Assistive Technology for Physically Challenged or Paralyzed Person Using Voluntary Tongue Movement

Abstract

The “Tongue Drive System” (TDS) is a wireless assistive technology (AT) which is operated by using tongue motion has minimum invasion & also has no obstruction to daily activities. This system can enable those people who have high spinal cord injuries such as the tetraplegia patient to move around with quite ease even giving them some ability to control their surrounding environment. The TDS transforms the movement of the tongue into user’s command i.e. the intention to move in a specific direction. In our work used the TDS technology to control the direction of a powered wheelchair’s propulsion. The wheelchair was initially a manual one but by using two high torque gear motor in each of its wheel it’s been turned into a powered one. A small permanent magnet secured in the tongue was used as a tracer for the tongue movement. These tongue movement was then detected by five magnetic sensors on an orthodontic base inside or in a headset outside the mouth. We used Hall Effect sensors as the magnetic sensors. The Five sensors carry five different commands: Forward, Reverse, Right, Left & Stop. The output of the sensors then sent wirelessly to the Motor driver connected with the DC motors. The driver later controls the DC motors according to the received signal. Finally the testing of the project was done with a healthy subject who was able to maneuver the wheelchair in obstacle course with quite ease.