By properly inhaling and exhaling through the nose, completely paralyzed people could write on a computer, use the Internet or drive a wheelchair, says New Scientist.
Noam Sobel, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, connected sensors to a nasal tube to record the movement of air being drawn in and out through the nose. As he noted, precise control over the movement of air in the nose is maintained despite serious injuries.
In this way, you can both operate a properly programmed computer and steer the drive of the wheelchair. In the case of a computer, you can stop the scrolling options on the screen with a single movement of the air in the nose, steering the wheelchair requires more complex codes to prevent accidental activation of the wheelchair.
So far, two out of three completely paralyzed people have been able to write letters after a short training. For 11 people with quadriplegia, they all learned to write emails and surf the internet.
The nose-steered system is considerably cheaper than current eye-movement methods. The technology could also be useful for non-disabled people, giving surgeons, for example, a third hand. (PAP)