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.

该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力集中在美国成千上万因脊髓损伤或其他使人衰弱的神经退行性疾病（例如肌醇侧性硬化症）引起的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群，而当前辅助技术（ATS）服务不足。依靠进行基本任务的ATS仍然是原始的，提供有限的多功能性，并且无法满足最终用户需求。同时，计算机和互联网在日常生活中扮演着不断增长的角色，被认为是使所有个人具有相似职业，娱乐和教育机会的均衡器。舌驱动系统（TDS）为患有严重身体残疾的个人提供了一种直观且优越的机制，可用于访问计算机资源？轮椅，智能手机，计算机，智能家居等。TDS利用舌头的力量，尽管尽管损失了其他身体功能，但这些舌头通常会保留这些人的全部能力，以驱动人机接口。 TDS有可能在其主要市场领域的总体预期市场规模为1B美元的总体预期市场规模彻底改变美国。这个小型企业创新研究阶段I项目旨在为无线和可穿戴舌驱动系统（TDS）建立新的体系结构，以解决现有的商业化障碍。 当前的研究级TDS原型虽然功能性，但基于依靠多个设备来处理和传递用户命令的次优体架构，为可靠性，性能和安全问题打开了大门。 当前系统依赖板外处理，常用的2.4 GHz频段以及使用多个无线链接进行命令传输导致对数据包丢失和干扰敏感的缓慢实现。 在安全的关键操作模式中，例如转向动力轮椅，这些风险和性能降解的来源是不可接受的。 拟议的研究将巩固独立的TDS耳机中的关键TDS功能，该功能可以与任何目标外围链接连接到直接无线链接。 硬件重新设计将包括一个功能强大的微控制器，以便在机载传感器数据采集和信号处理算法上。 将合并双无线电芯片组，以使用2.4 GHz收音机与商业设备保持互操作性，同时还支持使用较少的频带进行安全关键操作。 这项研究的结果将是适合安全关键部署的强大的。