'Jedi Mind' for wheelchairs?
By Liz Beaulieu, Editor
Updated Thu August 20, 2009
A few interesting things posted to the Web recently:
Jedi Mind, a company that develops thought-controlled technology, has launched a medical applications division. According to a release:
There are enormous opportunities in the medical field for products to make life easier for patients, such as people in wheelchairs and amputees. With the use of the wireless headset, a patient would be able to control his or her wheelchair with the power of their minds. Quadriplegics that currently control their mobility with use of their mouth and a joystick would be able to simply think the commands and move in the direction they were thinking. Amputees could control the use of robotic limbs through the power of their minds."
To date, Jedi Mind has been busy developing video games using the technology, but it has had "numerous enquiries" about medical applications. All of this is well and good, but the links for the company's Web site and its page on Pink Sheets don't work. Are they for real?
I've read articles before about organizations that collect used wheelchairs and loan them to people who need them. But the Bellingham Central Lions Club takes it to a new level. According to an article published in the Bellingham Herald in Washington state, the club loans about 2,000 wheelchairs a year. At any one time, it has 600 wheelchairs out on loan. That's a lot of wheelchairs! The club's customers include people waiting for their insurance to kick in. Do providers offer a similar service to their customers? To the public at large?
Liz Beaulieu
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