A simple glance now can help drive a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
Apple recently unveiled<\/a> a new Vision Pro accessibility feature that allows users to control powered wheelchairs using only their eyes. Northwestern University technology helps make it possible.<\/p>\n The feature uses the Vision Pro headset\u2019s advanced eye-tracking system to send driving commands to compatible wheelchairs. Software developed by Northwestern\u2019s Project DRIVE<\/a> acts as a bridge between the headset and wheelchair\u2019s control system, translating eye movements into signals the wheelchair can understand.<\/p>\n Together, the system and software enable users to bypass traditional hand-operated controls to navigate, steer and stop their wheelchair with their eyes.<\/p>\n The innovation is part of a broader suite of accessibility updates, which Apple will launch in September.<\/p>\n \u201cOften, as a person\u2019s motor impairment increases in severity, their ability to operate the very machines designed to assist them decreases,\u201d said Northwestern\u2019s Brenna Argall<\/a>, the principal investigator of Project DRIVE. \u201cMany people with severe mobility impairments cannot reliably use traditional manual controls like joysticks. This technology creates another pathway for independent mobility by allowing users to interact with and control their wheelchair through natural eye movements.\u201d<\/p>\n An expert in assistive machines, Argall is a professor of computer science and mechanical engineering at Northwestern\u2019s McCormick School of Engineering<\/a> and a professor of physical medicine & rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine<\/a>. She also is a research scientist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab<\/a>, where she directs the Assistive & Rehabilitation Robotics Lab<\/a> (argallab).<\/p>\n