The Tongue Drive System, developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is one of 17 innovations selected as 2010 da Vinci Awards® finalists. The da Vinci Awards is a prestigious international forum recognizing the latest developments and research in adaptive and assistive technologies that enable equal access and opportunity for all people, regardless of ability.

Developed by Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering assistant professor Maysam Ghovanloo and his students in the GT-Bionics Lab, the Tongue Drive System is an assistive technology that enables individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries to maneuver a powered wheelchair or control a mouse cursor using simple tongue movements. The research team is currently preparing for their second round of clinical trials on the Tongue Drive System, which will be conducted at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

As a finalist in the prosthetics/orthotics/controls category, the Tongue Drive System is eligible for the special "Leo" People's Choice Award presented to the finalist receiving the highest number of "thumbs up" votes for its YouTube video. Create or log into a YouTube account to vote for the Tongue Drive System’s video: http://bit.ly/tonguedrive. Voting ends at midnight on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010.

The da Vinci Awards were named after Leonardo da Vinci because of his documented talents as an inventor, philosopher, engineer, architect and artist. Finalists representing the U.S., Canada and Denmark were chosen from entries received from around the world. The awards were created by and benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society's Michigan Chapter.

Finalists and their innovative technologies will be honored on Sept. 30, 2010 at a special awards event at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, with the 2010 da Vinci Award winners announced live that evening. Tickets and additional information about the gala are available at http://www.davinciawards.org/about/overview.

To read more about the Tongue Drive System, visit http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/tonguedrive2/ and http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/tonguedrive/.