Wheelchair Direction Control by Acquiring Vocal Cords Vibration with Multivariate Analysis

Abstract

One of the only things that people who experience total paralysis in all four limbs can do is the ability to produce sound by the vibration of their vocal cords. Therefore, the development of a vocal cords vibration control wheelchair system is essential to help those patients moving around on their will. By attaching the microphone on the left side of the throat, the vibration of the vocal cords can be determined. The basic pronunciation can be distinguished by the difference of the resulting analog waveform (signals), and further instructions (commands) can be carried out by the vocal cords vibration control wheelchair system. For example, if the word "forward" is pronounced in Chinese, the wheelchair will then move forward automatically. To instruct the movement of wheelchair by determining the variation of the output signal which generated by vocal cords is not an easy task. Hence, a rapid and real-time processor with FPGA system, National Instrument (NI, Austin, TX) CompactRIO (cRIO-9014) is used as the develop platform. Base on its flexibility, small size, and rugged form, we can add something new in CompactRIO. In addition, when the wheelchair moves, CompactRIO can perform normally with impact vibration. The most important thing is that CompactRIO has real-time processor, it can analyze the analog waveform (signal) that generated by user rapidly and reactively response the operations that wheelchair should do.