A Hands-Free Human/Robot Interface for Soldiers in the Field Based on Aural Flow Monitoring

Think-A-Move, Ltd. (TAM), in conjunction with the Naval Postgraduate School, Case Western Reserve University, and Southern Illinois University, proposes the revolutionary development of a human-machine interface command and control package applicable for soldier tele-operation of semi-autonomous military robots. This work will produce an efficient, flexible, and robust human-machine interface system, capable of directing robotic units performing military missions, without debilitating, hampering, or interfering with a warfighter’s field operations. To realize this goal, Think-A-Move introduces an unobtrusive method for detecting tongue movement and speech, and generating a control instruction corresponding to each in real-time. This method consists of monitoring air pressure within the human ear, and subsequently providing control instruction corresponding to specific initiating actions. Tongue movements within the oral cavity and speech create unique, traceable pressure changes in the human ear, which can be measured with a simple sensor (i.e. a microphone) and analyzed to produce commands signals, which can in turn be used for robot tele-operation. Any one, or combinations of these actions, may be mapped for seamless control of robotic devices without any external physical motion, constraints, or bulky equipment. Think-A-Move technology allows the unique advantage of providing complementing interface architectures in one simple device.