A step towards gaze-sensitive communication platform for the elderlynd disabled

Abstract

The elderly and disabled people with motor-impairment often experience limited mobility and speech problem. As a result, it robs away their independent living and makes them dependent on their caregivers for their day-to-day activities. They are often unable to express their needs and communicate with others, thereby getting alienated from the rest of the society. Expert therapists and well trained nurses can help in addressing this problem. However, limited availability and high cost of availing such specialized services, especially in middle income countries like India, makes it difficult for most people to access these services. Thus, alternative technology-assisted solutions become critical. However, most of the existing technology are often costly and also does not address severe disability. In fact, most neurological disorders are often accompanied with paralysis, thereby making communication by gesturing/speaking a challenge for these individuals. Thus, eye gaze-based assistive technology which can serve as a communication platform can be a potent alternative. The currently available gaze-based solutions mostly need calibration and sometimes lengthy set up process, which limits their applicability. In our present work, we have developed a computer assisted gaze-based communication platform that requires no calibration and has easy set-up capability. A preliminary pilot study performed with 10 healthy participants showed that our system has an average accuracy of 98% as far as reliable representation of user‟s choice is concerned. Our Usability study incorporated 4 stroke patients and the preliminary results are promising. Thus, this paves the way towards the design of a communication interface that has potential for use by the disabled.