Eye Interface Technology using Electro-oculography (EOG) –

Proposed Working Model

1
Hareesh. D, 2SaiMadhav. G, 3Baburaju. G

1
Student, III/IV B.Tech, Department of ECE, JNTUH College of Engineering, Karimnagar, A.P, India,

Email Id: devarakondahareesh1@gmail.com , Ph. No.:7893655012.

2
Student, III/IV B.Tech, Department of ECE, JNTUH College of Engineering, Karimnagar, A.P, India,

Email Id: saimadhav.901@gmail.com , Ph. No.:7382563989.

3
Student, III/IV B.Tech, Department of ECE, JNTUH College of Engineering, Karimnagar, A.P, India,

Email Id: baburaj955@gmail.com , Ph.No.:9701975722.

Abstract:- Although it has the least simple function, it

enables every user easily to turn ON/OFF a
This paper involves a new method
nurse-call device or to send one bit signal
to control and guide mobile robots. In this
to a personal computer with high stability
case, to send different commands is used
and reliability.
electrooculography techniques (EOG), so
The proposed system consists of a
that, control is made by means of the ocular
standard electric wheelchair with an on
position (eye displacement into its orbit).
board computer, sensors and graphical user
This control technique can be useful in
interface running on a computer.
multiple applications, but in this work is
used to guide an autonomous robot
(wheelchair) as system to help to people Keywords: Electrooculographic potential
with severe disabilities. (EOG), Eye-gaze interface, control system,
Using electro-oculography (EOG), differently abled people, wheelchair.
two types of eye-gaze interfaces have been
Introduction:
developed; "EOG Pointer" and "EOG
Assistive robotics can improve the quality
Switch". The former enables a user to move
of life for disable people. Nowadays, there
a computer cursor or to control a machine
are a lot of help systems to control and
using only eye-gaze, regardless of drifting
guide autonomous mobile robots. All this
signal and blinking artifacts. In contrast,
systems allow their users to travel more
the latter output an ON/OFF signal only.
efficiently and with greater ease. These
systems cover different areas such as
mobile robot location and positioning
(odometric system, GPS, etc.), generation
and tracking of trajectories, path planning
of the environment using ultrasonic or
infrared, artificial vision techniques, etc.
This systems can work in an autonomous
form or can be used as reference systems
for users. However, in the last years, the
applications for developing help systems to
people with several disabilities
increased, and therefore the traditional
systems are not valid. In this new systems,
we can see: videooculography systems
(VOG) or infrared oculography (IROG)
based on detection of the eye position using
a camera, there are several techniques
based in voice recognition for detecting
basic commands to control
instruments or robots; the
(sometimes tactile screen) is the most
popular technique used to control different
applications by people with limited upper
body mobility but it requires fine control
that the person may be have difficulty
accomplishing. All these techniques can be
applied to different people in function of
their disability degree, using always the
technique or techniques more efficiently
for each person. This paper presents review
on initial work executed
development of a robotic wheelchair
system based on electrooculography. The
system allows the users to tell the robot
where to move in gross terms and will then
carry out that navigational task using
common sensual constraints such as
avoiding collision.
This wheelchair system is indented to be a
general purpose navigational assistant in
environments with accessible features such
as ramps(slopes) and doorways of
sufficient width to allow a wheelchair pass.
This reviewed work is based on previous
are
research in robot path planning and mobile
robotics, however, a robotic wheelchair
must interact with its user, making the
robotic system Semiautonomous rather
than completely autonomous.
Electrooculography (EOG):
“EOG is based on electrical measurement
some of the potential difference between the
joystick cornea and the retina.”
Electrooculography is a method for sensing
eye movement and is based on recording
the standing corneal-retinal potential (CRP)
arising from hyperpolarization and
depolarization existing between the cornea
and the retina; this is commonly known as
an electrooculogram.
There are several methods to sense eye
movement. Most of this methods involve
the use of cameras or vision systems to
in the
track some feature of the eye and using
reverse geometry to determine where the
user is looking. Several systems use signal from the oculographic measurements
infrared illumination and infrared-sensitive have been turned into signal suitable for
camera to track eye movements. control purposes. The derivation of the
EOG is achieved by means of placing two
In this reviewed work, the goal is to sense
electrodes on the outer side of the eyes to
the Electrooculographic potential (EOG).
detect horizontal movement and another
Sometimes, the EOG is also known as the
pair above and below the right eye to detect
electronystagmographic potential (ENG).
vertical movement. A reference electrode is
The system, discrete Electrooculographic
placed on the forehead.
control system (DECS), is based on
recording the polarization potential or The electrodes placed around the eyes
corneal-retinal potential (CRP). This measure the Electrooculographic potential
potential is commonly known as an (EOG), this potential is a function of the
electrooculogram (EOG). The EOG ranges
from 0.05 to 3.5 mV in humans and is
linearly proportional to eye displacement.
The CRP is produced by means of
hyperpolarization and depolarization of
nervous cells in the retina. The human eye
is an electrical dipole with a negative pole
at the fundus and a positive pole at the
cornea (Figure 1). Currently the major
used of the EOG in clinic is in diagnosing
vestibular and balance problems.
position of the eye relative to the head.
Basically, the difference between the
voltages of the electrodes above and below
the eye (B, C) indicates the vertical
position of the eye relative to the head. The
difference between the voltages of the
electrodes to the left and right of the eyes
(D, E) indicates the horizontal position of

This system may be used for increasing the eye relative to the head. The EOG
signal changes approximately 20
communication and or control. The analog
microvolts for each degree of eye to generate simple code for controlling the
wheelchair using the eye placing.
movement. In the given system, the signals
For Vertical position:
are sampled 10 times per second. The EOG
In this case, the vertical position is
signal is a result of a number of factors, used for controlling the linear speed of
the wheelchair. The control rules are:
including eyeball rotation and movement,
 If vertical position > Top
eyelid movement, different sources of
artifact such as EEG, electrode placement,
head movements, influence of the
illumination, etc. It is therefore necessary
to eliminate the shifting resting potential
(mean value) because this value changes.
To avoid this problem an ac high-gain
differential amplifier (1000–5000) is used,
 If vertical position < Bottom
threshold V++
together with a high pass filter with cutoff
threshold V—
frequency at 0.05 Hz and relatively long
time constant and a lowpass filter with For horizontal position:
And the horizontal position is used for
cutoff frequency at 35 Hz. Reusable Ag-
 If horizontal position > Right
controlling the angular speed:
AgCl floating metal body-surface
 If horizontal position < Left
threshold W = WPOS
electrodes are used and gel is used as
threshold W = WNEG.
electrolyte.

Visual control system using

Electrooculography :

The objective of this control system is to

guide an autonomous mobile robot using
the positioning of the eye into its orbit by
means of EOG signal (Figure 3). In this
case, the autonomous vehicle is a
wheelchair for disabled people.

To control the robots movements can be

used multiple options: interpretation of
different commands generated by means of It is necessary to have several alarm and
eye movements, generation of different
stop commands for dangerous situations.
trajectories in functions of gaze points, etc.
The first option is opted because it permits These codes can be generated by means the
blink and alpha waves in EOG to detect techniques more efficiently for each
when the eyelids are closed. The robotic people. It is necessary to use different
wheelchair system must be able to navigate support system to avoid collisions and the
indoor and outdoor environments and robotic system can switch automatically for

should switch automatically between controlling the system in an autonomous

navigations modes for these environment. form. For example, if the user lost the
Therefore, this system can be applied for control and the system is unstable, the
different navigations modes in function of wheelchair should switch and obtain the
their disability degree, using always the control system.
 Fig 6: BiDiM-EOG

EYE MODEL BASED ON EOG oculomotor system.

(BiDiM-EOG): The modeling thereof could be tackled
The aim is to design an from two main viewpoints:
Electrooculographic eye model capable of i) Anatomical modeling of the gaze-fixing
obtaining the gaze direction by detecting system, describing the spatial
the eye movements using configuration thereof and the ways the
electrooculography. The oculomotor visual information is transmitted and
system is modeled with the eye position processed.
within its socket as the output variable, i.e.,
ii)Modeling of the eye movements, studying
the eye position with respect to the cranium
the different types of movements, and the
θ0- θcr, although this angle is usually
way of making them.
represented by the deviation angles with
respect to the eye’s central position On the basis of the physiological and
θHorizontal vs θVertical. This variable can be morphological data of the EOG, an EOG-
obtained by different methods, such as based model of the oculomotor system is
videooculography (VOG), infrared proposed (Bidimensional dipolar model
oculography (IOR), scleral coil (SC), etc. EOG, BiDiM-EOG.)
In a survey of eye movements recording
methods can be seen where the main
advantages and drawbacks of each one are
described. In this paper, however, it is
going to be modeled in terms of the
Electrooculographic (EOG) signal because
it presents a good face access, good
accuracy and resolution, great range of eye
displacements, works in real time, and is
cheap. In view of the physiology of the (a)

(b)
Fig. 7. Prototype and control scheme. (a) Wheelchair
guidance scheme. (b)Wheelchair prototype
This model allows us to separate saccadic
and smooth eye movements and calculate
the eye position in its socket with good
accuracy (error of less than 2 ). The filter
eliminates the effects due to other
biopotentials, just as the blinks over to the
EOG signal. The security block detects
when the eyes are closed, where upon the
output is disabled. After that, the EOG
signal is then classified into saccadic or
smooth eye movements by means of two
detectors. If a saccadic movement is
detected, a position control is used,
whereas if a smooth movement is detected,
a speed control is used to calculate the eye
position. The final position (angle) is
calculated as the sum of the saccadic and
smooth movements.
(c) Wheelchair used in project
Besides, the model also has to adapt itself
to the possible variations of acquisition
conditions (electrode placement, electrode-
skin contact, etc.). To do so, the model
parameters are adjusted in accordance with
the angle detected. Several tests prove that
the derivative of the Electrooculographic
signal allows us to determine when a
sudden movement is made in the eye gaze
and this variation can be easily translated to
angles. This technique can be used to help
disabled people, since we have obtained an
accuracy error of less than and a spatial
resolution nearly. Although in this paper
we are going to comment on the results
obtained in the guidance of a wheelchair
(mobility aid), other applications have been
developed to increase communication
facilities (communication aid)
GUIDANCE OF A WHEELCHAIR USING EOG:
The goal of this control system is to guide
an autonomous robotic wheelchair using
Electrooculographic signal generated by
eye movements within the socket.
The wheelchair can be controlled using
EOG by various guidance strategies:
  Direct Access Guidance
 Scanning Guidance
 Guidance By Eye Commands

Direct Access Guidance:

This system gives direct access to the

desired command. The user, shown a
certain graphic interface, selects the desired
command by positioning a given cursor
over it and then effecting a given validation
action (usually by time, although
established guidance commands. The user
sometimes blink can be used).

(a)
is presented with a screen showing diverse
(b) commands and each one is activated, either
Fig. 8. (a) Direct access interface. (b) semi automatically or automatically until
State machine using speed fixed per Event the desired one is selected.
This type of interface is ideal for persons
As it can be seen, the main advantage of with little precision in their eye
this interface is its simplicity and ease of movements, although they do need to have
assimilation; the training and learning time certain control over them to be able to
is therefore almost nil. generate the validation actions.
The set of possible commands are:
FORWARD: The robot’s linear speed
increases (the wheel chair moves forward).
BACKWARD: The robot’s linear speed
decreases (the wheelchair moves
backward).
RIGHT: The angular speed increases (the
wheelchair moves to the right)
LEFT: The angular speed decreases (the
wheelchair moves to the left)
Scanning Guidance:
With this system the user accesses the (a)
desired command by scanning all the
 (b)
Fig. 9. (a) Interface of scanning
guidance. (b) State machine.
The directional commands are integrated
into the BACKWARD and FORWARD
commands, which, besides governing the
linear speeds, also establish the
wheelchair’s direction. The speed
commands are integrated into the
BACKWARD, FORWARD, RIGHT, and
LEFT commands, which generate the
corresponding linear and angular speeds
adapted to each user.
The command is deactivated when another
movement action is executed.
Guidance By Eye Commands:
One of the most important problems about
these interfaces (direct access and scanning
access) is that the user has to elect a
command on a screen. This causes that
screen has to be placed in a position where
users can see it. For this reason, people with
great disabilities (for example, who cannot
move their head) have great problems for
guiding the wheelchair using these
techniques, because it is necessary to place
the screen in front of their visual map, and
therefore, this is reduced. To avoid this
problem, the best option is not to use a
graphical interface to select the guidance
commands, but to establish an ocular
movements codification. However, it is
always necessary to establish a feedback
about the state of the guidance in each time
(in this case, the system has an audio-visual
feedback based on a LCD and a
loudspeaker) that permits the user to know
the command selected in each moment and
the state of the guidance. Therefore, the aim
of this technique is to develop control
strategies based on certain eye movements
(ocular actions) and their interpretation as
commands. This type of interface can be
used by those persons who can control their
eye movements and at the same time make
different movements voluntarily.
Hardware and Software
A software program has been developed for
controlling and calibrating the eye position.
This software is based in Lab-Windows
and is used the SILMON acquisition data
system. The communications between PC
and wheelchair is made by means of
PLCTA and bus (based on a Neuron-chip).
Figure 10 shows the main windows of the
program; we can see the different EOG
signals (vertical and horizontal) that are
recorded each 0.1 s.
Fig 10.- Main windows.
We can select different commands (figure
10): calibrate functions, acquire, stop, etc.
When the eye positions is calculated, the
eye gaze is obtained and represented in this
windows in angles (figure 11).
Fig 11.- Eye gaze.
The EOG is processed in the computer and
the control command is sent to the
wheelchair using a PLCTA. The Neuron-
Chip receives the command and generates
the command of linear speed for each
wheel independently.
Review of Results of the proposed
model:
Several results of guidance the wheelchair
are shown.
In figures 12 and 13, the red line ∆
represents a “3-spline curve-line” that we
want to follow. This trajectory is obtained
using a trajectory spline generator
enveloped in proposed model. On the other
hand, the blue line represents the trajectory
obtained when the wheelchair is guided
using EOG. It is possible to appreciate that
the desired trajectory is followed with a
small lateral error. Nowadays, we are not
trying this control with persons with
disabilities but we consider that is not
difficult to learn the control commands.
Learning to use this system must be done in
an acquired skill. Some studies shown that
disable persons usually require about 15
minutes to learn to use this kind of
systems..
Conclusion:
In this paper, we presented a system that convenience of this technique could be of
can be used as a means of control allowing great potential utility and help in the future.
the differently abled, especially those with References:
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Dept.,” Univ. Alcala, Madrid, Spain.
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2) ERICA Project, “Eye gaze response
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and the rate of information flow. Some of 3) The Eyegaze Eyetracking System. Joseph
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th
are restricted to a particular location and in technologies, Inc. 4 Annual IEEE Dual-
Use Technologies and Applications
many areas of robotics, environmental
Conference. Suny Institute of technology
assumptions can be made that simplify the
at Utica/Rome, New york.
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using a wheelchair and EOG technique clínica. M.C. Nicolau, J. Burcet, R.V. Rial.

should not be limited by the device University of Islas Baleares.

5) Research group of the SIAMO Project,
intended to assist them if the environment
“The SIAMO project: Integral System for
have accessible features.
Assisted Mobility,” IEEE Robot. Automat.
There are a lot of applications can Special Issue in Res. Autonomous Robotic
be developed using EOG because this Wheelchair in Europe, 2001.

technique allows to users an free degree in 6) EagleEyes Project. James Gips, Philip
DiMattia, Francis X. Curran and Peter
the environment. If the eye gaze is known,
Olivieri. Computer Science Department,
it is possible to development different user
Boston College. Chestnutill, Mass. USA.
interfaces to control different task: spell
and speak software programs, it allows
users to write a letter or a message and after
that, a control system can interpreted the
message and generate different commands.
It is possible to generate a similar code to
deaf people, etc.
Finally, many applications can be
developed using EOG because this
technique provides the users with a degree
of independence in the environment.
Therefore, any improvement in the