Sniff-and-Go Technology Enables Paralyzed to Drive Wheelchairs

A device operated by nose sniffs allows disabled people, quadriplegics and those “locked in” by complete paralysis to use computers or operate wheelchairs, an Israeli study showed.

Quadriplegic patients were able to navigate wheelchairs as well as healthy people who used the device created by the researchers, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Two people in the study who were completely paralyzed with intact mental function used the technology to communicate by choosing letters on a computer screen to write.