Tongue Ventures
Tongue Ventures Heading link
Over 3.5 million people in the USA suffer from amputation or paralysis. Our team works on developing discrete and easy to use assistive devices designed to improve the quality of life of a wide population of disabled individuals. The Tongue Ventures devices are composed of patient-specific retainers that are operable by the tongue. The tongue is selected as a medium of interaction due to two main reasons:
1) tongue is directly connected to the brain and bypasses the central nervous system; therefore, allowing the tongue to remain functional in cases of paralysis and spinal cord injuries.
2) tongue is hidden inside the oral cavity enabling the development of discrete hidden assistive devices, addressing the social stigma associated with attracting unwanted attention when using assistive devices.
Each device can communicate wirelessly with a wide range of Bluetooth-enabled devices, allowing for the users to utilize a wide range of modern technologies. Our devices are also designed to augment human’s communication by enabling silent communication capabilities, and also being adaptable to provide haptic feedback for various sensory substitution applications.