Controlling a Wheelchair using a Brain Computer Interface based on User Controlled Eye Blinks

Data published by different organizations such as the United Nations indicates that there are a large number of people who suffer from different types of movement disabilities. In many cases, the disability is so severe that they cannot have any kind of movements. Faced with this situation, Brain Computer Interface technology has taken up the challenge of developing solutions that allow delivering a better quality of life to those people, and one of the most important areas has been the mobility solutions, which includes the brain computer interface enabled electric wheelchairs as one of the most helpful solutions. Faced with this situation, the present work has developed a Brain Computer Interface solution that allows users to control the movement of their wheelchairs using the brain waves generated when blinks their eyes. For the creation of this solution, the Incremental Prototyping methodology has been used to optimize the development process by generating independent modules. The solution is made up of several components i.e. EEG System (OpenBCI), Main Controller, Wheelchair Controller and Wheelchair that allows to have a modularity to carry out updates (improvements) of their functionalities in a simple way. The developed system has shown that it requires a low amount of training time and has a real world applicable response time. Experimental results show that the users can perform different tasks with an acceptable grade of error in a period of time that could be considered as acceptable for the system. Considering that the prototype was created for people with disabilities, the system could grant them a certain level of independence.

@article{Zavala2021,
  title     = {Controlling a Wheelchair using a Brain Computer Interface based on User Controlled Eye Blinks},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {12},
  number    = {6},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Sebastián Poveda Zavala and Sang Guun Yoo and David Edmigio Valdivieso Tituana},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2021.0120607},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2021.0120607}
}