A new hope for severely disabled patients is coming out of Israel.

The new device, developed by Israeli scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science, would allow completely paralyzed people who are “locked into their own bodies” to navigate their wheelchair and communicate with their loved ones…by sniffing.

A little tube with a sensor is inserted into the patient’s nostrils. The sensor identifies changes in the air pressure inside the nose and translates them into electrical signals. The signals are then transmitted (via the tube) to a device on the wheelchair’s engine,”telling” it where to go.

These are the sniffing “codes”: Two successive sniffs in would make the wheelchair move forward, two sniffs out are for reverse, out and then in would turn the wheelchair left, and in and then out would turn it right.

Sounds complicated? According to Prof. Noam Sobel who heads the research team, the new device is very easy to learn. After only 15 minutes of practice, healthy & quadriplegic volunteers were able to navigate the wheelchair around a complex path with high precision or play a computer game with almost the accuracy of a mouse or joystick.

The new system also enables the patients to communicate with their loved ones by typing messages. Some of those who participated in the experiments found this device to be more convenient than the one based on eye blinking. The system can also be used to send emails or surf the internet.

The Weizmann institute’s technology transfer company is now looking into ways of distributing the technology and making the system available to the public.