Electrooculography Based iOS Controller for Individuals with Quadriplegia or Neurodegenerative Disease

As the use of tablet computers and cell phones has become a standard medium of access to information, entertainment, and communication around the world, the reliance on having access to such devices has increased tremendously. For individuals with quadriplegia or neurodegenerative diseases, the access to these mobile devices is greatly hindered due to their inherent touchscreen design. Assistive technology solutions available to such patients today require families of patients to invest thousands of dollars in standalone tablet systems. There are few known options for allowing such patients to connect to their existing tablets or smartphones, which already have access to apps that can assist them in communication and daily activities. For this reason, we present in this paper a low-cost commercial off the shelf (COTS) assistive communication device to allow individuals with such conditions to access iOS based devices through electrooculography signals captured from their eye movements. Signals are captured through electrodes placed on the users face around the eyes. These signals are filtered, amplified, and processed to detect key eye movements mapped to perform control outputs sent to the iOS device. The communication capabilities are tested through the administration of a typing test to measure characters typed per minute (cpm). Testing of the device includes timed trials of directed tasks carried out by both healthy subjects and patients with ALS (PALS). It was determined that a user can type an average of 3.25 ~ 6.11 cpm using the device with an average accuracy of 89%. This could be significantly improved using a better suited keyboard application on the phone.