Tongue Motion Controlled Wheelchair
Raju kumar sah
Sri Venkateshwara college of engineering, Vidyanagar, Bangalore 562 157, India
e-mail: rajusah79@gmail.com
Abstract — This paper details the application
of tongue motion as for the control of moving
wheel chair. The tongue drive system is a tongue
operated mechanism Assistive Technology
which is developed for the people having severe
disability in order to control their environment.
This system has used array of Hall Effect
magnetic sensors which are mounted on
mouthpiece along with the small permanent
magnet placed on the tongue. These Hall Effect
sensors are used to measure the magnetic field
generated by the small permanent magnet. The
sensed signals are transmitted via wireless link
which is processed by microcontroller to control
the movement of wheelchair. In early days many
assistive technologies have been designed every
design had some demerits. This paper gives an
efficient, ease of access, low cost solution for all
the demerits encountered in previous designs.
I. INTRODUCTION
Assistive technologies are most useful for people
with severe disabilities to lead their life a self-
supportive independent life. Persons severely
disabled as a result of causes ranging from
traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries to stroke
find it extremely difficult to carry out everyday
tasks without continuous help. Assistive
technologies that would help them communicate
their intentions and effectively control their
environment, especially to operate a wheelchair,
would improve the quality of life for this group of
people and may even help them to be employed.
There are many assistive technology
devices that are available in the market controlled
by switches [1]. The switch integrated hand splint,
sip-n-puff device, chin control system, and
electromyography (EMG) switch are all switch
based systems and provide the user with limited
degrees of freedom. A group of head-mounted
assistive devices has been developed that emulate a
computer mouse with head movements. Cursor
movements in these devices are controlled by
tracking an infrared beam emitted or reflected from
a transmitter or reflector attached to the user's
glasses, cap, or headband. Tilt sensors and video
based computer interfaces that can track a facial
feature have also been implemented. One limitation
of these devices is that only those people whose
head movement is inhibited may avail of the
technology. Another limitation is that the user's
head should always be in positions within the range
of the device sensors. For example the controller
may not be accessible when the user is lying in bed
or not sitting in front of a computer.
Another category of computer access systems
operate by tracking eye movements from corneal
reflections and pupil position. Electro-oculographic
(EOG) potential measurements [2], [3] have also
been used for detecting the eye movements. A
major limitation of these devices is that they affect
the user’s eyesight by requiring extra eye
movements that can interfere with users' normal
visual activities such as reading, writing, and
watching.
The needs of persons with severe motor disabilities
who cannot benefit from mechanical movements of
any body organs are addressed by utilizing electric
signals originated from brain waves or muscle
twitches. Such brain computer interfaces, either
invasive, or non-invasive have been the subject of
major research activities. Brain Gate [4] is an
example of an invasive technology using
intracortical electrodes, while Cyberlink [5] is a
non-invasive interface using electrodes attached to
the forehead. These technologies heavily rely on
signal processing and complex computational
algorithms, which can results in delays or
significant costs. Think-a-Move Inner voice is yet
another interface technology platform that banks on
the capabilities of the ear as an output device. A
small earpiece picks up changes in air pressure in
the ear canal caused by tongue movements, speech,
or thoughts. Signal processing is used to translate
these changes into device control commands.
 II. CONTRIBUTION or obstacle without voice command by using the
information of two kinds of sensor. CAF assists the
There are several objectives involved in this user to control the wheelchair without colliding in
project, they are as follow the wall or obstacle. The effectiveness of our
system was confirmed through the running
 To implement an assistive system that can be experiment.
controlled by tongue motion.
 To design a system which require low
physical concentration to control.
 To make a provision for wireless controlling
system.
 To study the use of wireless RF technology.

III. LITERATURE SURVEY

A. sip-and-puff wheelchair
It was developed in the early 1960s, and used a sip-
and-puff control mechanism for the control of
wheelchair. Sip-and-Puff is assistive technology
used to send signals to a device using air pressure
by "sipping" (inhaling) or "puffing" (exhaling) on a
straw, tube or "wand." It is mostly used by people
who do not have the use of their hands. Sharp sips
and puffs can be used to change the speed and
direction of the wheelchair. Steering is
accomplished by lower-level sips and puffs. But
this is not good for individual with week breathing.
A simple model for sip-and-puff wheelchair is
given as below,
Figure 2.1: Sip-and-puff wheelchair
Figure 2.2: Voice activated powered wheelchair
C. Head control wheelchair
An automated system was developed to control the
motor rotation of a wheelchair based on the head
movement of a person affected by Quadriplegia.
People who are affected by this disease cannot
move any of their body parts except their head. In
order to facilitate these people for their independent
movement, an accelerometer device is fixed on the
forehead. Based on the head movement the
accelerometer drives the motor connected to the
wheel chair in any of the four directions. The
automated wheelchair is based on simple electronic
control system and the mechanical arrangement
that is controlled by a Programmable Interface
Controller. The vehicle can be driven at a normal
speed. This device also helps people who have
various other disabilities to sit on the chair and just
hold the accelerometer and move it over to control
the vehicle movements. A model of head control
wheelchair looks like the figure 3 as below.

B. Voice activated powered wheelchair

This paper develops a functional voice activated
wheelchair, which looks like the figure 2 given
below. Various interfaces to control powered
wheelchair are proposed. Since the voice is the
most natural communication ways for person, our
study pays attention to speech recognition. The user
controls the wheelchair by the interactive
operation. The wheelchair does not act based on
false speech recognition. However, there is a Figure 2.3: Head control wheelchair
problem that is the wheelchair collides in the wall
and obstacle by delaying the voice command. D. Power wheelchair chin-operated force sensing
Then, our system applies the collision avoidance joystick
function CAF by which wheelchair avoids the wall
A chin-operated force sensing powered wheel chair
joystick was developed. Because of stick
displacement of conventional position joystick, it is
difficult for the chin operated wheelchair users to
operate powered wheelchair. Compared to the
conventional position sensing joystick, people
using a chin-operated force sensing joystick do not
need to move their head quickly and accurately.
They just need to give a little different direction
force to the joystick stick. The force sensing
joystick shaft is made of case hardened steel, the
area for strain gages was machined flat. The length
and diameter of the shaft was designed to exhibit a
strain response in the linear operating range of the
strain gauges. The forces needed to control a
powered wheelchair are 0.2∼0.8 pounds. The
hardware and software design method for the chin-
operated force sensing joystick were introduced in
the paper.

Figure 3.1: Simplified block diagram of the Tongue

Figure 2.4: Power wheel chair chin-operated force
Drive system
sensing joystick
The signals received by the external controller unit
are demodulated and de-multiplexed to extract the
individual sensor outputs. By processing these
IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM DESIGN
outputs, the motion of the permanent magnet and
In the Tongue motion controlled system, the consequently the tongue within the oral cavity is
motion of the tongue is traced by an array of Hall- determined. Assigning a certain control function to
effect magnetic sensors, which measure the each particular tongue movement is done in
magnetic field generated by a small permanent software and can be easily customized for each
magnet that is contained within a nonmagnetic individual user. These customized control functions
fixture and pierced on the tongue. The magnetic may then be used to operate a variety of devices
sensors are mounted on a dental retainer and and equipment’s including computers, phones, and
attached on the outside of the teeth to measure the powered wheelchairs.
magnetic field from different angles and provide
continuous real-time analog outputs. Figure 5
shows the Tongue Drive system block diagram
with two major units: one inside the mouth, the
mouthpiece, and the other outside, a portable body
worn controller. Small batteries such as hearing aid
button-sized cells are intended to power the
mouthpiece for extended durations up to a month.
The power management circuitry scans through the
sensors and turns them on one at a time to save
power. The time division multiplexed (TDM)
analog outputs are then digitized, modulated, and
transmitted to the external controller unit across a
wireless link.
 V. IMPLEMENTATION

The whole block diagram is divided into two

sections which are Transmitter and Receiver.

A. Transmitter block diagram

Figure 4.1: Transmitter block diagram

Above fig shows the diagram of the transmitter. Fig 4.3: Transmitter circuit diagram
This uses four Hall Effect Sensors, interfaced to the
microcontroller. Hall Effect sensors are transducer
whose output voltage varies in response to the A. Receiver block diagram
change in magnetic field. Four Hall Effect Sensors
are used to control the direction of moving
wheelchair. As the magnet is brought close to a
particular Hall Effect sensors the sensors gets
activated, and as the magnetic field is removed Hall
Effect sensors gets deactivated. Based on which
Hall Effect sensors is activated microcontroller
takes a particular decision regarding which
direction the wheelchair should move. The RF
transmitter sends the particular decision signal to
the receiver circuit.

Transmitter circuit diagram Figure 4.2: Receiver block diagram

The system uses four Hall Effect sensors and is
connected to pins P1.0, P1.1, P1.2 and P1.3 of
ATMEL AT89S52 microcontroller. So that Port 1
of microcontroller is made as input Port. The
output of Hall Effect sensor is very less to be
detected by the microcontroller. To solve this
problem pull up resistors are used along with each
Hall Effect sensor. Which result in increase of
output voltage level to 5v each. Without any
magnetic field, the output and VCC terminals of
the hall effect sensors are pulled up to vcc. When a
magnet is brought near to a particular Hall Effect
sensor, a hall sensor gets activated and the output
gets pulled down to ground. Pins P0.1, P0.2, P0.3
and P0.4 are connected to the RF transmitter for
transmitting the controlling instruction of the
wheelchair.
Above block diagram shows the receiver part of the
system. The decision made by the microcontroller
in the transmitter circuitry is received through the
RF receiver which is interfaced to the
microcontroller as shown in the above fig. The
motors are connected to the microcontroller using a
H-Bridge motor driver. The motor driver is used to
control the directions of both the motors used.
Based on the decision transmitted, the wheelchair is
moved in a specific direction by controlling the
motor’s direction. To prevent the wheelchair from
collision into wall, obstacles a proximity sensor is
connected. Based on the proximity sensor output,
the microcontroller decides for the emergency stop.
Receiver circuit diagram
Figure 4.4: Receiver circuit diagram
The RF receiver is connected to pins P2.0, P2.1,
P2.2 and P2.3 of the ATMEL AT89S52
microcontroller. The RF receiver receives the
decision for controlling the wheelchair which was
transmitted by the RF transmitter using bit patterns.
Therefore, we configure Port 2 as input port. Pins
P1.0, P1.1, P1.2 and P1.3of the microcontroller are
connected to pins A1, A2, B1 and B2 of the H-
bridge driver which is used to control the direction
of the motors of the powered wheelchairs. Since
two motors are used it requires two h-bridge
drivers. Hence, we are using L293d where A1 and
A2 are the control pins of motor A whereas B1 and
B2 are controls pins of motor B. Since we are using
the H-bridge drivers in L293d IC, we connect both
enable pins of the IC to VCC. The output pins of
the H-bridge drivers are connected to the motors.
For the detection and handling of collision purpose
proximity sensor is connected to P2.4 of the
microcontroller. The proximity sensors give an
output of 5v in case it comes near any obstacles.
Thus, microcontroller is programed in such a way
to achieve the operation.
VI. ADVANTAGE & DISADVANTAGE
This system has many advantages some of them are
as follows,
 It helps the physically challenged persons
to carry out their daily life.
 It is simple to implement, low cost, easy to
operate flexible.
 Only a few sensors are able to capture a
wide verity of tongue movements.
 It has adoptive control over the
environment.
 Requires very less concentration.
 No surgery needed for placing the sensors.
 It offers better privacy to the user as it is
placed inside the mouth.
 Require low power for operation.
This system also has few disadvantage and they
are,
 Users must avoid inserting ferromagnetic
objects in their mouth.
 Users should avoid using ferromagnetic
items near mouth as signal may be
interfered.
 At the time of MRI scan magnetic tracer
need to be removed.
CONCLUSION
A tongue motion controlled magnetic sensor based
wireless assistive technology system has been
implemented and developed for the users with
serve disabilities to lead their life as a self-
supportive and independently by making use of AT
system, to control their environment. This system’s
working principle is, it tracks the movements of
permanent magnet which is place on tongue
utilizing a sequence of an array of Hall Effect
sensors. Recorded data is transmitted through
wireless and later used for control. Thus by
providing quicker, smoother and more convenient
response comparing to the existing AT systems.
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