Design and evaluation of a noninvasive tongue-computer interface for individuals with severe disabilities

Tongue-computer interfaces have shown the potential to control assistive devices developed for individuals with severe disabilities. However, current efficient tongue-computer interfaces require invasive methods for attaching the sensor activation units to the tongue, such as piercing. In this study, we propose a noninvasive tongue-computer interface to avoid the requirement of invasive activation unit attachment methods. We developed the noninvasive tongue-computer interface by integrating an activation unit on a frame, and mounting the frame on an inductive tongue-computer interface (ITCI). Thus, the users are able to activate the inductive sensors on the interface by positioning the activation unit with their tongue. They also do not need to remount the activation unit before each use. We performed pointing tests for controlling a computer cursor and number typing tests with two able-bodied participants, where one of them was experienced with using invasive tongue-computer interfaces and other one had no experience. We measured throughput and movement error for pointing tasks, and speed and accuracy for number typing tasks for the evaluation of the feasibility and performance of the developed noninvasive system. Results show that the inexperienced participant achieved similar results with the developed noninvasive tongue-computer interface compared to the current invasive version of the ITCI, while the experienced participant performed better with the invasive tongue-computer interface

Design and evaluation of a multimodal assistive technology using tongue commands, head movements, and speech recognition for people with tetraplegia

People with high level (C1-C4) spinal cord injury (SCI) cannot use their limbs to do the daily life activities by themselves without assistance. Current assistive technologies (ATs) use remaining capabilities (tongue, muscle, brain, speech, sniffing) as an input method to help them control devices (computer, smartphone). However, these ATs are not very efficient as compared to the gold standards (mouse and keyboards, touch interfaces, joysticks, and so forth) which are being used in everyday life. Therefore, in this work, a novel multimodal assistive system is designed to provide better accessibility more intuitively. The multimodal Tongue Drive System (mTDS) utilizes three key remaining abilities (speech, tongue and head movements) to help people with tetraplegia control the environments such as accessing computers, smartphones or driving wheelchairs. Tongue commands are used as discrete/switch like inputs and head movements as proportional/continuous type inputs, and speech recognition to type texts faster compared to any keyboards to emulate a mouse-keyboard combined system to access computers/ smartphones. Novel signal processing algorithms are developed and implemented in the wearable unit to provide universal access to multiple devices from the wireless mTDS. Non-disabled subjects participated in multiple studies to find the efficacy of mTDS in comparison to gold standards, and people with tetraplegia to evaluate technology learning abilities. Significant improvements are observed in terms of increasing accuracy and speed while doing different computer access and wheelchair mobility tasks. Thus, with sufficient learning of mTDS, it is feasible to reduce the performance gap between a non-disabled and a person with tetraplegia compared to the existing ATs.Ph.D

Smartphone accessibility: Understanding the lived experience of users with cervical spinal cord injuries

Purpose: To explore accessibility challenges encountered by smartphone users with cervical spinal cord injuries (C1-C8).To investigate the suitability of current technology and make recommendations to help future technology meet user needs. Methods: The study uses a mixed-method approach combining an inductive thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with a quantitative analysis of thirty-nine questionnaires. Results: The analysis generated four themes: ’the drive for independence and self-efficacy’; ’trying to make it work’; ’getting the right technology for me’; ’using the phone as and when I want to’. These themes highlighted how unresolved access issues and situational barriers limited independence and created unwanted privacy compromises for effective communication. There was a lack of information or support on available smartphone accessibility features and assistive technology (AT). Smartphone AT was regarded as overpriced, poorly designed and lacking the voices of people with disabilities. Conclusions: The smartphone’s potential to improve quality of life, participation, and well-being is limited by accessibility challenges hindering independent and private smartphone use. Future design work should focus on improving accessibility, investigating reasons for AT’s poor quality and high cost, and removing barriers to end-user inclusion. To enhance user awareness of available technology, stakeholders should build and maintain an open platform to act as an information source for peer and professional support on assistive technology

A review of the effectiveness of lower limb orthoses used in cerebral palsy

To produce this review, a systematic literature search was conducted for relevant articles published in the period between the date of the previous ISPO consensus conference report on cerebral palsy (1994) and April 2008. The search terms were 'cerebral and pals* (palsy, palsies), 'hemiplegia', 'diplegia', 'orthos*' (orthoses, orthosis) orthot* (orthotic, orthotics), brace or AFO