Mind Over Matter
Opening doors, turning heating up or down and switching lights on and off soon may be possible to do without moving a muscle, which comes as a blessing to those who aren’t physically able to do it for themselves. A young man called Ed Jellard, a senior inventor at IBM's Emerging Technologies Lab, is the main person behind the implementation of a headset that can read brainwaves to accomplish just such tasks. The device is black, with 14 tendrils capped with electrodes that work to read brain signals and has so far been successful in controlling model cars, light switches and televisions. In Switzerland, disabled patients are able to use the headset to control their wheelchairs and navigate robots around the house to aid them in daily tasks. In Japan they’ve developed a full body robotic suit named Hal to allow those who can’t walk to regain mobility. In both cases, the patient simply has to think about an action for the technology to make it a reality.
