Transcript
Charlie Merritt’s reality shattered in an instant on a sunny august day in 2014
0:06when he broke his neck diving into shallow water I remember floating in the
0:11water
0:11face down and basically feeling like I was going to drown paralyzed from the
0:17neck down the former Marine has been able to get around only with the help of
0:21his wife and inexpensive motorized wheelchair but enterprising mechanical
0:27engineering students at the University of Central Florida had a better idea
0:31since we’re all students at first it’s a little scary cuz we see this device that
0:35we made being used by somebody then we see it works perfectly pretty much lost
0:39the it’s an amazing feeling they created a 3d device that controls wheelchairs
0:44with simple facial movements sensors attached to muscles send electrical
0:49commands to direct charlie’s chair I’m not burdening the people around me to have to use their assistance
1:09unlike other disability devices the college senior design project which is
1:13not yet being mass-produce is very affordable this device will cost less
1:17than $400 compared to several thousand for similar designs I’m already saw
1:23reporting