Design and Development of a Second-Generation Eye-Hand Coordination Assisting Device

The design and development of an eye-hand coordination assisting device was directed towards the use for individuals with Parkinson's disease or cerebral palsy. This application was not limited to individuals with neuromuscular diseases. It could also be extended to others who wish to improve their hand-arm coordination skills such as surgeons, soldiers, student drivers, etc. With this system, the user was prompted to stand in front of a large touch screen with a LabVIEW program containing three target buttons displayed on it. A web-camera was utilized to determine where the test subject was positioned via a customized LabVIEW Vision Development Module program. A red-light marker was placed on the test subject to determine where they were. A series of images were taken and processed to determine marker location in space. Using a unique color and intensity enhanced its position over the noisy background. Based on the where the individual was, the direction to move towards the target was displayed on a separate monitor, so that a subject would be able to complete the task successfully.