An electrooculogram based control system

Electrooculography (EOG) is the electrical activity due to eyeball movement, recorded from the different points on the face of a person. Human-Machine Interface (HMI) application based on EOG could be very helpful for the patients suffering from neural diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or paralysis. In the present work a low-cost device is developed to detect and switch on or off any of 16 LEDs in a 4×4 matrix. Two EOG amplifiers have been used to detect five different movements or actions of the eyes of a user. Right, Left, Up and Down movement of the eye shifts the position of the lit LEDs while a Blinking action of the eye activates an action on that chosen LED. The scheme has been implemented using an Arduino Uno microcontroller board. This mechanism can be used in a virtual keyboard or to control machines including a wheel chair by a paralysed person. In future this technique can be used in other HMI based applications as well.