Tongue-Drive Wheelchair

Reported November 2008

ATLANTA, GA. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- New assistive technology could be the key to more independence for thousands of people with disabilities. Soon, controlling their environment may be as easy as moving their tongue.

Two years ago an accident left Justin Cochran paralyzed from the neck down, but he doesn't let his wheelchair get in the way of much.

"I know what I want to do and how I want to live my life, and I'm not going to let something like a spinal cord injury stop that," Cochran told Ivanhoe.

Cochran counts on sip-and-puff systems to help him control his environment; but soon, this tiny magnet could give him more possibilities. It allows people to control wheelchairs and countless other devices by moving their tongues.

"It lets them use their tongue motion and translate it to different commands," Maysam Ghovanloo, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga., told Ivanhoe.

Electrical and computer engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology developed the system. Equipped with a magnetic sensor, the tongue acts like a joystick. A special headset tracks every move, whether the tongue moves from its resting position or it touches a certain tooth. In less than a second, each movement is translated into a command to control a wheelchair, a computer cursor or other device.

"Theoretically, there are an unlimited number of commands that the user can define in order to control their environment," Dr. Ghovanloo said.

The next step is letting people with disabilities test the system themselves. Cochran says he's ready to be the first.

"Yeah, I can't wait to try it," Cochran said.

The Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Maysam Ghovanloo
Assistant Professor
Bioengineering, Electronic Design and Applications
Georgia Tech
Atlanta, GA
(404) 385-7048
mgh@gatech.edu

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Washington, DC
(202) 530-8353
http://www.ieee.org
ieeeusa@ieee.org

Lois Smith
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.org
lois@hfes.org

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New assistive technology could be the key to more independence for thousands of people with disabilities. Soon, controlling their environment may be as easy as moving their tongue.