Wheel Chair That Needs Your Tongue To Operate

Friday, March 5, 2010, 11:55

Every imagined to control a wheel chair with your tongues? Stunned? Well, it may not not be that impossible a thing any more. If the invention by the two electrical engineers, Maysam Ghovanloo and Xueliang Huo, works out well, it may just be in any body's reach.

The duo has come out with an invention that makes it possible for a person control a wheelchair or computer using the tongue. And now, there is even a bigger achievement. The invention, called 'tongue drive', which is been presently in its beta phase, experimented at Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, could also give astronauts a third hand in difficult situations like spacewalks.

So, how does this, one of its kind, invention works? Well, the procedure involved may not look like a rocket science, but the device works by using two sensors to track a 5-millimetre-wide magnet attached to the tip of the user's tongue. The magnet used has to be attached to a person's tongue using surgical adhesive.

Once the magnet gets installed, things start working.

Scientists have developed a novel headset that makes it possible for a person suffering from spinal cord injury to precisely control a wheelchair or computer using the tongue. The sensors 'implanted in a wireless headset' accept fluctuations in the strength of the magnetic field as the tongue moves, and transmit the signals on to a computer, where they are interpreted and acted upon.

By moving the tongue in predefined patterns, the user can steer a cursor on a screen, direct a wheelchair, and can even on switch on a TV. But according to the inventor, Ghovanloo, user can give a various kinds of command. "Some don't like their sip and puff because it sits right in front of their face, and is like a signal of their disability," New Scientist magazine quoted Ghovanloo, as saying. He retorts: "Our design can be made less conspicuous."

The researchers say that they are in talks with a dental expert about installing them into a plastic retainer that fits inside the user's teeth. Before this, the conventional methods include 'sip and puff' devices, which are operated by blowing or sucking on a straw held in front of the mouth.

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