Last month, I had the opportunity to witness something extraordinary. No, not the first presidential debate between President Obama and Governor Romney ... that's a discussion for another time blog.

What I saw that was so intriguing occurred at the Georgia Life Sciences Summit held here in Atlanta. I got the chance to see three college students present a technology that could significantly change the quality of life for paralyzed patients.

What I'm speaking about is Lingcast's (a start-up firm based out of Atlanta) Tongue Driven System (TDS). The device utilizes an tongue-computer interface that uses magnetic sensors to wirelessly track the motion of the user’s tongue within the oral cavity and translate its motions into set of commands that can be used to perform a multitude of tasks, including driving a wheelchair, controlling a cursor on a computer, smart phone or tablet (an article discussing the device at length appeared in October 5, edition of Medical Device Daily).

But what was more impressive than this innovative technique, are the students who were working on this project. Led by, Jacob Greenberg,  a student at the Emory University Law School , Georgia;  Nikhil Kurien, MBA Candidate, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, Georgia, and Hangue Park, PhD, Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, from Georgia Institute of Technology; gave a key presentation that clearly matched the level of innovation of the TDS.

If these students are able bring the energy of this presentation into Lingcast's discussions with FDA, then TDS will be available on the market in no time.

Here's a brief demonstration on how TDS works.