‘It’s a bit like a code breaking approach. So your brain sends signals in terms of your eye movements, behaviour (and things like that) out into the world. We’re trying to work out – “what is the brain really thinking?”’

Two years ago Kirubin Pillay, a student at Imperial College London, won first prize in the Blackwood Design Awards (or Student Design Awards, as it was then called). He won for his work supporting Dr Aldo Faisal to develop the Natural Eye-Controlled Wheelchair, notable for the fact that it is controlled and driven entirely using the eyes - simply by looking in the direction you want to go in. Kirubin has moved on to new challenges at Oxford University but we caught up with Dr Faisal who continues to work on the Eye-Controlled wheelchair with his team. And it’s been an exciting few years that has seen Dr Faisal, his team and the chair travelling to Zurich and California to name just a few.

‘It’s one thing to show that it can be used and another to make it useable...’

What has been happening?

The main goal for Dr Faisal and his team over the last two years has been to develop the chair from a functioning concept to a fully operational product.

The intention decoding that so astounded and excited the judging panel in 2014 is something so immensely complicated and precise that it cannot be perfected in 2 minutes, or even 2 years.

Back in 2014, the natural eye-controlled wheelchair’s intention decoding system could already scan the eyes and tell the difference between a passive glance and a look of intent; meaning the chair knew if you wanted to go in the direction you looked in, or if you just happened to be gazing in that direction.

However, what if you are looking in a direction, thinking – ‘I want to go over there but…’ - But what? There’s a big flight of stairs to get there? Some other obstacle?

Dr Faisal explains the theory in a little more detail, saying

‘So it can recognise when you want to go to some place but the next challenge is to make sure that you’re not just thinking about going there but you actually want to go there.’

Dr Faisal continues;

‘For example, you see a friend there and you want to go to that friend, or, are you just thinking of going to that friend?’ piercing the gaze and decoding mind is no small task and is something Dr Faisal and his team are constantly working on to perfect.

 ‘We’ve made it more reliable in terms of making the system work outside of just the proof of principle and more into a prototype…’ although he hastens to add, this is ongoing work.

‘There are a lot of scientific questions there to resolve’

Cybathlon Games

It was roundabout the time that Kirubin was winning the BDA that Dr Faisal and his team were first contacted by a man called Robert Riener to invite them to take part in the first ever Cybathlon Games in Zurich.

A sort of cross between Ben-Hur, Robot Wars and Florence Nightingale, the Cybathlon Games were created, according to their website:

‘…to facilitate conversation between academia and industry, to facilitate discussion between technology developers and people with disabilities and to promote the use of robotic assistive aids to the general public.’

Pioneering electric wheelchairs, state of the art robotics, bionic prosthetic limbs, you name it, it is competing in this perception changing challenge.

73 teams from 4 continents took part in the Cybathlon. The team from Imperial competed in 4 disciplines reaching the final in three and winning silver in the fourth.

‘The interesting thing with the wheelchair discipline is that it’s more of a cross country challenge. It’s less about how to drive it. In fact anyone could do it with a joy stick [controlled wheelchair].

Going into it further Dr Faisal explains that the people who would benefit most from the eye-controlled wheelchair are people who have very serious disabilities and who cannot use their hands or fingers due to paralysis. Ironically many people for whom the chair is ideal, are not able to compete in Cybathlon over concerns for their own safety. However Dr Faisal goes on to say that he and others at Imperial have ambitions where that is concerned:

‘We at Imperial College are very interested in organising a more inclusive version of the Cybathlon. By more inclusive I mean including people with Muscular Dystrophy, including people who have been paralysed by a stroke, including people who have Motor Neurone Disease.’

When can I try one of these Eye-Controlled chairs?

The Natural Eye-Controlled wheelchair is likely to be available in not all that long, with various organisations starting to sit up and pay attention to Dr Faisal’s work and considering the therapeutic benefits to a lot of people.

‘So these are charities that are basically interested in supporting our work, in seeing this come forward for the benefit of their own patients.’ The purpose of the chair however, as Dr Faisal puts it, is ‘not to make a financial killing with it. We want to make it feasible and also make it accessible but all the same we need to offer something to our funders in return so that’s an interesting challenge that we’re facing’.

To find out more about the chair, check out this feature on bespoken. 

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