Development and preliminary evaluation of an intraoral tongue drive system

Tongue Drive System (TDS) is a wireless tongue-operated assistive technology (AT), developed for people with severe physical impediments to control their environments using their tongue motion. We have developed a new intraoral TDS (iTDS) in a form of a dental retainer, which can tightly clasp onto the upper teeth, completely hidden inside the mouth, using commercial off-the-shelf components (COTS). The iTDS retainer was tested by two healthy subjects and their performance was compared with that of an external TDS (eTDS) implemented in the form of a headset. The iTDS retainer showed comparable performance with the eTDS headset. The iTDS is expected to improve the stability and robustness of the TDS, while giving users a certain degree of privacy.