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Can you imagine controlling electrical devices using only your eye movements?
Although it might sound like a movie plot,
two mexican Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students
have created a system that would allow
handicapped people be more autonomous at their homes.
Arturo Moncada, 21 years old, explained that ocular movement is usually preserved, regardless the injury.
They take advantage of this so the patient may be able to interact with electrical appliances as follows:
- We obtain a signal from the ocular movement. This signal is processed and is sent to the computer.
- The computer has a graphical interface with several buttons.
- Each button has been assigned a specific action for each device. This action is confirmed using a button.
- Once a patient locates the action he wants on screen, he can press the button to perform it.
Luis Eduardo Lara, 22 years old, explained that what they have built is a very simple prototype.
- It still needs lots of improvements in order to be used by a real handicapped person.
- Hardware and software can still be improved to make it more compact, more portable, run on batteries...
- This way, the prototype would be more accessible.
According to Lara, it is important to understand that the human body is an energy machine.
Therefore, when you move your eye, you can generate electrical activity.