Don Danbrook says, "for the wheelchair, if I blow hard into it, it's going to go...if I sip lightly, it'll turn right, if I vlow lightly, it'll lightly turns right."

He may not be able to move his hands or legs, but Don Danbrook can do a lot of things using siff and puff technology. Like operating his wheelchair and using a computer. But even this type of technology has its limitations.

Danbrook, "I did a year's booking for a corporation. 700 journal entries, 50,000 mouse clicks. My jaw got so sore, couldn't open it.

Now research is moving into a new realm: using signals in the brain to control movement, in this case moving a cursor on the screen.

Bradley Oldham, SFU Biomedical Engineering Grad Student, says, "it could be something like thinking about tapping your left foot to move the cursor left...tapping right foot makes it move left."

SFU Engineering Professor, Andrew Rawicz, says, "our brain can learn to use it. You can imagine turning on the tv...changing channels using only the brain."

This is a demonstration of the technology already developed by researchers from the Neil Squire Society. Using brain signals, this high-level quadriplegic is able to navigate through a virtual maze.

Gary Birch, Neil Square Society, says, "even though they can't move their finger. They can think about moving the part, these brain signals can be used to trigger the switch."

Right now, research is still in the experimental stage, but Gary says it won't be long before a device is built so users can operate it in their home environment.

Birch says, "I can imagine controlling something like a robot to guide it through space and reach things for them."

Don's already done a lot with existing technology. He's a qualified accountant, realtor and mortgage broker. He can't even imagine what brain interfacing will enable him and others to do.

Don says, "the way tecbnology and medical technology and direction it's going these days, it seems, just about anything is possible."

As you can imagine zeroing in on the right electrical signals can be challenging, when there's a lot of "noise" or random thoughts in the brain. But so far biomedical engineers have been able to at least stop the brain from turning on a switch unintentionally. Other researchers are using magnetic fields and other brain activity for assisted devices.

Wednesday June 7, 2006