoken speech ) , so it interpret the signals and process them into a time . It works in much the same way asvoice - recognitionsoftware . The computer finish the cognitive process by send out an electronic signal to a curing of loudspeaker system . The speakers then " say " the musical phrase .
If you want to control a wheelchair , the mental process is standardized , except you learn certain subvocal phrases that the data processor interprets as mastery commands rather than spoken words . The user thinks , " forward , " and the Audeo process that signal as a bidding to move the wheelchair onwards .
Audeo employ a National Instruments CompactRIO comptroller to collect the data come from the sensor . Embedded software known as LabVIEW then crunches the numbers and converts the signals into ascendence social function , such as synthesized words or wheelchair controls . Ambient has develop the communicating aspect of Audeo to the spot that users can make continuous speech , rather than talk on word at a prison term [ source : Ambient ] .
NASA’s Subvocal Speech Research
NASA is develop subvocal control for likely usage by astronaut . Astronautson spacewalk or in the International Space Station work in noisy environment doing jobs that often do n’t leave their hand devoid to controlcomputersystems . Voice - recognitionprograms do n’t work well in these situations because all the setting noise makes vocalization commands difficult to understand . NASA hopes the use of subvocal signaling will circumvent this problem .
While NASA ’s organisation could also be extremely good for disabled multitude , it has other applications in mind , admit the power to speak wordlessly on acell phoneand consumption in military or security operations where speaking out loud would be troubled .
NASA ’s subvocal scheme postulate two sensor bond to the user ’s neck , and the organisation has to be develop to recognize a exceptional substance abuser ’s subvocal speech convention . It take about an time of day of work to train six to 10 words , and the system as of 2006 was limited to 25 intelligence and 38 phonemes [ source : TFOT ] .
In an early experimentation , NASA ’s organisation achieved in high spirits than 90 percent accuracy after " train " the software package . The organization keep in line a Web internet browser and did a Google lookup for the term " NASA " [ source : NASA ] .
When Will They Be Available?
You wo n’t find opinion - controlled wheelchair or other devices at your local electronics memory board – yet . Ambient has a way for potential users to get hold of the company , but no pricing or handiness entropy was forthcoming ( Ambient did n’t respond to requests for information ) .
In an audience with the WWW site " The Future of thing , " Dr. Chuck Jorgensen , chief scientist for neuroengineering at NASA Ames Research Center , claimed that commercial-grade applications of subvocal mastery technology were two to four years in the hereafter [ beginning : TFOT ] .
To learn more about sentiment - controlled wheelchairs and subvocal actor’s line , check out the links on the next page .
