Scientists develop nasal-based communication device

The nasal-controlled technology developed by scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, uses a pressure sensor attached to the end of a nasal tube for detecting the opening and closing of a person’s soft palette.

By connecting the sensor to a computer, a person wearing the device can use sniffs to select letters on a screen to build up words and sentences.

Research leader Noam Sobel, of the neurobiology department at the Weizmann Institute, said the technology could also be used to drive electric wheelchairs.

Sobel added that the advantage of this technology is that it can be used by those with disabilities ranging from quadriplegia to locked-in syndrome. In the case of the latter, patients are completely paralysed but retain enough cognitive ability to sniff with precision.

Sniffing requires precise movements of the soft palate, which receives signals from cranial nerves that are often unaffected by paralytic injury and disorders.

Sobel explained the device works even if a patient has been given artificial respiration because it functions regardless of air pressure source.