According to a news release from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a new study reveals that a tongue piercing allows the paralyzed to control wheelchairs.

Due to a diving accident, Jason DiSanto is paralyzed from the neck down. As a result, DiSanto had to figure out how to move around using a powered wheelchair, which he steers with a sip-and-puff system. New research reveals that tongue-controlled technology could give DiSanto and other paralyzed wheelchair users better control over their wheelchairs. Amazingly, the study revealed that the Tongue Drive System outperforms sip-and-puff in maneuvering wheelchairs.

According to researchers, this particular system is controlled by the position of the user’s tongue. A tongue piercing allows users to move their tongue like a joystick to control the wheelchair. Sensors in the tongue piercing communicate the tongue’s position to a headset, which then carries out up to six commands depending on the tongue position.

“It’s really easy to understand what the Tongue Drive System can do and what it is good for,” noted co-author Maysam Ghovanloo, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in a statement. “Now, we have solid proof that people with disabilities can potentially benefit from it.”

The researchers had study participants work on a number of tasks typically utilized in similar clinical trials. Participants were either able-bodied individuals or individuals with tetraplegia.

“By the end of the trials, everybody preferred the Tongue Drive System over their current assistive technology,” posited co-author Joy Bruce, manager of Shepherd Center’s Spinal Cord Injury Lab. “It allows them to engage their environment in a way that is otherwise not possible for them.”

Researchers examined in contrast how able-bodied individuals were able to complete commands either with the Tongue Drive System or with a keypad and mouse. Throughout the trial, they found that the performance gap narrowed between the keypad and mouse and the Tongue Drive System.

For the first time, researchers revealed that individuals with tetraplegia can drive a wheelchair better with the Tongue Drive System than with the sup-and-puff system. On average, the performance of 11 individuals with tetraplegia utilizing the Tongue Drive System was three times faster than their performance with the sip-and-puff system, but with the same level of precision.

Ghovanloo’s company, Bionic Sciences, is working closely with Georgia Institute of Technology to advance the Tongue Drive System toward commercialization.

The study’s findings are described in greater detail in the journal Science Translational Medicine.