TongueMove, designed by UM student Leong Ka Chon, which allows physically disadvantaged people to use their tongues to control electronic devices such as wheelchairs
Leong Ka Chon, a fourth-year student from the University of Macau’s (UM) Department of Computer and Information Science, recently won a gold medal for his invention, ‘TongueMove’, at the Pan-Pearl River Delta Region Universities IT Project Competition 2015. TongueMove allows physically disadvantaged people to use their tongues to control electronic devices, such as wheelchairs and computer keyboards. Equipped with a webcam, TongueMove captures the user’ tongue movements before sending the photos to a cellphone or tablet for processing. After interpreting the meaning of the movements, the programme would give appropriate instructions to electronic devices that the user wishes to control. Leong’s project was supervised by Prof Pun Chi Man. ‘The competition broadened my horizons and gave me an opportunity to exchange ideas with students from different parts of China,’ Leong said. ‘This is my most rewarding experience in the competition.’ Leong also thanked Prof Pun Chi Man for his teaching and patience: ‘Without Prof Pun I would not have learned so much about computer vision and certainly would not have won a gold medal in the competition.’ Held in Macao, this year’s final is the largest and the most competitive in the competition’s history, attracting nearly 200 guests and 52 teams from 13 provinces, cities, and regions, namely Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangxi, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao.