http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/213/213ra166
Maysam Ghovanloo of Georgia Tech and Anne Laumann of Northwestern have developed a tongue piercing based magnet to operate a wheelchair.
The device is a small magnetic barbell which creates a magnetic field in the mouth. When users flick their tongues, it alters that field. The change is picked up by four small sensors on a headset with twin extensions curving around the cheeks, and relayed wirelessly to a smartphone, computer or iPod. The software translates the signals and sends them to a powered wheelchair or computer.
The system was tested on 11 tetraplegia patients from rehabilitation centers in Chicago and Atlanta and 23 able volunteers who already wore tongue jewelry.
After 30 minutes of training, everyone was able to move a computer cursor, clicking on targets on a laptop screen, playing video games and dialing phone numbers. Accuracy and speed improved with practice, even though subjects used the system only one day a week. After six weeks the tetraplegics were, on average, three times faster with the tongue system than with sip-and-puff, which six of the 11 had been using. It was equally accurate.
Using only tongue movements, the volunteers also navigated a powered wheelchair through a 50-meter-long course with 13 turns, 24 obstacles and occasional alarms signaling “Stop! Emergency!” Here, too, on average the 11 tetraplegics drove the course three times faster with the tongue system than with sip-and-puff, and just as accurately.
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