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Device Lets Disabled Control Computer, Wheelchair With Tongue

Gary W. Meek/GEORGIA TECH

Georgia Tech assistant professor Maysam Ghovanloo, left, points to a small magnet attached to graduate student Xueliang Huo's tongue that allows him to operate a computer mouse and powered wheelchair.

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Published: July 2, 2008

ATLANTA -- Unlike the arms and legs, the tongue has a direct nerve connection with the brain that bypasses the spinal cord.

That bit of anatomical reality is why researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology chose to utilize the tongue in an adaptive technology device they are developing.

The system Maysam Ghovanloo is in the process of refining could one day allow people who have suffered severe spinal chord damage to control devices such as computers and powered wheelchairs with nothing more than tongue movements.

"This device could revolutionize the field of assistive technologies by helping individuals with severe disabilities, such as those with high-level spinal cord injuries, return to rich, active, independent and productive lives," said Ghovanloo, an assistant professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Ghovanloo developed the system in conjunction with Xueliang Huo, a Georgia Tech graduate student. Their work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

The tongue-operated assistive technology, called the Tongue Drive, was described Sunday at the 2008 Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America Annual Conference, in Washington, D.C. An article about the system is scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development.

To operate the system would-be users only have to be able to move their tongues. Attaching the tracer, a small magnet, the size of a grain of rice, to an individual's tongue by implantation, piercing or tissue adhesive allows tongue motion to direct the movement of a cursor across a computer screen or a powered wheelchair around a room.

Movement of the tracer by the tongue is detected by a number of sensors mounted on a headset outside the mouth or on an orthodontic brace inside the mouth. The sensor output signals are wirelessly transmitted to a portable computer that can be carried on the user's clothing or wheelchair.

In recent trials six able-bodied persons successfully used Tongue Drive to control a computer. In another trial 12 able-bodied individuals used the device to operate a powered wheelchair.

Next, Ghovanloo plans to conduct trials of Tongue Drive using severely disabled people. He is teaming with the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta-based catastrophic care hospital, and the Georgia Tech Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access to conduct those trials.

Ghovanloo and Huo earlier this year unveiled a magnetic tracer device that monitors whether people are actually swallowing prescribed medications they should be regularly taking, such as medicines to control psychosis or dementia or halt the reproduction of the AIDS virus.

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