Steer a Wheelchair with Tongue Clicks

posted on Dec 06 by Admin in the Disability News, Fun, Technology, Wheelchair Accessibility, Wheelchair Technology category

Indian-origin scientists started an innovation helping the paralyzed, disabled, and quadriplegics operate their wheelchairs using their tongues!  There are four tongue clicks involved which can be mastered with only a couple hours of practice.  The project was present in October at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

Ravi Vaidyanathan (head of the project in the UK)  says, “everything that involves tongue movement requires putting something in your mouth.” Mouth Interfaces are already quite common for people with disabilities.  Researchers have found this can make it difficult for the user to speak and eat.  Developing techniques to monitor the tongue movements through the ear helps avoid these issues. An in-ear device listens for clicks of the tongue and translates them into commands for the wheelchair. The ear pieces pick up the tongue movement from a magnet that is attached to the tongue.

A simple microphone picks up the sounds made by the clicking of the tongue. There are four sorts of tongue clicks that were chosen because of the distinct sound signature that will help the system from getting confused easily. The Signal Processor then picks up the microphone sounds sent from the clicks of the tongue, where each click moves the chair in a specific direction.

Vadyanathan and his team have so far been able to guide a wheelchair using this technique through a maze. They have also used it to control the reaching and grasping movements of a robotic arm. “This is a promising technique,” says Jose del R. Millan, who works on brain interfaces for controlling wheelchairs.  Now they must combine the technique with actual wheelchairs that prove to be reliable. It could be greatly valuable for the disabled and patients.

Researchers are now looking into furthering the amount of commands by using a microphone in each ear to achieve clearer sounds. The signal processor detects the sound in less than 0.2 seconds.  Researchers have also found that it may be possible to generate high-level commands through a combination of clicking sounds.

Georgia Tech Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate student Xueliang Huo moves his tongue to direct the Tongue Drive system to move the powered wheelchair in a different direction.