Biomechanical Signals Human-Computer Interface for Severe Motor Disabilities

Abstract

A system that allows computer interaction by disabled people with very low mobility and who cannot use the standard procedure based on keyboard and mouse is presented. The development device uses the patient's voluntary biomechanical signals, specifically, winks-which constitute an ability that generally remains in this kind of patients-, as interface to control the computer. A prototype based on robust and low-cost elements has been built and its performance has been validated through real trials by 16 users without previous training. The system can be optimized after a learning period in order to be adapted to every user. Also, good results were obtained in a subjective satisfaction survey that was completed by the users after carrying out the test trials.

A Study of Two Robust Features for Effective Open or Closed Eye Classification

“…Therefore, to help these people improve their communication and interact more effectively with society, in recent years there has been an effort to augment traditional human-computer interface like keyboard and mouse with natural interfaces and several previous works in computer assistive technologies have been developed. Studies show that in most of patients with severe motor disability cases, the only remaining voluntary movement, they have, is often an ability to control eye muscles [1,2]. In particular, an eye blink can be used as communication method providing an alternate input modality to control a computer [1,2,3,4,5].…”

“…Studies show that in most of patients with severe motor disability cases, the only remaining voluntary movement, they have, is often an ability to control eye muscles [1,2]. In particular, an eye blink can be used as communication method providing an alternate input modality to control a computer [1,2,3,4,5]. Furthermore, it can also be applied to detect a driver visual attention and drowsiness [6,7].…”

Achieving Assistive Technology Systems Based on IoT Devices in Cloud Computing

“…Another kind of HCI equipment [7] is an augmentative communication system allowing people with severe motor disabilities to use a computer. Specifically, an interface adapted to detect eye winks has been implemented and the system uses these signals, after the processing, to control a mouse or a virtual keyboard.…”