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Optically sensing tongue gestures for computer input

Published: 04 October 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Many patients with paralyzing injuries or medical conditions retain the use of their cranial nerves, which control the eyes, jaw, and tongue. While researchers have explored eye-tracking and speech technologies for these patients, we believe there is potential for directly sensing explicit tongue movement for controlling computers. In this paper, we describe a novel approach of using infrared optical sensors embedded within a dental retainer to sense tongue gestures. We describe an experiment showing our system effectively discriminating between four simple gestures with over 90% accuracy. In this experiment, users were also able to play the popular game Tetris with their tongues. Finally, we present lessons learned and opportunities for future work.

References

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Chin, C.A., Barreto, A., Cremades, J.G. and Adjouadi, M. 2008. Integrated electromyogram and eye-gaze tracking cursor control system for computer users with motor disabilities. J Rehabil Res Dev, 45(1), 161--174.
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Fried-Oken, M. 1985. Voice recognition device as a computer interface for motor and speech impaired people, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 66(10), 678--81.
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Huo, X., Wang, J., and Ghovanloo, M. 2008. A magne-to-inductive sensor based wireless tongue-computer interface, IEEE Trans on Neural Sys Rehab Eng 16(5), 497--504.
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Peng, Q., Budinger, T.F. ZigBee-based wireless intraoral control system for quadriplegic patients. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2007, 1647--50.
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Salem, C. and Zhai, S. 1997. An isometric tongue pointing device. In Proc. of CHI '97 Conference, 538--539.
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Cited By

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  • (2024)Micro-Gesture Recognition of Tongue via Bone Conduction SoundAdjunct Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3672539.3686336(1-3)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
  • (2023)TongueMendous: IR-Based Tongue-Gesture Interface with Tiny Machine LearningProceedings of the 8th international Workshop on Sensor-Based Activity Recognition and Artificial Intelligence10.1145/3615834.3615843(1-8)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2023
  • (2023)Pantœnna: Mouth pose estimation for ar/vr headsets using low-profile antenna and impedance characteristic sensingProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606805(1-12)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
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  1. Optically sensing tongue gestures for computer input

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    UIST '09: Proceedings of the 22nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
    October 2009
    278 pages
    ISBN:9781605587455
    DOI:10.1145/1622176
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Publication History

    Published: 04 October 2009

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    Author Tags

    1. gestures
    2. infrared
    3. tongue-computer interface

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Micro-Gesture Recognition of Tongue via Bone Conduction SoundAdjunct Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3672539.3686336(1-3)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
    • (2023)TongueMendous: IR-Based Tongue-Gesture Interface with Tiny Machine LearningProceedings of the 8th international Workshop on Sensor-Based Activity Recognition and Artificial Intelligence10.1145/3615834.3615843(1-8)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2023
    • (2023)Pantœnna: Mouth pose estimation for ar/vr headsets using low-profile antenna and impedance characteristic sensingProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606805(1-12)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
    • (2023)DUMask: A Discrete and Unobtrusive Mask-Based Interface for Facial GesturesProceedings of the Augmented Humans International Conference 202310.1145/3582700.3582726(255-266)Online publication date: 12-Mar-2023
    • (2023)TongueTap: Multimodal Tongue Gesture Recognition with Head-Worn DevicesProceedings of the 25th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction10.1145/3577190.3614120(564-573)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2023
    • (2023)Gaze & Tongue: A Subtle, Hands-Free Interaction for Head-Worn DevicesExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3583930(1-4)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2023)TOFI: Designing Intraoral Computer Interfaces for Gamified Myofunctional TherapyExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3573848(1-8)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2023)LipIO: Enabling Lips as both Input and Output SurfaceProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3580775(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2023)Improving Tongue Command Accuracy: Unlocking the Power of Electrotactile Feedback Training2023 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC)10.1109/EMBC40787.2023.10340808(1-5)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2023
    • (2023)Embodied Interaction on Constrained Interfaces for Augmented RealitySpringer Handbook of Augmented Reality10.1007/978-3-030-67822-7_10(239-271)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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