Tongue controller for the paralyzed offers greater independence

Merely by moving their tongues left or right across their mouths, essentially using it as a joystick, paralyzed patients have been able to move their motorized wheelchairs, as well as computer cursors. The advance "is more than just a wheelchair control," said Jason Disanto, 39, who has been paralyzed from the neck down since a 2009 diving accident and tested the device. "It's an independence system." The innovation is especially meaningful for the most seriously paralyzed. Tetraplegics cannot use a joystick to operate their wheelchairs, as people with less severe paralysis can, and in many cases cannot even use voice commands: their voices are often so weak that recognition systems work poorly or not at all.



via Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/tongue-controller-paralyzed-offers-greater-independence-190113833.html