Ready for another glimpse into the future?  In this article from MIT News, we get a first-hand look at a robotic wheelchair that responds to vocal commands and automatically navigates a home.

From the article by David Chandler of MIT News:

Just by saying “take me to the cafeteria” or “go to my room,” the wheelchair user would be able to avoid the need for controlling every twist and turn of the route and could simply sit back and relax as the chair moves from one place to another based on a map stored in its memory.

“It’s a system that can learn and adapt to the user,” says Nicholas Roy, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and co-developer of the wheelchair. “People have different preferences and different ways of referring” to places and objects, he says, and the aim is to have each wheelchair personalized for its user and the user’s environment.

Click here to read the entire article and watch a video of the chair in action.