Biometric Devices: First Eye Control and Now Sniff Control
It seems that there are many new approaches to wheelchair control popping up, using just about any bodily function imaginable. Finally, action is being taken to meet the needs of large portion of paralyzed individuals that don’t have the ability to use traditional, hand-controlled wheelchairs. We’ve heard of wheelchairs controlled with eye tracking, movement of the tongue, or by sipping or puffing on a straw, and adding to the list is a new method of sniff tracking.
That’s right. Researchers in Israel have reportedly developed an electronic controller that allows severely disabled people to control a wheelchair or computer by sniffing their nose. As we know, injuries and disease can leave people paralyzed, locked in their own bodies and fully aware without impairment of their mental capabilities. The new sniffing device takes advantage of a hypersensitive sensor that can allow people to move about or control the computer using only their nose. Sniff control makes for a whole other way of doing things. Some may find it easier, and others may have to choose it because it’s all they can do.
“It contains digital information,” says Noam Sobel, a professor of the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, home of the new research. “You have sniff onset and sniff offset, and you can sniff in and out. And it also contains analog information because you can sniff with greater or lesser magnitude, or for faster or shorter durations.” Sobel’s lab discovered that people can sniff quite quickly and accurately, and robust measurements like these produce a very rich signal.
A person can use sniff control as long as they still have control of their soft palate, the soft tissue at the back of the mouth. Oftentimes paralyzed people can control whether air flows through their nose or their mouth, and as the original article reporting the news points out, this can come easily for many users because sniffing is controlled similarly to language in the brain. With practice, a patient could control a wheelchair and talk at the same time, and it’s quite difficult to do this while using your tongue for control, for example.
It’s still agreed upon that eye trackers are best for patients that are “trapped-in,” but the sniff technology makes for an effective alternative, and through using a special mask, an individual on a respirator can open or close their soft palate to change the air pressure in the mask. Electronics can then measure the pressure change that can be used as a signal for a communication device.
Cost is another factor that makes sniff control feasible, and Sobel estimates that if the technology was mass-produced, it could be manufactured for very little money. My question is (and I’m sure I’m not the only one)…what happens when you get a cold?
Related articles:
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- Biometric Devices: When All Else Fails, Nose Goes
- Biometric Devices: Using Your Mind To Control The Screen
- Biometric Devices: Criticism Growing Against Scans in Airports
- Biometric Devices: The Story Behind Stephen Hawking’s Voice
- Biometric Devices: Ear Scanning, An Alternative in Airport Security
- Biometric Devices: Skin Based Touch Interface
- Biometric Devices: Can An Electronic Driving Coach Make Safer Roads?
- Biometric Devices: The Future of Microsoft’s Kinect and Gesture Tracking