Driving a Wheelchair with Your Shirt
From: Technology Review - 11/20/2006
By: Emily Singer

Scientists at Northwestern University are creating a garment with built in
sensors that can adapt to the way of quadriplegics, rather than previous
systems that required patients to "fit the capacity of the machines," says
Alon Fishbach, who works on the project. Control mechanisms currently used by
quadriplegics include the sip/puff switch, which only allows two commands,
and a headswitch that registers head movements against the back of the chair,
but the Northwestern team's system is different. The shirt contains 52
flexible, piezoresistive sensors, developed at the University of Pisa, that
change voltage as a result of being stretched at different angles. An
algorithm has been developed to analyze the signals from each sensor in order
to determine a definite number of movements that are translated into movement
of the wheelchair. A virtual reality environment allows the patient to orient
himself with the controls and also suggests ways to control the wheelchair
more efficiently. The technology has been successfully tested with one
patient, who has use of his hands. Further innovations are planned to bring
this liberating technology to other aspects of life, such as video gaming. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/17803/

Links:
Alon Fishbach
http://www.smpp.northwestern.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=30