The Technograph

Many, if not most, students hear BMI and run off to the gym to improve this all-important number. However, for neuroengineers, BMI does not necessarily mean body mass index as much as it will trigger thoughts on brain-machine interfaces, or direct communication between one’s mind and a device. While these are coming up more often in commercial use for games and other entertainment, mind-controlled objects are immensely useful in rehabilitation applications.

Todd Coleman, electrical engineer, Tim Bretl, aerospace engineer, and Ed Maclin, psychology, are bringing their own field-specific insights together to improve BMI’s through work with graduate (and some undergraduate) students in the NeuroEngineering IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program) program. By wearing a cap with sensors, researchers can use electroencephalography, or EEG, to link electrical signals in the brain with the various commands of the person wearing the device. This gives the user the ability to control the device using only his or her mind.

Coleman explains that the signals sent to the sensors in the cap change as the intent of the person trying to use the device changes; this is what eventually tells the machine what to do. According to the group’s website (www.IGERT.Beckman.Illinois.edu), their designs, which do not require surgery or implants of any kind, “have demonstrated 80% improvement over previous techniques in multiple settings.” By continuing this kind of work, there may be no end to what researchers may accomplish.

Some have already begun to achieve what may have at one time seemed impossible. One company founded by University of Illinois alum Mike Callahan and his co-founder Thomas Coleman works with this sort of BMI to create voice programs for those who have lost the ability to speak. On top of this, the company has successfully built a mind-controlled wheelchair: without physically moving at all, the occupant of this chair can navigate their environment with ease. In a demonstration video on the company website ( HYPERLINK "http://" www.TheAudeo.com), Callahan explains that the chair uses a sensor attached to the larynx to receive signals from the brain which then are sent to a computer set in the back of the chair.

The uses for this research are infinitely valuable to those who have disabilities that impair their fine motor skills. Without the need to manipulate small controls, moving around home and work environments becomes much more feasible. With mind-controlled technologies, things that once were seen as silly dreams may soon become realities.

Tagged with: bmi, todd coleman, bretl, maclin, igert, beckman, mind control