Science & Technology

In June 2023, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Welfare and Human Security reported that over one million Thais have mobility disabilities. These challenges impede their ability to carry out daily activities and restrict their freedom of movement. In an effort to address this issue, researchers from the School of Informatics at Walailak University have developed an electric wheelchair controlled by facial and tongue movements.

“Our current focus is on assisting individuals with disabilities who have lost mobility from the neck downward. We connect humans with machines or computers by utilizing the biomedical signal - the brain signal - through the pathway we call a brain-computer interface," said Associate Professor Dr. Yunyong Punsawad.

The brain-computer interface is a direct communication pathway that links humans with computers. When the wheelchair user blinks their left or right eye or moves their tongue to touch the inside of the cheek, the mechanical force from the facial and tongue movement is transferred to piezoelectric sensors placed at six positions on the user: the face, cheek, and body. These sensors then convert the mechanical force into electrical signals for the processing unit.

"We then take the electrical signals and separate them to determine which sensor they were sent from so that we can use them to create commands for controlling the wheelchair," explained Lecturer Charoenporn Bouyam.

The research project is supported by Walailak University Research and Innovation Institute of Excellence with a budget of 100,000 baht for development. It has also received support for equipment and facilities from the School of Informatics.

"Currently, based on our developments, the wheelchair can move forward, turn left, turn right, and move backward. it can go anywhere a wheelchair is capable of going," added Lecturer Charoenporn.

The team also has plans for three improvements: firstly, to make the equipment more user-friendly and attractive; secondly, to reduce the cost to make it more accessible to users; and thirdly, to integrate it with a smart home system, making it more suitable for patients in this era.

Individuals interested in the electric wheelchair can contact the Innovation of Medical Informatics Program, School of Informatics, Walailak University, for more information.

Read the full research article at Human–machine interface-based wheelchair control using piezoelectric sensors based on face and tongue movements



Photos from Walailak Channel
Article by Settaboot Onphakdee, Division of Corporate Communication