Innovative Approach to Control Wheelchair for Disabled People Using BCI

TLDR: The proposed system utilizes the voluntary eye blink as an event to trigger an action to aid in mobility of physically disabled people and utilizes the BCI technology to control it using brain to overcome the limitations of conventional wheelchair.

Abstract: Movement is an important aspect of any human being's life therefore lack of it has adverse effect on their overall development. Physically disabled people unfortunately are devoid of this privilege. Mechanical wheelchairs provided some form of mobility but they relied on external help for moving around. Moreover, people with tetraplegia couldn't benefit from it due to loss of all four limbs. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is construed as interacting with an electronic device solely with brain with the help of Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals. This technology is applied to existing mechanical wheelchair to control it using brain to overcome the limitations of conventional wheelchair. This paper proposes cost effective application of BCI technology to aid in mobility of physically disabled people. The proposed system utilizes the voluntary eye blink as an event to trigger an action. An eye blink pattern is mapped to a context based physical action like moving the wheelchair in particular direction.