Brainwave-based Assistive Technology In The Home

eeg_smart_house

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a debilitating disease that eventually causes the afflicted individual to lose all control of their motor functions, while leaving their mental faculties intact. Those suffering from the illness typically live for only a handful of years before succumbing to the disease. On some occasions however, patients can live for long periods after their original diagnosis, and in those cases assistive technology becomes a key component in their lives.

[Alon Bukai and Ofir Benyamin], students at Ort Hermalin Collage in Israel, have been working hard on creating an EEG-controlled smart house for ALS patients under the guidance of their advisor [Amnon Demri]. The core of their project focuses around controlling everyday household items using brainwaves. They use an Emotiv EPOC EEG headset which monitors the user’s brainwaves when focusing on several large buttons displayed on a computer screen. These buttons are mapped to different functions, ranging from turning lights on and off to changing channels on a cable box. When the user focuses on a particular task, the computer analyzes the headset’s output and relays the command to the proper device.

As of right now, the EEG-controlled home is only a project for their degree program, but we hope that their efforts help spur on further advancements in this field of research.

Continue reading to see a pair of videos demonstrating their EEG-controlled smart house in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ-mkT6qw9Y&w=470]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQrytBbSbsA&w=470]

11 thoughts on “Brainwave-based Assistive Technology In The Home

  1. Hi
    They are doing great job.
    This system is the last in a series of project we are doing an the last few years at Ort Hramlin :

    We had the speech controlled wheel chair :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDvF975JVMQ&feature=related

    the eye communication system :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8G6odSFh6I&feature=related

    and the EMG controlled prosthesis :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aOCFlLbcnY&feature=related

    This EEG system will work a month or tow an a real ALS patient house, and not only as a practical engineers project !

    Amnon – projects guide

  2. I work a lot with people with this disease. The most common solution we use are the eye tracking from tobii.. check it out at http://www.tobii.com. Great for communications and enviorment control with Gewa IR systems. Realy interesting work with the brainwaves.. Is there more details about this project exept videoes?

  3. We are going to be putting up more info on our Facebook page:
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smart-House-EEG-Project/112167752198553

    So be sure to join that if you want to find out more.

    We (The Students) are both 20 years old.

    Ladrua: We know about eye tracking. The reason this system is being built is because at a certain point even the eyes stop functioning.

    Nick: I will also email you. We use C# for almost all of the coding. We used an IR Transceiver which we bought online as well as the EPOC Helmet from Emotiv.

  4. Alon: I have a user that is getting verry tierd when using his eyes.. I think this would be great for him. I use programs like Communicator and Programsnekker for building the interfaces for them. They are both norwegian programs. http://www.tobii.no/corporate/products/communicator.aspx and http://www.abilia.no/produkter/?group=1553&prod=4087 feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I just added my self to the FB page. My name is Stian Conrad

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