'Tongue computing' could help disabled

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'Tongue computing' could help disabled

http://medicalnewscenter.com/out/out.cgi?

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_health/~3/374303545/index.html

The tireless tongue already controls taste and speech, helps kiss and

swallow and fights germs. Now scientists hope to add one more ability

to the mouthy muscle, and turn it into a computer control pad.

Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor, points to a

tiny magnet on a graduate student's tongue.

Georgia Tech researchers believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system

could transform a disabled person's mouth into a virtual computer,

teeth into a keyboard -- and tongue into the key that manipulates it

all.

" You could have full control over your environment by just being able

to move your tongue, " said Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant

professor who leads the team's research.

The group's Tongue Drive System turns the tongue into a joystick of

sorts, allowing the disabled to manipulate wheelchairs, manage home

appliances and control computers. The work still has a ways to go --

one potential user called the design " grotesque " -- but early tests

are encouraging.

The system is far from the first that seeks a new way to control

electronics through facial movements. But disabled advocates have

particularly high hopes that the tongue could prove the most

effective.

" This could give you an almost infinite number of switches and

options for communication, " said Mike , a vice president of

research and technology at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta

rehabilitation hospital. " It's easy, and somebody could learn an

entirely different language. "

That's quite a contrast to the handful of methods already available

to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are disabled from the

neck down.

The " sip and puff " technique, which lets people issue commands by

inhaling and exhaling into a tube, is among the most popular. But it

offers users only four different commands, limiting their options.

Control systems that use sophisticated pads to measure neck and head

movements are also widespread, but using the hardware can be tiring,

and frustrating on smaller electronics like computers.

And while newer innovations that track eye movement are promising,

they can be costly, slow and susceptible to mixed signals.

The tongue, though, is a more flexible, sensitive and tireless

option. And like other facial muscles, its functions tend to be

spared in accidents that can paralyze most of the rest of the body,

because the tongue is attached to the brain, not the spinal cord.

The tongue's promise has long enticed scientists. In the 1960s,

research work focused on turning the tongue into a primitive lens by

attaching electrodes to the tissue. More recent studies have

connected a camera that activates tongue electrodes in the shape of

an object, helping blind people sense images.

A Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, newAbilities Systems Inc., has

already designed a nine-button keypad placed on the roof of the mouth

to control electronics.

Ghovanloo's work, however, centers on creating a virtual keyboard

instead of a physical one. He does that through a magnet about 3

millimeters wide that's placed under the tip of the tongue.

The magnet's movement is tracked by sensors on the side of each

cheek, which sends data to a receiver atop a rather bulky set of

headgear. It is then processed by software that converts the movement

into commands for a wheelchair or other electronics.

After turning the system on, users are asked to establish six

commands: Left, right, forward, backward, single-click and double-

click. A graduate student who tested the technology was cruising the

lab at will in a wheelchair, tongue firmly in cheek.

It's an impressive display, and Ghovanloo said he hopes he could one

day add dozens more commands that turn teeth into keyboards and

cheeks into computer consoles. For example, " Left-up could be turning

lights on, right-down could be turning off the TV, " Ghovanloo said.

Early tests involving Georgia Tech students are encouraging, and the

team's work has already attracted a $120,000 grant from the National

Science Foundation and $150,000 from the and Dana Reeve

Foundation.

But plenty of challenges await. Researchers must pare down the bulky

headgear, which looks like a prop from a 1980s movie, into a dental

retainer. The team also must improve the software, tinker with the

size of the magnet and boost the wireless battery's charge.

Above all, they must find a way to keep costs in between the " sip and

puff " systems, which can cost hundreds of dollars, to more

sophisticated eye-tracking systems, which cost thousands.

Still, the research encourages Cochran, a 26-year-old college

student who watched a recent test.

The design certainly needs improvements. " It's in its infancy and

quite grotesque, " he said. But Cochran said its potential for almost

limitless control options makes him want to shelve his " sip and puff "

wheelchair.

" You could control not just your chair, your TV, your computer, but

your entire life, " he said. " And it's all one system. "