It turns out that the tongue isn't tied to the spinal cord (had we paid better attention in Bio101, we'd have known that), which goes a long way towards keeping it unimpared in the event of spinal cord injury. A team at Georgia Tech is developing a tongue-based apparatus for
disabled people that, which not as elegantly packaged as the
GRAViTONUS device we've seen earlier, fashions a pointing device from a small tongue-mounted magnet and sensors near the cheeks. The team has promised interactivity way beyond what can be done with "sip and puff" input methods; think "mouth replaces mouse" and you've got the idea. Hopefully Mavis Beacon tongue-typing and the incorporation of haptic feedback won't be far behind.
posted Aug 26th 2008 3:22AM
So instead of like hearing you and doing what you say, it like feels what your tongue is doing?
I can't understand your comment, but the bunny is cute!
"It takes a linking and keeps on ticking!"
"It's sensor licking good!"
"It's nothing to pfthththththth at!"
"Open up and say aaaaaah!
"Four out of Five quadriplegics recommend it!"
"The control last an extra, extra, extra long time!"
"It... ok, I'll stop now."
The real trick is writing the alphabet with your tongue...
That's what I call...a cunning linguist
What was it that George Constanza called it? Something like "the counter-clockwise swirl technique" or whatever. Effin' Seinfeld could work any joke on prime time.
I believe his move was "the shocker". Point your fingers straight, bend your ring finger towards your palm. The swirl is done with the thumb. I'll let you figure out the rest.
I get a chuckle every time Engadget gets either pseudoscience or some kind of watered down science that makes it seem like pseudoscience.
When I want to read about scientific and especially biological research, I go to places like Nature.com, ScienceMag.org, Cell.com and so on; Engadget is the last place I'd like to read about science.
Can you please leave out pseudoscience or get a Science editor who can read real scientific literature and bring them here instead of linking to secondary, tertiary sources and more inferior sources like "hackaday.com?"
Being the tech-saavy readers, I'm sure a lot of others agree as well.
Harold and Kumar do what now?
Now THATS a tounge-twister.
Barabambam Psssssh
Nice that you could "twist" the spelling of "tongue" to demonstrate your point. ;P
Reminded me of this for some reason:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/theater/images/clockwork_big.jpg
really? because I was reminded of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPU8_4sEoXE
Is that the guy from Lost?
I use tongue-based communication everyday, it's called speaking.
I was effectively using tongue-based communication with your mother last night.
Son..is that acid on your tongue?
This guy is going to be a hit with all the ladies once he has mastered this device.
lol.. is that dave?
Simple haptic feedback would be ridiculously easy for this. Just put an electromagnetic coil under the user's jaw to complement the magnet on the tongue. You could push it up and down with no trouble, and the tongue is extremely sensitive, so you wouldn't even have to use much current / force. That said, it might interfere with the sensors, so it might have to be activated for only microseconds at a time, and disable the sensors while it's active. If the haptic coil were integrated into a single, molded unit with the sensors, then it would be much easier to calibrate.
I think the final version of this will probably not be a bunch of booms hanging around the subject's mouth, but more like a retainer, or even implanted dental work. Look how small the prototype sensors already are.
My mind just created some dirty thoughts......
Hey honey...
Yes.....
Could you come here for a sec......I wanna show you something
;)
Why does the scientist in that picture look like he's about to do something horribly painful and evil to his subject?