This is an Equipment Grant to support a presently funded proposal. Quadriplegics, and speechless quadriplegics in particular, are particularly helpless to aid themselves because of their limited ability to communicate with their environment. This is a very innovative approach that proposes to use the patients brain-waves as a signal for commanding computer control over the patients environment. Thus, the patient would not have to have any overt movement at all for these controls. This has obvious benefits when, for instance, considering quadriplegics driving electric wheel chairs. This research may also be the first attempt at speechless communication. For the severely disabled, speechless communication would be a great benefit.
