Scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have developed a way for people who are paralyzed to control their own wheelchair with a tongue piercing and an iPod.

Scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have developed a way for people who are paralyzed to control their own wheelchair with a tongue piercing and an iPod.

The components of the Tongue Driving System, or TDS, include a barbell shaped titanium device with a high powered magnet that works together with sensors on a headset.

The sensors send data to an iPod app designed to turn tongue movements into electronic directions for a target device, like a motorized wheelchair.

Another new system that some experts think is superior to the invasive tongue piercing is a brain computer interface that uses EEG electrodes on a skull cap to control the movement of a wheelchair.

But according to one of the researchers who worked on the TDS, brain computer interface systems are susceptible to interference “so there can be safety issues with wheelchairs. The Tongue Drive seems to have the most benefits and least number of issues.”

When compared by 11 survey participants, to other ways like a sip and puff system controlled by breathing in and out, TDS was the most popular and had the fastest response time among .