SBIR Phase I: Developing the Standalone Tongue Drive System

SBIR 第一阶段：开发独立舌头驱动系统

• 批准号: 1621673
• 负责人: Seyedabdollah Mirbozorgi
• 金额: $ 22.49万
• 依托单位: Bionic Sciences, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1621673&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Developing; Standalone; Tongue

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project centers on bringing enhanced independence, productivity, and quality of life for hundreds of thousands of individuals in the US who suffer severe physical disability due to spinal cord injury or other debilitating neurodegenerative disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Due to improvements in emergency medicine and increasing average age in the society, these individuals represent a growing population that is underserved by current assistive technologies (ATs). The ATs being relied upon to carry out basic tasks are still primitive, offer limited versatility, and fail to meet end-user needs. Meanwhile, computers and internet play ever-growing roles in everyday life and are regarded as equalizers that allow all individuals to have similar vocational, recreational, and educational opportunities. The Tongue Drive System (TDS) offers individuals with severe physical disabilities an intuitive and superior mechanism for accessing computer based resources ? wheelchairs, smartphones, computers, smart homes, etc. TDS harnesses the power of the tongue, which often retains full capability in these individuals despite losses of other body functions, to drive human-computer interfaces. TDS has the potential to revolutionize the current US AT market with an overall anticipated market size of $1B within its primary market segment. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to establish a new architecture for a wireless and wearable tongue drive system (TDS) to address existing barriers to commercialization. While functional, the current research-grade TDS prototype is based upon a sub-optimal architecture relying on multiple devices to process and deliver user commands, opening the door to reliability, performance, and safety issues. The current system?s reliance on off-board processing, the commonly used 2.4 GHz band, and the use of multiple wireless links for command transmission result in a slow implementation that is sensitive to packet loss and interference. In safety critical modes of operation, such as steering a powered wheelchair, these sources of risk and performance degradation are unacceptable. The proposed research will consolidate key TDS functions within a standalone TDS headset that can interface with any target peripheral with a direct wireless link. Hardware redesigns will include a powerful microcontroller to onboard sensor data acquisition and signal processing algorithms. Dual radio chipsets will be incorporated to maintain interoperability with commercial devices using 2.4 GHz radios, while also supporting less utilized frequency bands for safety critical operations. The result of this research will be a robust AT suitable for safely critical deployments.

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力集中在为美国数十万因脊髓损伤或其他衰弱性神经退行性疾病（如肌萎缩侧索硬化症）而遭受严重身体残疾的人带来增强的独立性，生产力和生活质量。 由于急诊医学的改善和社会平均年龄的增加，这些人代表了一个不断增长的人口，目前的辅助技术（AT）服务不足。依赖于执行基本任务的AT仍然是原始的，提供有限的多功能性，并且不能满足最终用户的需求。与此同时，计算机和互联网在日常生活中发挥着越来越重要的作用，并被视为平等器，使所有人都能获得类似的职业、娱乐和教育机会。舌头驱动系统（TDS）为严重身体残疾的人提供了一种直观的和上级的机制来访问基于计算机的资源？TDS利用舌头的力量来驱动人机界面，舌头通常在这些个体中保留全部能力，尽管丧失了其他身体功能。 TDS有可能彻底改变目前的美国AT市场，在其主要细分市场内的总体预期市场规模为10亿美元。这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在为无线和可穿戴舌头驱动系统（TDS）建立一个新的架构，以解决现有的商业化障碍。 虽然功能强大，但目前的研究级TDS原型基于次优架构，依赖多个设备来处理和传递用户命令，从而为可靠性，性能和安全问题打开了大门。 现行制度？由于对机外处理的依赖、常用的2.4 GHz频段以及使用多个无线链路进行命令传输，导致实施速度缓慢，并且对数据包丢失和干扰敏感。 在操作的安全关键模式中，例如操纵动力轮椅，这些风险和性能降低的来源是不可接受的。 拟议的研究将在一个独立的TDS耳机中整合关键的TDS功能，该耳机可以通过直接无线链路与任何目标外设接口。 硬件重新设计将包括一个强大的微控制器，以板载传感器数据采集和信号处理算法。 双无线电芯片组将被纳入，以保持与使用2.4 GHz无线电的商业设备的互操作性，同时还支持用于安全关键操作的较少使用的频段。 这项研究的结果将是一个强大的AT适合安全的关键部署。