For the Paralyzed, Sniffing is Believing

For those with “locked-in syndrome,” or complete paralysis with the mind intact, there is no describing the frustration in not being able to communicate or even control ones own wheelchair. Thanks to researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, people who have not spoken in years finally have a voice.

Like many great scientific breakthroughs, this one occurred almost by accident. Dr. Noam Sobel and his team of neuroscientist study the way the brain processes our sense of smell. Using a sniff-triggered olfactometer which produces waves of smell, Dr. Sobel  realized that “sniffs are a very good and fast trigger. It then simply dawned on us that instead of triggering odor, we could trigger anything: letters in a text writer or turns of a wheelchair.”

The “sniff detector” recognizes pressure changes in the nasal cavity, with such simple motions as breathing in or breathing out are strung together to act as commands for a computer program. For example,  two “sniff in’s” can be programmed to send a wheelchair forward; two  “sniff out’s” send the user backwards; a successive “sniff out then in” implied left; and a successive “sniff in then out” implied right. For those almost completely paralyzed, this simplicity is the key to the program’s accessibility.

The device can also be used in a similar fashion to move a mouse on a computer screen, allowing someone without any motor skills or speech to write messages to loved ones. Or they can use it to surf the web. The possibilities for this Israeli innovation are limitless.

Check out the video below for a demonstration of a “sniff control wheelchair.”

To read more, check out this article in cnet.

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