2015 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)
Design and Development of Low-Cost EOG
Acquisition Circuit for HMI Application
Satish Kumar Adyasha Dash
Department of ECE Department of ECE
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Ranchi, India Ranchi, India
Email Id: satishkumarvatsa@gmail.com Email Id: adpinkpelican90@gmail.com
Abstract – In this paper we have proposed a low-cost
electrooculogram (EOG) acquisition system that can be used
efficiently in Human Machine Interface (HMI) systems. The
proposed system consists of an Op-Amp based EEG/EOG
amplifier circuit and ATMega8 microcontroller for analog to
digital conversion and transferring of acquired data to PC. In this
system five electrodes are used to acquire eye blinking, horizontal
and vertical eye movements. Electrooculogram signal provides an
alternate channel of communication between a human brain and a
machine or robot for the people with disabilities which cannot
move their hand and/or leg but they can think or they can move
their eyes. In this system, the signals are first captured using EEG
surface electrodes, amplified, filtered and then converted into
digital form before stored into PC.
Keywords – Driven right leg, Electrooculogram, electrodes, eye
movements, Human Machine Interaction (HMI).
NOMENCLATURE
ADC- Analog to Digital Converter
DRL- Driven Right Leg
ECG- Electrocardiogram
EEG- Electroencephalogram
EMG- Electromiogram
EOG- Electrooculogram
HMI- Human Machine Interface
I. INTRODUCTION
According to world health organization 2-5% of people living
in our society are suffering from motor disabilities, they cannot
move their hand and/ or leg but they can think or they can
move their eyes. Thus, eye based HMI has been proposed to
make rehabilitation devices for them [1], [2]. Due to higher
metabolic rate at retina as compared to cornea the cornea
maintains a higher potential than retina. In this way Eye can be
modeled as an electrical dipole and this dipole moves with the
movement of eye. If we place two electrodes at the temple of
eye then there will be a signal between these two electrodes
which is known as EOG signal. This EOG signal could be used
to develop a new system to assist them or to communicate with
other peoples or control some rehabilitation devices [4], [5],
978-1-4799-5991-4/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 192
Manoj Kumar Mukul
Department of ECE
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Ranchi, India
Email Id: mkm@bitmesra.ac.in
[6]. The first step in the development of this system is to
acquire the EOG signals for different eye-related tasks.
EOG signal has amplitude of few microvolts (15-200 —V) and
is linear with eye movements [6]. This EOG signal is
contaminated with unwanted internal noise (ECG signal, EMG
signal) and external noise such as atmospheric noise, shot
noise and mainly with the 50 Hz power supply noise used in
domestic households. Signal amplification and filtering has a
significant role in EOG based HMI systems. The acquisition
circuit is made in such a way that the acquired signal remains
as much information from the EOG signal as possible while it
suppresses the noise components. The primary function of the
acquisition circuit is to maximize the signal to noise ratio and
to minimize the distortion of the signal.
Many circuits for EOG acquisition are available in the
literature, but better circuit topology, optimized design and
cost effectiveness are still the focus of further research for
reliable EOG based HMI systems.
In this work we have proposed a two channel EOG signal
amplification and filtering circuit using INA128P
Instrumentation amplifier in differential amplification mode
for common mode noise signal suppression, several active
high pass, low pass and notch filter circuits for noise removal.
In a further stage Atmel’s ATmega8 microcontroller is used
for sampling and digitization of the acquired signal and
transferring of digital EOG to PC. In PC, Matlab is used to
store the data in mat format.
II. EOG SIGNAL AND NOISE
It is well known that the amplitude of the EOG signal is in
microvolt range (15 - 200 —V) and most of the information is
contained in 0 Hz to 38 Hz frequency range with dominant
component in 0 to 25 Hz range [6], [8], [9]. Outside the 0-60
Hz frequency range, EOG signals have energy less than the
energy of electrical noise that is unusable. There are Four
primary types of noise sources which affects the EOG signal
during signal acquisition, i,e. the inherent noise of electronic
components inside the signal acquisition and recording circuit,
the ambient noise from the electromagnetic radiation in the
 2015 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)
surrounding environment (mainly 50 Hz power supply noise),
the motion artifacts mainly in the frequency range of 0-20 Hz
range from the electrode skin interface and from movement of
the cable connecting the electrode and the acquisition circuit,
and the other physiological signal such as ECG and EMG [3].
III. MATERIALS AND METHODS
A. System Configuration
The block diagram of the proposed low cost EOG acquisition
system is shown in fig. 1, which includes: a) EOG amplifier
and Filter circuit and b) ATmega8 based ADC and
communication circuit. The amplifier circuit contains the
following 1) protection circuit, 2) INA128P instrumentation
amplifier; 3) OP-Amp OPA277as filter and additional gain
amplifier circuit and 4) Driven Right Leg (DRL) circuit for
common mode signal rejection. The second circuit contains
ATmega8 microcontroller that serves for analog to digital
conversion and transferring the acquired digital data to PC.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of proposed EOG acquisition system
B. EOG Acquisition Circuit
Five EEG surface electrodes are used to acquire the raw EOG
signal from the user’s eye one set of two electrodes are placed
at temple of user’s eye to acquire the EOG signal for eye
movement in horizontal direction and another set of two
electrodes are placed above and below the user’s eye to collect
EOG data for eye movement in vertical direction and eye
blinking, fifth electrode is placed at forehead which is used as
reference signal to compensate common mode noise from the
user’s body. After acquiring the EOG signal, first the high-
frequency noise is removed using capacitor filter and then this
signal is passed through protection circuit. This protection
circuit is made of BJT transistors that protect the user from any
accidental voltage or current leakage from the circuit towards
the user. Fig. 3 shows the circuit diagram for protection circuit.
The EOG amplifier/filter circuit is designed with seven stages
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to provide faithful amplification to the acquired EOG signal.
Seven stages of amplifier and filter circuit are given here.
a. The bipolar EOG signal is acquired and after passing
through protection circuit firstly amplified by an
instrumentation amplifier, INA 128P (gain:100 V/V).
In this circuit, we have used INA 128P because it has
very high input impedance (which is desirable for
biomedical application) as well as good common
mode rejection ratio (CMRR) approximately 120 dB
minimum.
b. The preamplifier signal is then filtered by a high pass
filter having cutoff frequency fc = 0.16 Hz. This high
pass filter removes any DC offset at the output of the
preamplifier.
c. The most critical problem in biomedical amplifier
design is 50 Hz power supply noise. The primary
source of this noise is the fact that human body acts
as antenna allowing a capacitance to be setup
between power supply line/ equipments and the
human body. Similarly power supply noise is induced
in the EOG acquisition circuit by nearby equipments
[4]. After filtering, the signal is then passed through a
50 Hz notch filter which is used to remove this power
supply interference noise. The 50 Hz active notch
filter comprises of a twin-T network. This notch filter
provides attenuation of -60 dB at 50 Hz.
Fig. 2. Circuit Diagram of twin-T Notch Filter
d. The filtered signal is then further amplified by using
Op-Amp OPA277P in noninverting configuration.
The gain of this stage can be adjusted between 20-
100 V/V using potentiometer available on the circuit
board.
e. The amplified signal is then passed through a high
pass filter having cutoff frequency fc = 0.16 Hz. This
high pass filter removes any DC offset at the output
of the gain stage.
 2015 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)

CH +
f. The final stage is a Low pass filter which further band
limit the signal up to 60 Hz. This low pass filter has a
third order Sallen-Key configuration having cutoff
frequency fc = 60 Hz. This filter circuit also provides
additional gain of 16 V/V to the EOG signal.
g. The Driven Right Leg Circuit is used to reduce the
common mode signal such as internal noise (ECG,
EMG) and the 50 Hz power supply hum by cancelling
them out. This DRL circuit picks common mode
signal from the Instrumentation amplifier and after
passing it through an inverting voltage buffer, this
signal serves as reference signal and connected to the CH -
user’s forehead, which negate the effect of common
mode signal. This DRL circuit can reduce the power Fig. 3. Circuit Diagram of Protection Circuit
supply hum by 100 times more than rejected by
instrumentation amplifier itself [7].

Protection Circuit Instrumentation DC Offset 50 Hz Notch DC Offset Additional Gain DC Offset LOW Pass
Amp. INA128P Remover Filter Remover G = 20 to 100 Remover Filter with Gain

CH +
fc = G= fc = fc = fc =
G= 0.15 -60 dB 0.15 0.15 60 Hz ADC
100 Hz Hz Hz G= 16
CH -

Protection Circuit Instrumentation DC Offset 50 Hz Notch DC Offset Additional Gain DC Offset LOW Pass
Amp. INA128P Remover Filter Remover G = 20 to 100 Remover Filter with Gain

CH +
fc = G= fc = fc = fc =
G= 0.15 -60 dB 0.15 0.15 60 Hz ADC
100 Hz Hz Hz G= 16

CH -

Ref.

DRL Circuit
Fig. 4. Block diagram of EOG signal amplifier/filter board

microcontroller board itself. To decrease the further possibility

C. ADC & Communication Board
The ADC board consists of Atmel’s ATmega8 microcontroller
which is used to digitize the acquired EOG signal and this
digital EOG signal is transferred to PC using serial
communication from microcontroller to PC. Selecting Switches
are available for choosing the sampling rate of the EOG signal
which can be 64 Hz, 128 Hz or 256 Hz. The resolution of the
ADC is 10 bits. Further the power supply unit of the
microcontroller as well as amplifier board is designed on the
of any accidental high voltage leakage from PC to EOG
amplifier/ filter board and thus user during serial
communication we have used isolator IS7421, which can
provide galvanic isolation up to 2.5 kVrms for 1 minute per UL
[10].
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The block diagram of the EOG signal amplifier/ filter circuit is
shown in fig. 4. This circuit is simulated in NI Multisim and

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the simulation result is shown in fig. 5. From this graph, it is

clear that the proposed EOG acquisition circuit provides a gain
of 90 dB between frequency ranges 0.3 Hz to 60 Hz and having
a notch of depth -59.2 dB at 50 Hz. Such a large gain is
sufficient to provide faithful amplification to tiny EOG signals
(15 —V to 200 —V). The notch filter reduces the 50 Hz power
supply noise by approximately -60 dB. The high pass filter of
cutoff frequency 0.16 Hz provides a roll-off of 40 dB per
decade and the Sallen-Key low pass filter of cutoff frequency
60 Hz provides a roll-off of 60 dB per decade. The picture of
fabricated PCB of the proposed EOG amplifier and
microcontroller board is shown in fig. 6 and fig. 7 respectively.

Fig. 7. Fabricated PCB of Microcontroller board

Power supply section is built on microcontroller board which

provides 5 V power to microcontroller and the amplifier/ filter
board. The 5V supply connected to the amplifier/filter board is
isolated from the input mains power supply adapter by using
DCH010505s DC-DC converter which provides isolation of 3
kV [11]. This isolation protects the circuit from any leakage of
high voltage from mains adapter to the amplifier/ filter circuit.
The proposed EOG/ EEG acquisition system has many
functions and subsections, whose specifications are
summarized in table I.

Fig. 5. Gain Vs Frequency Curve for the proposed amplifier circuit TABLE I. PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE SYSTEM

EOG Acquisition Circuit

Sensor Positions On Temple of both EYE,
Above & Below Eye,
Forehead
Electrode Type EEG Surface Electrode.
(AgCl)
Protection Circuit Over Voltage: 500 mV
Pre Amplifier INA 128P, Gain: 100 V/V,
CMRR: 120 dB (minimum)
DC Drift Remover Cut-off Frequency: 0.16 Hz
Notch Filter Central Frequency: 50 Hz,
Attenuation= -60 dB
2nd GAIN Stage GAIN Range: 40-100 V/V
Low pass Filter & Additional GAIN: 16 V/V; Cut-off
Gain Stage Frequency: 60 Hz
Reference Generator Vref = 4V
Analog to digital Converter Total Channels: 06, Used=2,
Sampling Rate: 64,128,256
Hz (Selectable), Type: SAR
Type.
Isolation (Between controller ISO7421, 2.5kV for 1 Min
board & PC)
Fig. 6. Fabricated PCB of EOG amplifier/ filter circuit.
Isolation (Between Mains DCH010505s, 3 kV
Power adapter & the circuit) isolation
Serial Communication Baud Rate: 57600bps

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 2015 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks (SPIN)

The acquired EOG signal for different tasks are shown in fig.
8,9,10,11 &12. The channel connected to horizontal to user’s Up
eye shows better response for eye movement in horizontal Up Up
direction (either in left or right direction), and the channel
connected to vertical to user’s eye shows better response for
vertical eye movement (either upward or downward). Since the
proposed amplifier amplifies differential signal hence for one
direction of eye movement the output EOG shows peak in up
direction and for remaining other direction of eye movement
the EOG shows peak in down direction. In the output we
achieve higher value of EOG for larger displacement and vice
versa. The EOG signal shows in fig. 8 represents eye left then
right and again left movement, similarly in fig. 9 the signal
shows eye movement in right then in left direction.
Fig. 10 shows the recorded output for eye movement in upward
direction and fig. 11 shows the output corresponding to eye
movement in vertical downward direction.
Fig. 10. Recorded EOG signal for eye movement in the upward direction.

Right

Left Down Down

Left

Fig. 8. Recorded EOG signal for eye movement in the left direction.
Fig. 11. Recorded EOG signal for EYE movement in the downward direction

Some variations in output EOG are also present when eyes are
Right still. The reason is that the eyes still do some movement
known as stabilizing movement to remain focusing the image
onto the retina when eyes are at rest [4]. This variation can be
removed from the recorded EOG signal by implementing a
software based filter during processing. Fig. 12 shows the
EOG signal for intentional eye blinking. Experiments show
that the eye blinking has a larger effect on EOG from vertical
channel than horizontal channel. Intentional eye blinking
produces larger pulses than any other movement similarly a
normal blink will generate a smaller response.
From the recorded EOG it is clear that this proposed system
Left
generates a set of particular patterns for different tasks of eye
movement and blinking, and due to differential nature of the
amplifier it is easy to detect the direction of eye movement,
because of the fact that the system gives higher amplitude for
Fig. 9. Recorded EOG signal for eye movement in the right direction one direction and lower amplitude for other direction of eye
movement. For eye blinking, the system generates continuous

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pulses of higher amplitude and lower drift time in the vertical
channel.
Fig. 12. Recorded EOG signal for intentional eye blink.
After our testing, it is found that this new system has following
specifications that make it suitable for biomedical application.
a. The input impedance of this system is 1010Ÿ for
differential mode which is desirable for biomedical
application.
b. The CMRR of the circuit is greater than 120 dB hence
it can suppress common mode noise in a better way.
c. The sampling frequency of the system is selectable
among 64 Hz, 128 Hz or 256 Hz. For the study of
signals different frequency range we can choose
different sampling frequency.
d. ADC resolution of the circuit is 10 bits.
e. The noise voltage is maximum 0.2 —Vpp for the
frequency range from 0.1 Hz to 100 Hz that is
desirable for biomedical application.
f. Protection circuit is installed to protect the user from
any accidental high voltage leakage from amplifier to
user.
g. We use 50 Hz notch filter to reduce the effect of
power supply noise. This circuit provides an
attenuation of -60 dB to the 50 Hz power supply hum.
h. The proposed device can store two channels of
EOG/EEG data simultaneously. (Microcontroller
board has 6 channels of ADC hence number of
channels for amplifier/filters can be increased).
i. The dynamic range of the designed circuit is less than
0.9 —V.
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j. The gain of the designed circuit can be adjusted
between 40 dB and 90 dB according to the need of
the application.
V. CONCLUSION
In this work, we have proposed a cost-effective EOG
acquisition system for use in Human Machine Interface
system as well as for the study and research related to brain
wave or electrooculogram. The specifications of the proposed
system make it suitable for biomedical application. The
acquired EOG signal provides different eye related activities.
Depend upon these eye related activities various systems can
be developed to perform different tasks in real world, which
provides a degree of independence to the user. This system
can be used as a frontend to develop an embedded system that
requires real time EOG signal as primary input.
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