New device will get you thinking
A system that can read people’s thoughts and translate them into words on a computer screen, may be used to help dementia sufferers and people with severe physical disabilities improve communication between patients, carers and their families.
The ‘Brain Speller’ headset, developed by a group of students from the University of Canberra, tunes into signals being sent from the brain using electrodes attached to the scalp.
Once the signals have been detected, a software program can translate them into words, allowing sufferers of paralysis, brain damage or dementia to communicate.
Users are given a portable computer which runs the program.
Team leader Paul Du told Nine News the group was doing some research and found the disability statistics were so vast in Australia and around the world.
“We’re excited by the opportunity to combine imagination and technology to create a product that will improve lives and genuinely help with an issue that affects so many people in this country,” Mr Du said.
The team were crowned “Team Australia” at the national finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2011 last week in Sydney for their invention.
The honour has earned the team of budding inventors a spot at the world finals in New York in July, where they will compete with 400 student finalists from around the world that have developed technology to help combat disease, poverty and child mortality.
Unfortunately we don’t have the ‘Brain Speller’ handy, so we can’t read your thoughts. So, tell us what you think of this latest device in the comment box below.
