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Abstract : |
A system has been developed that uses a camera to visually track the tip of the nose or the tip of a finger or some other selected feature of the body and moves the mouse pointer on the screen accordingly. People without disabilities quickly learn to use the system to spell out messages or play games. People with severe cerebral palsy have tried the system with some initial success. Our goal is to provide computer access to people who are quadriplegic and cannot speak by developing computer vision systems. BACKGROUND People who are quadriplegic and nonverbal, for example from cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injury or stroke, have limited motions they can make voluntarily. Some people can move their heads. Some can blink or wink voluntarily. Some can move the eyes or tongue. Family, friends, and other care providers usually detect these motions visually. Many computer access methods have been developed to help people who are quadriplegic and nonverbal: external switches, devices to detect small muscle movements or eye blinks, head pointers, infrared or near infrared camera based systems to detect eye movements, electrode based systems to measure the angle of the eye in the head, even systems to detect features in EEG. These have helped many people access the computer and have made tremendous improvements in their lives. Still, there are many people with no reliable means to access the computer. We are interested in developing computer vision systems (1) that work under normal lighting to provide computer access to people who are quadriplegic and nonverbal. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Develop a system that uses a camera to visually track a feature on a person?s face, for example the tip of the nose, and use the movement of the tracked feature to directly control the mouse pointer on a computer., |
