Development of a tongue-piercing method for use with assistive technology.

Piercing the tongue for wearing jewelry is not infrequent among young adults.1,2 The procedure is not usually performed by medical personnel. A new assistive technology for people with tetraplegia, the Tongue Drive System (TDS), utilizes voluntary tongue movements for control.3 The operator uses a magnet attached to the tongue together with an externally mounted sensor array that detects changes in the magnetic field to drive powered wheelchairs and access computers.4 We hypothesized that a magnet-containing barbell would provide a semipermanent means of attaching the magnet to the tongue. Our aims were to design a medically appropriate tongue-piercing method and to confirm that using a magnet-containing tongue barbell works to control the TDS.

[1]  Xueliang Huo,et al.  A Magneto-Inductive Sensor Based Wireless Tongue-Computer Interface , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[2]  Maysam Ghovanloo,et al.  Evaluation of a wireless wearable tongue–computer interface by individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries , 2010, Journal of neural engineering.

[3]  E. Warshaw,et al.  Nickel hypersensitivity: a clinical review and call to action , 2010, International journal of dermatology.

[4]  A. Laumann,et al.  Tattoos and body piercings in the United States: a national data set. , 2006, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

[5]  Aglaja Stirn,et al.  Body piercing: medical consequences and psychological motivations , 2003, The Lancet.