title: Noninvasive tongue-motion controlled computer mouse for the disabled.
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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering and Graduate Institute of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering and Graduate Institute of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y-S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Management Information Systems, Hwa Hsia University of Technology, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Digital Technology Design, National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y-L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D009038:Motion; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology*; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Tongue drive system; assistive technology; human computer interface; non-invasive