
The good people over at MIT never fail to amaze us as their researchers are designing a wheelchair that responds to verbal commands and remembers how to get to and from various places. On the outside, it uses GPS to navigate you around. But on the inside, the GPS doesn’t work very smoothly so the researchers are investigating positioning schemes using WiFi, cameras, and laser rangefinders. They’re currently testing a prototype in a Boston nursing home.
So basically this is the greatest thing ever for those in a wheelchair because the voice recognizer will understand phrases of direction, such as “head to the kitchen,” and it would take on the burden of navigating the halls while letting the rider just chill. ANd if that wasn’t enough, the researchers are implementing a system that can learn and adapt to an individual user, and in the future, they’d like to add in a collision-avoidance system and mechanical arms to help patients lift and move objects.
I just wonder if a person who doesn’t need a wheelchair can snag one of these cause it beats the hell out of a Segway.
Tags: MIT, robot wheelchair, worldgaming