Environmental Control System for Locked-in Syndrome Patients Using Eye Tracker

Locked-in syndrome or LIS is a whole body voluntary muscles paralysis excluding muscles that control the eye movements but they are awake and conscious. The cognitive function is usually not affected and they can communicate through blinking or eye movements. LIS patient loses his productivity since their everyday living are greatly affected and needs a continuous help. Nowadays, assistive technology is widely used to compensate for the impairments they experience. The main objective of this research is to design and develop an assistive technology controlled by an eye tracker to help improve the lives of those patients suffering from LIS in controlling some electrical/electronic devices. The study utilized the experimental research design and the creation of a functional prototype for its hardware and software requisites. The researchers were able to successfully develop an environmental control system that is made through designing an appliance controller and a software where user can switch on or off four appliances through the use of eye gaze as their input. Statistical treatment of t-test was applied and the results showed that there is no significance difference between the user's actual gaze point coordinate to the center coordinate of the appliances buttons.