ABSTRACT

Tongue Drive System (TDS) is a tongue operated, unobtrusive, minimally invasive, wireless assistive technology (AT), which enables people with severe disabilities control their environments using their tongue. It detects the position of a small permanent magnetic tracer secured on the users’ tongue with an array of magnetic sensors mounted on a headset outside the mouth or a dental retainer inside. We have built an external TDS (eTDS) prototype on a wireless headphone and interfaced it to laptops and commercial powered wheelchairs (PWC). Here we introduce the latest eTDS prototype and its performance evaluation by five subjects with high level (C3~C5) spinal cord injury (SCI). Preliminary results show that subjects can successfully perform common tasks related to computer access, such as controlling a mouse cursor or playing a computer game, as well as complex wheelchair navigation tasks, such as driving through an obstacle course, using nothing but their tongue movements.