BCI for patients who can't use their hands

deboragallowaydeboragalloway
edited December 2014 in General Discussion
My Mother has Lou Gehrig's Disease and is a patient with UCLA Medical Center ALS Clinic.  She cannot speak or use her hands.  We are hoping there is someone or an entity out there working on a unit with BCI Technology that she can use as a brain mouse to help her communicate. We have been trying to use eye gaze technology, but it really tires her out and we can't get it calibrated right due to interferance in her line of sight to computer "eyes" with her bipap mask getting in the way. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. 

Comments

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    Debora, hi.

    Here is a commercial system from g.tec.  It's possible that related open source projects might be out there as well, I have not looked around recently.

    http://www.intendix.com/

  • JasonJason
    edited August 2014
    Hi Debora,

    I am Jason, my wife Lisa has ALS and is 99.9% paralyzed. I bought the open BCI stuff to solve the very issue you are concerned about. In the mean time though I invented the LISA alarm and we have been using that device for several years with great success. We also have a $22,000 Dynavox that doesn't work and just collects dust, so I know exactly how you feel. 

    I have built several LISA alarms for families who have used them and continue to use them with great success. I can put my videos back up on You Tube if you are interested in viewing them. I also have posted my patent on line so others can look at it and possibly use the ideas to make a better system.

    Lisa and I are currently messing around with the Emotiv EEG headset to control the TV, iPad, computer, air condidtioner, etc, and communicate 32 messages. But frankly it does not work as good as the LISA alarm system. 

    Anyway I am working on such a device to aid my wife with the added benefit of helping others. But I don't know if I could ever make it as reliable as what was orignally given to us at birth.
  • JasonJason
    Hi Debroa,

    Sorry about the link here it is:

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    edited August 2014
    Daniel Goodwin, OpenBCI & Brainwriter,

    http://www.notimpossiblenow.com/labs/the-brainwriter#dan-brainwriter-prototype4

    http://www.notimpossiblenow.com/labs

    ---

    The official "BrainWriter" launch video from Not Impossible - featuring interviews with the BrainWriter Build Team - Javed Gangjee, David Putrino, Dan Goodwin & Sam Bergen

    http://www.notimpossiblenow.com/labs/brainwriter-official-video
  • JasonJason
    Watched the video, and as they said; one person at a time. Everyone is so different. Yep!!! that's what makes it so hard. Too make it harder, ALS victims also think different and process information different from healthy adults. But it appears they have a handle on some of the real issue's from a laboratory development environment, the rest of the known "real issues" come from living and caring for someone who has ALS. Technology results are very different  in a home vs. hospital, institution, etc. But technology's can only do the best it can, which is to say the technology is not perfect nor will it always be accurate and errors will be made. Technology inventors and creators never want to talk about how devastating an error is to a person with ALS. Which is why I bet Debora's mom doesn't use the eye-gaze tech. stuff anymore

    That's why a caregiver will always be more important than any machine, when it comes to ALS, a trained person can become intuitive to the needs of the an ALS patient by assessing the totality of what is going on, no technology can ever replace a human but technology can be used to add data to the totality of a situation. Further when I have a "conversation" with my wife, it's easy for me to understand if she made an error and she doesn't have to correct that error I can understand what she meant.


    I'd be interested to know if, a user can use the "BrainWriter" waking from a deep medicated sleep while Aspirating or suffering from a cramp, or etc.?  Hard to concentrate in a real emergency. Yep that's one of those "real world" challenges that need to be addressed with technology. But of course, I would just record such EEG and ECG patterns along with other sensor inputs, during a time of aspiration and tell the computer, if it sees those recorded "signatures" to set off an alarm.
  • deboragallowaydeboragalloway
    Thanks everyone for your input.  I've been so busy helping my elderly father care for my Mom and making sure my father has what he needs, that I haven't had time to look through all the links yet.  I will definitely do so over the next few days, and I'll likely have more questions and comments.  Thanks for what everyone has contributed so far.  We are so appreciative!  Debora
  • synjasynja
    edited November 2014
    Hello Debora,

    That's the main reason I got into EEG & EMG research; BCI with prosthetic devices.
    Each person is different, but the best systems adapt to you just as you adapt to it. That was just a matter of algorithms and logistics though.

    As for the bipap and webcam/mouse interfacing, if a program can't recognize a face, then it won't look for the eyes. I've already created a webcam/mouse interface, but I'll retrain the program for medical devices. Thanks for that thought.

    If you're still interested, PM me. I'll be active on this website for at least the next few months.
  • AustinLonghornAustinLonghorn
    edited December 2014
    Going to say +1 for the g.tec IntendiX system;  while I didn't have any luck using the system with a family member suffering from a severe traumatic brain injury, the system itself does work.  I tried it on for myself and was basically able to spell words after a short 2-3 minute training session.

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    A recent page with links to open source P300 spellers,

    http://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/206/p300-spellers-channels-openvibe-examples

    Yann Renard (OpenViBE) is finishing up their native OpenBCI driver.

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