Eye-guided wheelchair: Will stop when your eyes close; Bhopal engineering students made it
Mehar, an IISER Bhopal fourth-year electrical engineering student, and his friend Abhishek Das have also created a wheelchair of this kind. For the past two years, they have both been researching this smart wheelchair. His project is called the I-Gauge Control Wheel Chair. Check out this wheelchair's eye signal operation. According to Abhishek Das, the wheelchair will hit the shelves in a year.
The concept involved creating a wheelchair that runs on brain waves.
Mehar states that our initial goal was to design a wheelchair that a user could operate with only their thoughts. Although work on this project had also begun, the sensor was detecting a wide variety of brain waves.
As a result, the AI software was unable to obtain the precise data required to issue commands. In reality, an external electronic chip was inserted in the upper portion of the skull to record brain waves, but precise data was not obtained because of external waves. Three months into our research, we decided against it.
The assistant professor, Dr. Suresh Raina, who is supervising Abhishek and Mehar's research, claims that the wheelchair will function by using the pupil movements of the eyes.
Individuals with lower-limb disabilities use their hands to push a standard wheelchair, which strengthens their shoulder muscles. Force is present.
Even those who are paralyzed are unable to perform this. At home, they are also dependent on others, which causes problems for their family members.
We made the decision to construct a model where the wheelchair could be moved to any location with an iris-based gesture. According to Dr. Raina, both hardware and software development were started on this project. developed software that can perform actions such as walking, halting, reversing direction, rotating 360 degrees, and executing eye-pupil gesture commands.
Wheelchairs are also capable of detecting impending obstacles.
According to Dr. Raina, this wheelchair has a system in place that uses sensors to identify obstacles. For instance, this system will automatically stop the wheelchair at a safe distance if a person, set of stairs, pit, or other household object approaches from ahead.
As a result, the disabled person avoids becoming an accident victim. According to Dr. Raina, stopping the wheelchair on a slope is also a significant challenge, but we have also discovered a solution for this issue. This prevents the wheelchair from traveling faster and prevents accidents.
Voice control: According to Dr. Raina, you can also operate it with a smartphone app and voice commands. This technology is relatively simple to set up, despite the fact that many entrepreneurs have worked on it. People with disabilities can operate it even by speaking, thanks to this feature.
Additionally, a smartphone app can be used to control a wheelchair. This implies that even when a family member is far away, they can still support one another via the app. Real-time data is also visible with this.
With just one charge, it can travel fifteen kilometers.
We used a 250-watt motor in this wheelchair, says Abhishek. Depending on the disabled person's weight and needs, this can be done up to 500 watts. It can travel up to 15 kilometers after charging. In that case, it will be fairly inexpensive.
Wearing a cap will enable the person seated in a wheelchair to communicate with the device and give commands. We'll also bring it in glasses later.
Wheelchairs with joy sticks are pricey. According to Abhishek, the most advanced models currently on the market range in price from Rs 40,000 to Rs 3 lakh. A wheelchair with additional features can cost up to Rs 5 lakh. The average person's budget does not allow them to purchase such an expensive wheelchair; instead, they must use wheelchairs with standard wheels. Our goal was to develop a smart wheelchair that would improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.