CISS plays a vital role in ground-breaking tongue control project

The project, in which CISS is responsible for developing the energy supply and wireless communication, is expected to be ready for user testing some time this year. In this connection, it has been mentioned in several natioinwide media, including the television news. The originator of the project is Lotte N. S. Andreasen Struijk from SMI - Centre for Sensory-Motory Interaction at Aalborg University, and it was Lotte who contacted CISS in order to get help with the wireless communication and the energy supply. Read more about the project at SMI here.

Broadly speaking, the purpose of the project is to create a wireless palatal keyboard for paralysed people, which the users can operate through a special tongue piercing. It will enable the users to perform a series of actions that have so far been impossible for them - such as controlling a computer, writing a text message or controlling their wheelchair. In this way, the users gain a far larger degree of freedom and independence than what they have now when they need assistance for everything.

CISS has developed the technology

One of the major challenges for the project group has been the development of the energy supply and the wireless communication between the keyboard and the receiver. Chief developer at CISS Henrik Vie Christensen explains that these things are now falling into place. "We have the electronic systems up and running, we have the wireless communication working, and we have test software showing that the signals it sends out actually work. We also think that we've found someone who will be able to create the batteries we need. It's mostly a matter of size now, both in terms of the electronic circuits and the battery. Broadly speaking, the technology's ready," he says. 

Nationwide attention

The next step is testing the system on intact persons, which the group hopes to be able to do some time this autumn. This piece of news has gained the attention of the media; in July, the project has been mentioned in a series of nationwide media, both on television, on the radio and in papers.