Electro-oculogram-based typing system
Amarnath, Siddhesh · DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) · 2011
Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or other tetraplegic clinical conditions (e.g., the locked-in syndrome) have severe disabilities in moving their whole bodies, yet retain their brain’s cognitive functions. Some of these patients can only move their eyeballs [1]. In order to enable communication with the patients’ environment, various HCIs (Human-Computer Interfaces) have been proposed. One of the popular HCIs for such applications is based on Electro-oculogram (EOG) signals. During the course of the project, the author attempted to implement an EOG based human- computer interface. It is composed of four parts: EOG signal amplifying and acquisition (hardware circuit), interaction with the PC using parallel port, EOG pattern detection algorithms using the PC and usage of the detected movements for an onscreen virtual keyboard interface. The PC-based virtual keyboard interface would enable the user to select keys on the screen by use of his/her eye movements, thus enabling him/her to type what he/she wishes to convey.