A feasibility study of an eye-writing system based on electro-oculography

Eye-writing herein introduced is a novel language communication method wherein the eyes fill the role of a writing organ. An eye-writing system detects the traces of eye movements and determines their corresponding symbols by pattern recognition. In this study, we measured the eye movements by electro-oculograophy (EOG). The electrical potential difference measured between the skins above and below the eyes reflected the eye movement in the vertical direction. That measured between the skins to the left and to the right of the eyes reflected the eye movement in the horizontal direction. We evaluated the eye-writing system with a symbol set consisting of symbols of 10 Arabic numerals and 4 mathematic operators. Experiments on 11 voluntary human subjects showed recognition rate ranging from 50% to 100 % with different symbols. The recognition rate can be improved by several means to reach a desired level for practical applications. We conclude that eye-writing as a language communication method is feasible. This technology will be especially useful for severe amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients who have lost the oral-speaking and hand-writing abilities.