Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle and is essential for your mind’s fitness. However, every second person worldwide is affected by sleep-disordered breathing which is often correlated to a lack of tongue muscle control. With this project, we are develop-ing a personalized and interactive tongue fitness (TOFI) therapy. We will develop a unique ultra-thin pressure-sensor as a tactile interface between the tongue and a smartphone app, integrated into person-alized clear dental rail. This "TOFI trainer” enables the patient to in-teract with the smartphone app using his tongue. The envisioned interactive myofunctional motor skills training will be able to in-crease strength and subconscious control of the tongue at night. It is well understood, that the successful outcome of a therapy de-pends on the intrinsic motivation of the patient, therefore we focus on the development of different gaming concepts for different per-sona and application scenarios. This will provide the patient with motivating and fun interaction, which will lead to a low therapy dropout rate. Thus, this project is a significant puzzle piece to pro-spectively prevent chronic snoring and light sleep apnea ensuring self-esteem and vitality as prerequisites for adolescent’s develop-ment and quality of life for adults.

The electronics and app developed in this project, were reused in the development of the EmpAIR Ventilation Advisor.