On 7th June 2008, Keio University succeeded in the world’s first demonstration experiment with the help of a disabled person to use brainwave to chat and stroll through the virtual world. The research group applied the technology “to operate the computer using brain images released last year and succeeds in enabling a disabled person suffering muscle disorder (41 year old male) to stroll through “Second Life®*”, a 3D virtual world on the Internet, to walk towards the avatar of a student logged in at Keio University located 16km from the subject’s home, and to have a conversation with the student using the “voice chat” function.
This demonstration experiment opens a new possibility for motion-impaired people in serious conditions to communicate with others and to engage in business. This experiment is a marriage of leading-edge technologies in brain science and the Internet, and is the world’s first successful example to meet with people and have conversation in the virtual world. This research is an achievement of the Biomedical Research Project at Keio University, a collaboration project of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Tsukigase Rehabilitation Center and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the School of Medicine. This experiment was demonstrated at the 17th Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology Open Lecture on 7th June 2008.More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080613163213.htm