Tongue Clicks to Control Wheelchairs
From: New Scientist - 12/01/2010
By: Duncan Graham-Rowe 

The University of Bristol's Ravi Vaidyanathan is leading a research effort to
develop an in-ear device that would enable people to control a wheelchair by
clicking their tongue. Vaidyanathan's group says an in-ear device, which
would replace tongue-controlled interfaces, is importance for hygiene issues,
and because the interface would enable people to use it when they are eating
or speaking. The in-ear device consists of a microphone that resembles an
earbud and listens for four types of tongue clicks. Each low-frequency sound
has a distinct local acoustic signature. The microphone sends the information
to a signal processor to translate the clicks into commands for the
wheelchair to move in a distinct direction. So far, Vaidyanathan's team has
used the interface to navigate a virtual wheelchair through a maze, and to
control a robotic arm. The researchers say that people can master the four
tongue clicks in a couple of hours. 

Read the entire article and view a video at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19790-tongue-clicks-to-control-wheelchairs.html

Links:
Magnet and glue turn tongue into joystick
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17391-magnet-and-glue-turn-tongue-into-joystick.html

Ravi Vaidyanathan
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/mecheng/people/person.html?id=194331

Real-time Implementation of a Non-invasive Tongue-based Human-Robot Interface
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/mecheng/research/publications/publication.html?id=128822.0

Neuroprosthetics: the mind is the pilot
http://actu.epfl.ch/news/neuroprosthetics-the-mind-is-the-pilot/

Ultrasonic Head Controlled Wheelchair Interface
http://www.stanford.edu/group/rrd/Projects/2kprojects/atech7.html