BCI / Brain-Computer Interface Race
Phoenix
China
About the Team
"According to Chinese mythology, the phoenix is the king of birds and is reborn. We wish that the physically impaired become a phoenix through new assistive technologies and feel ‘reborn’. Above all, we want to help patients who have suffered a stroke or spinal cord injury to recover better and faster", says Raymond Kai-yu Tong, the head of Team Phoenix at Chinese University Hong Kong.
The team has been working on their BCI-technology since 2013 using EEG. "The system does not require long training and our algorithm can automatically determine the best pattern. Nevertheless, due to the pandemic, the preparations were not easy," explains Raymond. To overcome obstacles, that’s what CYBATHLON is about and also, what impaired people do every day.
Phoenix
About the Pilot
When Chik Yiu Ma is finally connected to the BCI, she enters another world – one in which she can move things with her thoughts. "I am taking part in CYBATHLON because I want to try out new technologies and the technologies around the BCI race meet our needs", explains Chi Yiu from Hong Kong. She has had spinal muscular atrophy since birth and therefore suffers from tetraplegia. She likes training, perhaps also because she likes to play computer games in her free time: "Since the end of June I have been training once a week for three hours, but unfortunately we had to temporarily suspend the sessions because of Covid-19. The preparation for the training takes a lot of time and afterwards I always have to wash my hair because of the gel. The biggest challenge for me will be to keep focused and concentrated during the whole race."