As robotics advances in the 21st century all kinds of new uses continue to show up. One new kind of remote controlled helicopter might be able to help disabled people gain a little more mobility while also allowing them to communicate better. According to a research team at the University of Minnesota, these robotic flyers can actually be controlled through the power of a user’s mind.
The helicopter doesn’t look like a traditional helicopter either. This robot looks more like a UFO, though it does fly quite a bit like the helicopters you expect to see flying through the air. This is also miniaturized and built to be able to get around a room without causing a whole bunch of muss or fuss. While some of the more advanced robotic helicopters are being built to actually seek out and identify pirate ships, this group’s invention could actually be more useful to certain people who need the help.
The remote controlled device has nose mounted cameras so that users can eventually be able to send the helicopter into another room to get something or alert someone to something without the user actually needing to move from one room to another. The controls are also not remote controlled in any way that people are used to, this particular device uses a Brain Computer interface thanks to an EEG cap.
This cap contains 64 electrodes that transmit data to a computer. The computer then translates and sends that data to the helicopter. Among the commands that can be sent over Wi-Fi is imaging closing their right hand, which will tell the robot to turn right. While the robot is still being developed, the testing has shown some real promise and the research team hopes to start producing these robots on a larger scale in the near future.
