INTRAORAL CONTROLLER SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

AN INTRAORAL CONTROLLER IS BEING DEVELOPED AND TESTED THAT MAY PROVIDE A CONTROL CHANNEL FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH SPINAL CORD INJURIES AT THE C5 LEVEL AND ABOVE. THE TWO AXIS INTRAORAL CONTROLLER PROTOTYPE IS AN ANALOG CONTROLLER MOUNTED ON A PALATAL SPLINT. A TWO DIMENSIONAL VECTOR OR CONTROL SIGNAL IS GENERATED BY SUBTRACTING THE SCALAR MAGNITUDES OF INTEGRATED EMG SIGNALS GENERATED BY TONGUE CONTRACTION AND MOVEMENT. THESE INTEGRATED EMG SIGNALS ARE MEASURED BY ANTERIOR-POSSTERIOR AND RIGHT-LEFT PAIRS OF SENSORS WHICH LIE IN A DIAMOND CONFIGURATION ON THE TONGUE SIDE OF THE PALATAL SPLINT. MULTI-PURPOSE DISCRETE CONTROL SIGNALS ARE ALSO GENERATED BY TWO JAW ACTIVATED MICROSWITCHES WHICH ARE LOCATED ON THE LATERAL ASPECTS OF THE PALATAL SPLINT. THE PURPOSE OF PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT IS TO BEGIN DEVELOPMENT OF THE EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE TO ADEQUATELY TEST AND OPTIMIZE FREQUENCY RESPONSE OF THE INTRAORAL CONTROLLER AND LEVELS OF CONTROL SIGNAL DISCRIMINATION USING INTRAORAL TACTILE FEEDBACK ALONE AND WITH DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF AUDITORY AND VISUAL FEEDBACK. THIS CONTROLLER COULD BE USE TO CONTROL A NEURAL PROSTHESIS FOR FUNCTIONAL NEUROMUSCULAR STIMULATION, A LIMBE PROSTHESIS, AN ORTHOSIS, OR OTHER DEVICE.