{"id":3805,"date":"2016-02-24T12:31:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T17:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.122.34\/en\/?p=3805"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:34:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T16:34:03","slug":"smartphone-controlled-wheelchair-brings-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/smartphone-controlled-wheelchair-brings-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone-controlled wheelchair brings independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ke Wang (front) and his team at Eightfold Technologies have created a smartphone application that can control power wheelchairs remotely. The app to control the wheelchair is simple to use.<\/em><\/p>\n

At The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, Ke Wang touched his fingertip to his smartphone. Across the room, an empty power wheelchair began to roll slowly towards him, coming to a stop next to where he sat.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Wang was hit by a car while standing at a bus stop. He spent years adjusting to his new reality. He now lives at home, but even there he relies on his wheelchair. If it\u2019s out of reach and his family isn\u2019t nearby, he\u2019s stranded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI end up stuck in bed, no way to go. If I have an appointment that day, or have some work that needs to be done, there\u2019s nothing I can do about it, even if I can see my chair a few feet away from me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eventually, his frustration inspired him. \u201cI thought, \u2018This is not rocket science. There must be a way\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

A software and automation engineer by trade, Wang founded Eightfold Technologies<\/a>, which developed the \u2018SmartChair\u2019 app<\/a>. It sends a signal from the phone to a control box on the wheelchair that is integrated with the chair\u2019s joystick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the feeling of being stuck in traffic, unable to move. That\u2019s the everyday reality for people who can\u2019t reach their wheelchair,\u201d said Edward Lemaire, a researcher at The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre who has been an advisor on the project. \u201cIt comes down to having that independence and control again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The app works with any phone or tablet and the controller works with any joystick-controlled power wheelchair. The app can be configured so users with different accessibility challenges, such as upper body injury, can also remotely control their wheelchair.<\/p>\n

The remote control product isn\u2019t for sale just yet but will be the first to go to market. Meanwhile, Wang is working on even smarter and more challenging applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, you can lay down a line on the floor and the chair will follow the line<\/a>,\u201d said Wang. \u201cAll the person has to do is say, \u2018I want to go to the living room,\u2019 or push a button, and the chair will follow the line and take them to the living room.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ke Wang (front) and his team at Eightfold Technologies have created a smartphone application that can control power wheelchairs remotely. The app to control the wheelchair is simple to use. At The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, Ke Wang touched his fingertip to his smartphone. Across the room, an empty power wheelchair began to roll slowly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":3806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}