Eye Driver

A man with motor neurone disease wins US prize for an eye-driven wheelchair.

16:20 19 November 2015

Patrick Joyce, from Wells, Somerset has won top Hackaday prize of £128,000 for his Eyedrivomatic, a device that allows people to control wheelchairs using only their eyes.

 

Mr Joyce suffers from a motor neurone disease and was diagnosed in 2008. He developed the device in a span of two years alongside his "test pilot" Steve Evans from Thames Ditton in Surrey.

 

The device links existing Eyegaze software to control computers using eye movements to a joystick on the controls of powered wheelchairs.

 

Mr Joyce said: "I was gobsmacked that we won... The money comes at an opportune moment as our house is too small and we couldn't afford to move. I wasn't supposed to live as long as I have and we hadn't planned on me still being alive when our kids were teenagers."

 

He added: "I doubt Eyedrivomatic will be commercially developed. There are liability issues that would probably prevent it happening. But ... I designed it to be easy to build at home."