Eye Tracking Automatic Wheelchair Navigates With Eye Movement

Science never stops coming up with new ideas when it involves making the lives of disabled people more comfortable.

You would agree that there are several inconveniences with regular wheelchairs. One being making the life of whoever has taken the responsibility of moving the sitter around somewhat miserable. Some sitters actually move themselves around, but there is also a problem with that idea – which is that their arms and upper body would start looking over-developed and muscular after a few months, blowing their upper body out of proportion with the rest of their body.

I believe there are remote controlled wheelchairs available which is perfect for sitters who still have working arms. But what would science recommend for sitters who have lost use in both arms?

Eye tracking wheelchairs. They claim the wheelchair will turn and move to the direction you turn your eyes to.

Sounds perfect. Although I haven’t figured out how they intend this to work, considering that people move their eyes for many reasons; to observe the surrounding environment, to notice someone walking by, to grab something by the side, and so on.

The wheelchair has a pair of cameras installed on them that will study and learn your eye movements to be able to differentiate between a casual eye movement and a command eye movement (“turn here”).

The wheelchair is being developed by scientists in London and will be commercially available in less than 3 years time, hopefully.