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For quadriplegics whose daily lives often involve sucking their own saliva from the straw they use to maneuver, a hearing aid-like device that serves the same purpose offers a more discreet and sanitary option.
A group of SIUC researchers, contracted by Think-A-Move to develop new earpiece technology to help disabled motorists, used their findings in air pressure changes inside the ear caused by tongue movements to help create a new tongue-controlled wheelchair.
The wheelchair, which was built and marketed by Think-A-Move, allows its motorists to guide the device based on pressure changes in the ear.
"We do have students who are using less sophisticated technology, like mouth sticks," Said Kathleen Plesko, the director of disability support services at SIUC. "This could set some of them free in ways they haven't been before."
To move the wheelchair, an earpiece sensor monitors pressure changes in the Eustachian tube and transmits signals to a digital signal processor, according to TAM's website. The e-macc - ear mobility accessibility control communication - then translates tongue movements into directional commands.
Research for the earpiece was finished about three years after representatives from TAM approached Lalit Gupta, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at SIUC, while at a conference in Florida in 2003.
Gupta then used his students as subjects for his research to demonstrate the concept of using air pressure changes in the Eustachian tube to maneuver a machine. His research was then used to help earn funding, which came from the National Institutions of Health and the U.S. Army, for the project.
The funding went to TAM, which subcontracted SIUC researchers Gupta and Ravi Vaidyanathan for the project.
"We weren't working with anything we didn't know. I've done human machine interfacing, but we showed that the device can actually recognize spoken words since it's more shielded in the ear than a regular microphone would be," Gupta said. "That, I think, is an amazing contribution."
That ability will also prevent the wheelchair from moving while its operator speaks, requiring it to respond to commands, not random changes in air pressure.
Gupta's partner in research - Vaidyanathan - who was out of the country and unavailable for comment, told NewScientist.com that the device can identify different tongue movements with a 97 percent accuracy rate.
The device's ability to be used in noisy environments sparked the United States Army's interest and resulted in more funding for similar research.
"This is a proud moment for SIU," Plesko said. "We have a number of young veterans returning from the middle-eastern wars devastatingly injured. SIUC wants to be part of integrating these people. I'm impressed that our researchers came up with this technology and I look forward to seeing these chairs put into use."
Daily Egyptian writer Brandy Oxford can be reached at 536-3311 est. 255 or boxford@siu.edu.
