BCI / Brain-Computer Interface Race
MAHIDOL BCILAB
Thailand
About the Team
The Mahidol BCI team represents the Brain Computer Interface Laboratory of Mahidol University in Thailand. Their BCI system, which they have been developing since last year, uses movement concepts to control the game. "We are striving to develop a system that is easy to use and can be applied in everyday life. In the future, it should enable the user to take over various household tasks via mind control." team manager Pongsakorn Wechakarn explains their vision.
"At the CYBATHLON 2016 we realized that the performance of the pilot can be strongly influenced by nervousness during the competition, so we converted our system in such a way that it doesn’t react to this kind of stimuli." he continues. This year, their biggest challenge is to integrate the different commands while keeping the system simple and user-friendly. This is going to be a central path of development beyond CYBATHLON.
MAHIDOL BCILAB
About the Pilot
Less then two years ago, Kriangkrai Tachadee didn’t know what BCI-technology is. 2019 he came into contact with a team of developers and quickly became pilot in the BCI Series. Participating at CYBATHLON was the logic consequence. "I’m taking part at CYBATHLON because I want to gain more experience and exchange ideas with other teams. It is important to me that I can share these insights with other people with disabilities and inspire them." explains the Thai student, who suffered a severe spinal injury in an accident when he was 15. "I think BCI is useful as an aid but also to advance rehabilitation. In the future, the technology will be easy to use in everyday life and can be combined with other aids, so that people with paralysis can live independently". Today, Kriangkrai needs a person to support him in his everyday life and so do most of the people in Thailand who suffered a tetraplegic paralysis. Technical aids are too expensive for most or they simply don’t know about them. BCI is their chance to live independently – a dream for the CYBATHLON pilot as for many more in his country.