(Discover) In Israel's Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital, a 51-year-old woman who was paralyzed by a stroke is completely aware, but unable to move or speak. To communicate, she uses a "sniff controller" to control machines with her nose. Developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science, when a patient sniffs, the device measures the change in pressure inside the nose and converts this into electrical signals that are passed to a computer. With just a sniff, people can move a cursor on a screen, allowing locked-in patients to write messages. Quadriplegics can even use the device to surf the web, or drive a wheelchair.
2010-07-30 10:05:27Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive