Alternative and effective methods for controlling wheelchairs are important to individuals with tetraplegia and similar impairments who are unable to use the standard joystick. This project describes a system where tongue movements are used to control a wheelchair thus providing the users, with high level spinal cord injuries, full control of their wheelchair. The system is based on an inductive tongue control system.
Tongue is used to operate the system because unlike the feet and the hands, which are connected by brain through spinal cord, the tongue and the brain has a direct connection through cranial nerve that generally escape damage in severe spinal cord injuries or neuromuscular disease. "Tongue movements are also fast, accurate and do not require much thinking, concentration or effort." Tongue Control System (TCS) is a tongue-operated assistive technology which can potentially provide people with several disabilities with effective access and environment control. It translates user's intentions into control commands by detecting and classifying their voluntary tongue motion.
In Tongue Control system, the motion of the tongue is traced by an array of Hall-effect magnetic sensors, which measure the magnetic field generated by a small permanent magnet that is contained within a nonmagnetic fixture and pierced on the tongue. The magnetic sensors are mounted on a dental retainer and attached on the outside of the teeth to measure the magnetic field from different angles and provide continuous real-time analog outputs for the controlling of wheelchair and electrical devices.
Hall effect sensor, magnet, Arduino, voice module, Lab View
