In the case of disabled people who cannot handle normal joysticks well, they operate special joysticks by tongue or chin, or they use some voice commands to control powered wheelchairs. However, such interfaces have much difficulties and burdens to control wheelchairs smoothly. We propose to utilize electromyogram (EMG) signals from operator's neck muscles as one of the wheelchair interfaces for them. Head motions of inclining and shaking can be detected from characteristics of these EMG signals and their motions are converted into operation commands of a wheelchair. A prototype of the powered wheelchair controlled by neck ENIG interface has been developed and tested.
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