A calibrated, real-time eye gaze tracking system as an assistive system for persons with motor disability

This study focuses on the design of an integrated, real-time assistive system as an alternate human computer interface (HCI) that can be used by individuals with severe motor disabilities. The integrated aspect of the design was initially based on the use of the eye-gaze tracking (EGT) system [1] in order to obtain eye coordinates, which are sent to the computer interface where they are normalized into mouse coordinates according to the current monitor resolution. The novelty of this work is that it simplifies the eye-tracking technique to achieve near real-time and user-friendly interaction. Besides moving the cursor, the user can also use the mouse's right click implemented by keeping the eyes closed for a few milliseconds. This time interval is established such as to distinguish it from the action of a regular blink. The ultimate objective was to seek an HCI that will allow individuals with severe motor disabilities to interact with a computer using only eye movement with options for practical web browsing and editing.