COMMICOH

Inclusion of brain-computer interfaces in the daily lives of disabled individuals to improve their daily lives by enabling them to communicate with loved ones, for recreation and to control their environment and test out solutions in the home environment. Proposed by Inria, COMMICOH is a multi-disciplinary, technological and scientific innovation and research project serving the physically disabled. 

Some accidents or diseases such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in advanced stages lead to a total loss of motor skills in patients, practically ruling out any physical interaction with their environment. It therefore becomes impossible for these individuals to communicate with loved ones or do things as simple as turning on or off a device or asking for help. While there are a number of ways to remedy these drawbacks providing there is a possibility for motor activity, very few solutions exist when that is no longer the case. One avenue that has been under exploration for the last few years isthe use of brain-computer interfaces, which make direct use of electric signals generated by the brain (electroencephalograms or EEG), translating them as commands for a computer.