Toyota's mind-controlled wheelchair boast fastest brainwave analysis yet, most stylish EEG cap

Mind-controlled wheelchairs are becoming all the rage these days, but before you start letting your thoughts wander elsewhere, this latest from researchers at the Brain Science Institute (BSI) -- Toyta Collaboration Center have what they claim is a system that'll control the ride using brain waves analyzed every 125 milliseconds, which it boasts bests the competition by several seconds. Testers using the wheels and EEG cap system have achieved accuracy up to 95 percent which, as you can see in the video after the break, will make cubicle obstacle courses a challenge of the past. So what mindset do we have to be in to trigger the flames?

[Via Switched]

[darkmax @ Jun 30th 2009 3:23AM]

hmm.... let's say some techician was sleepy and in a hurry... crossed the wires on the control box..... :D

[OneLove @ Jun 30th 2009 10:18AM]

I thought he was getting his hair did.

[milleraw775 @ Jun 30th 2009 3:24AM]

Wow that's awesome, can't wait until it becomes more advanced and publicly available!

[Don @ Jun 30th 2009 7:39AM]

Macross Plus here we come!!!!

[Allister @ Jun 30th 2009 3:28AM]

Does that make this guy Professor Xavier?

[ED @ Jun 30th 2009 4:51AM]

Yes.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Jun 30th 2009 6:19AM]

ironically, once he donned the wheelchair-telepathy helmet he lost all control over his legs.

[Link2877 @ Jun 30th 2009 3:35AM]

Steven Hawking will most likely have to use something like this in the next five or ten years. :( kind of sad really

[prosportnutrition.net @ Jun 30th 2009 4:05PM]

A new high point in laziness has been achieved

[dave @ Jun 30th 2009 3:40AM]

do you have to shave your head to use it?

[Windhawk @ Jun 30th 2009 9:51AM]

No. In the video, you can see when the guy shows off the shower cap he has a full head of hair sticking out in front.

[B3astofthe3ast @ Jun 30th 2009 3:48AM]

Lets see GM develop such advanced mobility tech like that! This is true innovation, something you'll only find in the crazy world of japan.

[mocax @ Jun 30th 2009 3:50AM]

sorry, i LOLed at the url /2009/06/30/toyotas-mind-controlled-wheelchair-boast-fastest-brainwave-anal/

[benahad @ Jun 30th 2009 9:50AM]

Would never have noticed...

[pika2000 @ Jun 30th 2009 4:08AM]

Prof X: "Hey, who took my chair?!?!"

[Twitchy @ Jun 30th 2009 4:59AM]

The guy in the "Twister" cap.

[Bones3D @ Jun 30th 2009 6:36AM]

There's probably more of a Macross Plus-like angle to be feared with this thing. Imagine being near a staircase, only to have someone mention what it'd be like to take a tumble down it... followed by the chair suddenly lurching forward over the edge simply because you briefly thought about the scenario.

[fmaxwell @ Jun 30th 2009 7:36AM]

The snide remarks about the cap are really uncalled for. It's bad enough that there are paralyzed people confined to a wheelchair for life. Making fun of the appearance of something that has promise for improving their lives is really insensitive.

P.S. If you want to make some kind of dumbass remark to let everyone know that you think that empathy is for wusses, skip it.

[charliedill @ Jun 30th 2009 8:30AM]

Thanks for the adult response. The headline is juvenile as well, "stylish".

Empathy aside, I hope none of these postoids have to spend forty years in a wheelchair like my brother, Ed.

Maybe in forty more years, spinal cord injuries will be the stuff of history, what with stem cell research and electronic advances.

Until then, nice prototype, Toyota.

[crawdad689 @ Jun 30th 2009 9:49AM]

Have a nice cup of STFU, please.

Nobody's mocking the disabled. Get real. Your holier-than-thou comment is bullshit. If you don't appreciate the sarcasm/humor of Engadget's headlines, GTFO, because you're definitely in the slim minority.

[Windhawk @ Jun 30th 2009 9:54AM]

The final model will probably have user-selectable do-rag covers that fit over the cap, for personalization and customization. Customizable caps covers should expect to feature Gundam, Evengelion, and Hello Kitty themes in Japan.

[josephbloseph @ Jun 30th 2009 8:42AM]

Show me the mind-controlled jetpack, and I'll be impressed.

[Randy @ Jun 30th 2009 8:40AM]

I have to wonder, why does it matter to you that people can find humor it the cool things in life. They aren't mocking people in wheel chairs, just the silly future hats they have to wear.

[solarbuddy @ Jun 30th 2009 10:29AM]

I want one! Not the wheelchair, that is . . . but the range of do-it-yourself EEG gear on the market is remarkably small. How come you can get every kind of quack gizmo there is but nothing to explore (pause for deep-voiced announcer) . . . "the worlds within!"

[Lonegunman @ Jun 30th 2009 12:23PM]

I would check the URL created for this story.... the last word in the URL... LOL!!!

[StreamofDestiny @ Jun 30th 2009 1:08PM]

creepy

[181 @ Jun 30th 2009 1:48PM]

unfortunately, the remaining 5% of inaccuracies lead to incomprehensible pain and suffering.

[slyd3z @ Jun 30th 2009 2:08PM]

How long until there's a video of researchers drifting these chairs?

[ssjchar @ Jun 30th 2009 3:04PM]

Does toyota have a dev. team working on one of those asimo style robots? if so, connect this badboy to it and you got yourself a slow, badly coordinated single robot army!

[Wwhat @ Jun 30th 2009 7:38PM]

EEG stuff will always be limited, you can just only get very warped muffled bunched data through the skull like that, and although processing can do cool tricks it's still like listening to a conversation in an underwater dancejoint while wearing earplugs and being deaf and having a hearing implant.

[R @ Jul 1st 2009 9:31PM]

What happens when you sneeze?

[Marcus @ Aug 13th 2009 8:37AM]

This sort of technology is obviously just the start, once brainwave entrainment starts becoming more mainstream, I reckon we will see it integrated into all sorts of products.

[Marcus @ Aug 13th 2009 8:49AM]

Yeah Wwhat, you are right to an extent, though in combination with brainwave entrainment an EEG has so much more to offer.