Brain-Power Drive with Proactive Healthcare for Mobility Aids

What are you making?

Globally, about 2.5 billion people use mobility-aids like electric-wheelchairs. 44% percent of the users have severe disabilities that significantly affect their mobility and body functions. Such individuals are unable to operate the basic control of their mobility devices and thus entirely depend on their caregivers and/or health staff. I am planning to use EEG and other relevant signals to enable people suffering with severe disabilities to live a much more independent life. To be specific, this project intends to develop a device for mobility aids to enable independent mobility using the action commands signals from the user’s brain’s EEGs. The system also intends to offer constant monitoring of underlying health conditions of the users to issue alerts to the caregivers and medical staff.

How are OpenBCI tools being applied?

This project intends to create a Brain-Computer-Interface system for mobility aid for the provision of safer, independent, and customizable maneuverability solutions. In particular, the project will use the OpenBci EEG Electrode Cap Kit and Cyton Biosensing Board to read the users brain signals and determine the directions for the user intended to go. The project will use the EMOTIBIT to monitor the user’s vitals and other health related parameters to closely monitor and issue health alerts.

Why is this important?

There are multiple stakeholders that can benefit from the development of this device, namely the people with severe disabilities, healthcare system, and insurance companies. More specifically, this device will provide independence to the mobility users with physical disabilities that significantly affect their mobility and bodily functions while closely monitoring their physical wellbeing. It will also alleviate the burden on the health care staff and spending needed by the health care system for providing the appropriate care. It will also reduce the It can also greatly benefit insurance companies by financial savings in terms of lesser insurance claims regarding 24/7 need of support and personal care staff.