Evaluation of the tongue drive system by individuals with high-level spinal cord injury

Tongue Drive System (TDS) is a tongue operated, unobtrusive, minimally invasive, wireless assistive technology (AT), which can enable people with severe disabilities to control different devices using their tongue motion. TDS can translate specific tongue movements into user-defined commands by detecting the position of a small permanent magnetic tracer attached to the users' tongue. We have built an external TDS (eTDS) prototype on a wireless headphone and interfaced it to a laptop and a commercial powered wheelchair (PWC). eTDS performance was evaluated by eight subjects with high level (C3~C5) spinal cord injury (SCI) at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA. Preliminary results show that all the 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.