GeckoSystems to ‘Kinect’ Wheelchairs with Collision-Proof Technology

Video game technology entertains millions each day, but now technology developed for use in video games can help individuals who use electric wheelchairs stay safe. The sensor used in Microsoft’s Kinect game system, which follows players movements electronically and feeds this information into the game system, has been adapted to help joystick-controlled electric wheelchairs become “collision proof” by sensing obstacles and automatically avoiding them.

Before this invention, users of joystick-controlled electric wheelchairs had to very carefully manipulate the joystick to avoid obstacles, often relying on their own eyesight. Individuals with visual impairments who used electric wheelchairs were at a disadvantage when it came to avoiding obstacles.

GeckoSystems International Corporation, a company who is committed to providing “mobile robot solutions for safety, security and service,” has modified the Xbox Kinect sensor to help users of electric wheelchairs avoid obstacles and make the chairs easier and safer to operate. GeckoSystems is integrating the sensor into their existing wheelchair guidance systems and calling the new development the GeckoImager. With the new GeckoImager, which uses the Kinect sensor, the wheelchair can avoid obstacles by itself, keeping the wheelchair user safe.

According to GeckoSystems developers, Microsoft’s Kinect sensor is ideally suited to retrofitting to electric wheelchairs because it is very small in size, uses a small amount of power, and can be easily integrated into GeckoSystem’s existing navigation systems for electric wheelchairs.

Using the new and improved Gecko navigation system, a user presses the joystick on an electric wheelchair and selects the direction in which they wish to go. The proprietary GeckoSystems navigation system would then visually scan the area using the sensor and automatically avoid any obstacles in the wheelchair’s path. The new invention, the GeckoImager, works like this: The sensor reads visual information about the environment around the electric wheelchair and sends this information to the navigation system, which is then able to avoid obstacles.

As a demo of the concepts behind this technology, the video below shows a GeckoSystems Carebot equipped with a pair of Microsoft Kinect sensors, which allow the robot to traverse a tight obstacle course with no collisions.

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