There's a new car in town. Just think about no-hands and no-feet kind of driving, Huffington Post reports.
This is the first car from China that only uses the brain power to move the vehicle. It is the first time that a mind-controlled car was put into reality by a couple of researchers from the city of Tianjin.
The research team which is from Nankai University, said that they spent about two years in developing the mind-controlled car.
How to operate the car is really simple. The driver only has to wear brain signal-reading equipment. Without using hands or feet, the driver can manipulate the vehicle to go forward, backwards, stop, lock and unlock the car.
Based on a report from Reuters, the researcher Zhang Zhao tells that there are 16 sensors in the equipment which can detect EEG (electroencephalogram) signals from the driver's brain. A program was created that can choose the important signals as well as translate these in order to enable car control.
Zhang explained, "The tester's EEG signals are picked up by this (brain signal-reading) equipment and transmitted wirelessly to the computer. The computer processes the signals to categorize and recognize people's intention, then translates them into control command to the car. The core of the whole flow is to process the EEG signals, which is done on the computer."
Duan Feng, the Associate Professor from the College of Computer and Control Engineering in the university, initiated the project. He puts emphasis that the technology's goal is towards serving humanity in a better way. The combination of brain controlled technology and driverless cars might be possible in the near future.
The group said that the idea was brought about by their drive in helping disabled people who are physically challenged in steering cars.
Researcher Zhang said, "There are two starting points of this project. The first one is to provide a driving method without using hands or feet for the disabled who are unable to move freely; and secondly, to provide healthy people with a new and more intellectualized driving mode."
