Low-Cost Eye Gesture Communication System for People with Motor Disabilities

Abstract

In today’s world, the use of electronic interfaces is a daily occurrence that majority of people has taken for granted. People that suffer from motor disabilities are unable to access these simple interfaces due to their inability to direct their body movement to do certain tasks such as pressing a key on the keyboard or activate a button on the device. In most cases, interaction with the digital interfaces or devices is the only means that such individuals can use to communicate with their caregivers. This has become particularly apparent for the people whose only mobility is confined to their eyes. For these individuals, the use of an Eye Gesture Communication System (EGCS) is great importance as it gives them the opportunities to convey their needs to other people through their eye movement. There are various types of EGCS available on the market. However, they are normally quite expensive. This paper discusses how a simple low-cost and yet reasonable accurate EGCS can be achieved with the use a webcam, Open CV’s Haar Cascade Classifiers, and a simple algorithm using various thresholding techniques. The results show the overall accuracy of 86% in interpreting the user’s needs.