Affiliations: [a] Department of Electronic Engineering and Graduate Institute of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan | [b] Department of Management Information Systems, Hwa Hsia University of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan | [c] Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan | [d] Department of Applied Mathematics, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan | [e] Department of Digital Technology Design, National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: C.-C. Chen, Department of Management Information Systems, Hwa Hsia University of Technology, No. 111, Gongzhuan Rd., Zhonghe Dist., New Taipei City 235, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 2 8941 5100 4110; E-mail:wei@go.hwh.edu.tw
Abstract: BACKGROUND: A patient whose spinal cord was damaged due to accident may
result in Tetraplegia or lose the ability to control his/her daily living
environment. Currently, patients must use an invasive tool tongue movement,
to help the patient communicate with the external environment. OBJECTIVE: This study designed a non-invasive tongue movement computer mouse
system that allows the patient to use tongue movement to control a computer
to communicate with the external environment. METHODS: Via a pressure sensor and assistive holder designed in this study,
the pressure sensor can be moved using the assistive holder close to the
mylohyoid muscle of the patient's lower jaw. The changes in pressure from
the mylohyoid muscle are converted into computer mouse control signals to
control a computer to communicate with the external environment. RESULTS: This study is based on ISO9241-Part 9 to design four kinds of
training modes with varying difficulties. The data were collected from five
able persons participating in the test over 7 days. The data includes
throughput, path efficiency, test completion time and reaction time. The
data verifies that the proposed system is stable and practical for persons
with disabilities. CONCLUSION: The non-invasive computer mouse system for sensing tongue
movement can completely breakthrough the limitations of the invasive tongue
movement sensing system. This study uses non-invasive, simple tongue
movements that correspond to the stretching and shrinking of the lower jaw
mylohyoid muscle to control the computer mouse.
Keywords: Tongue drive system, assistive technology, human computer interface, non-invasive
