Toyota Develops Thought-controlled Wheelchair
Posted on July 1, 2009 Comments (8)
Toyota has developed a thought-controlled wheelchair (along with Japanese government research institute, RIKEN, and Genesis Research Institute). Honda has also developed a system that allows a person to control a robot through thoughts. Both companies continue to invest in innovation and science and engineering. The story of a bad economy and bad sales for a year or two is what you read in most newspapers. The story of why Toyota and Honda will be dominant companies 20 years from now is their superior management and focus on long term success instead of short term quarterly results.
The BSI-Toyota Collaboration Center, has succeeded in developing a system which utilizes one of the fastest technologies in the world, controlling a wheelchair using brain waves in as little as 125 milliseconds (one millisecond, or ms, is equal to 1/1000 seconds.
Plans are underway to utilize this technology in a wide range of applications centered on medicine and nursing care management. R&D under consideration includes increasing the number of commands given and developing more efficient dry electrodes. So far the research has centered on brain waves related to imaginary hand and foot control. However, through further measurement and analysis it is anticipated that this system may be applied to other types of brain waves generated by various mental states and emotions.
Related: Honda’s Robolegs Help People Walk – Real-time control of wheelchairs with brain waves – Toyota Winglet, Personal Transportation – Toyota Robots – More on Non-Auto Toyota – Honda has Never had Layoffs and has been Profitable Every Year
Categories: Engineering, Products, Research, Robots, Science, Students, Technology
Tags: cool, Engineering, human health, innovation, invention, Japan, management, Products, Robots
8 Responses to “Toyota Develops Thought-controlled Wheelchair”
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July 3rd, 2009 @ 1:13 am
Oh this is great. But i think robots can never be too reliable
Cos we might encounter technical problems with this robots and might
be malfunctioning.
July 12th, 2009 @ 1:18 pm
[…] (Via Curious Cat Science) […]
October 27th, 2009 @ 8:16 am
A UW-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student, Wilson is among a growing group of researchers worldwide who aim to perfect a communication system for users whose bodies do not work, but whose brains function normally…
May 5th, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
In this study, we conduct simulations with the help of a simulated system of foraging robots to manipulate the costs and benefits of altruism and determine the conditions under which altruism evolves…
October 7th, 2011 @ 4:13 am
[…] which is actually making great progress in the real world (cool). And a few years ago I wrote about Toyota’s wheelchair you control with your mind. Now Nissan is looking at cars that you drive aided by accessing brain […]
June 24th, 2015 @ 8:10 am
[…] allows them resources to do interesting research). Some past posts on their engineering exploits: Toyota Develops Thought-controlled Wheelchair (2009), Toyota Engineering Development Process, Innovation at Toyota, How to Develop Products like Toyota, […]
September 24th, 2015 @ 2:04 pm
This is really amazing. Too bad the users have to shave their heads to drive. But I guess this is not your priority one problem if you are in a wheelchair.
April 12th, 2017 @ 12:49 pm
[…] in Japan previously, on this management blog and also my partner Curious Cat Engineering blog: Toyota Develops Thought-controlled Wheelchair (2012), Toyota’s Partner Robot (2007), Toyota Human Support Robot (2012) and Pepper, A Social Robot from […]