Development of Communication Aid Device for Disabled Persons Using Corneal Surface Reflection Image

Improving quality of life (QOL) has become an important issue for patients with neurological diseases such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and SMA (spinal atrophy). At the same time, it is indispensable to secure a communication device that displays its own intention, and various interfaces have been proposed. In this research, we developed a glasses-type switching wearable device focusing on eyeball movement. Here, images around the eyeball were obtained by USB-camera equipped with infrared LEDs, and pupils were extracted by Hough transform procedure. Furthermore, in order to apply a communication aid operation, a detection model of the line-of-sight direction was constructed by acquiring the coordinates of the cornea surface reflection image.