Helping people with lack of mobility to regain part of it, or that they can have a little control of their life, their movement in those circumstances, is today more feasible thanks to Wheelie 7, a kit that integrates artificial intelligence (AI ) and facial recognition and that allows the user to control their wheelchair with ten simple expressions of the face.
The National Center for Spinal Cord Injury Statistics estimates that there are approximately 288,000 people in the United States living with spinal cord injuries, and approximately 17,700 new cases each year. A 2018 study shows that physical mobility has the greatest impact on the quality of life of people with spinal cord injuries.
Mobility of people with a spinal cord injury is often enabled through caregivers or a motorized wheelchair with complex sensors attached to the body, requiring special education to operate. The HOOBOX Robotics Wheelie 7 kit uses AI and a RealSense Depth SR300 3D camera, without invasive body sensors, providing users with independence and control over their location.
The AI technology in HOOBOX Robotics Wheelie 7 is from Intel, and more than 60 people in the United States are already testing it. Most of them are quadriplegics, people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or the elderly.
“It is important to recognize the ways in which technology can help people regain mobility and control of their lives. The HOOBOX Robotics Wheelie 7 Kit is a great example of using AI to enable people with limited mobility to move with natural facial expressions , “says Anna Bethke, Intel leader in artificial intelligence for social good.
How does Wheelie 7 work? With just seven minutes to install, the Wheelie 7 kit allows users to choose from 10 facial expressions to control their motorized wheelchair: go forward, turn and stop. Instead of invasive body sensors, the Wheelie 7 uses an Intel RealSense SR300 3D depth camera mounted on the wheelchair to transmit data that algorithms process in real time to control the chair. “Given the importance of immediate responsiveness, HOOBOX uses Intel Core processors and the Intel OpenVINO Toolkit distribution to speed up facial recognition software inference,” they say at HOOBOX Robotic.
Now the only thing missing is for Intel and HOOBOX Robotic to bring the technology to Europe so that the thousands of people in the old continent with spinal cord injuries or lack of mobility can also take advantage of the advantages that artificial intelligence provides to have a better quality of lifetime.
