People who are paralyzed from the neck down often use straw in which they "sip or puff" air into to control their wheelchairs, researchers think using a tongue piercing might make things easier.
Researchers were able to test this tongue-controlled technology, and found it was three times quicker than the sip and puff method and had the same accuracy, a Georgia Institute of Technology news release reported.
The Tongue Drive System can control a wheelchair by monitoring the user's tongue movements. They use a magnetic tongue stud "like a joystick." Sensors in the stud send a signal to a headset, which could execute up to six commands.
"It's really easy to understand what the Tongue Drive System can do and what it is good for," Maysam Ghovanloo, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a study co-author and principal investigator, said. "Now, we have solid proof that people with disabilities can potentially benefit from it."
The team hopes the new device will improve the lives of quadriplegics in the near future.
"The Tongue Drive System is a novel technology that empowers people with disability to achieve maximum independence at home and in the community by enabling them to drive a power wheelchair and control their environment in a smoother and more intuitive way," Northwestern co-lead investigator Elliot Roth, M.D, chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Feinberg and the medical director of the patient recovery unit at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, said. "The opportunity to use this high-tech innovation to improve the quality of life among people with mobility limitations is very exciting."
The team tested the Tongue Drive System had a number of both "able-bodied people" and quadriplegics perform a number of tasks using the device.
"By the end of the trials, everybody preferred the Tongue Drive System over their current assistive technology," Joy Bruce, manager of Shepherd Center's Spinal Cord Injury Lab and co-author of the study said. "It allows them to engage their environment in a way that is otherwise not possible for them."
The system had been tested before using a magnet that was simply glued onto the tongue, but it tended to fall off.
"Tongue piercing put to medical use -- who would have thought it? It is needed and it works!" Anne Laumann, M.D., professor of dermatology at Feinberg and a lead investigator of the Northwestern trial, said.
Ghovanloo's startup company, Bionic Sciences is working towards moving the device towards commercial use.
"The Tongue Drive System will greatly increase my quality of life when I can start using it everywhere I go," Jason DiSanto, who has been paralyzed from the neck down since 2009, said. "With the sip-and-puff system, there is always a straw in front of my face. With the Tongue Drive, people can see you, not just your adaptive equipment."
