An Electrooculogram Based Control System

Md. Moin Uddin Atique*, Sakhawat Hossen Rakib, Khondkar Siddique-e-Rabbani

Biomedical Physics & Technology
University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
E-mail: moin@bmpt.du.ac.bd*, rakib11208026@gmail.com, rabbani@du.ac.bd,

Abstract— Electrooculography (EOG) is the electrical activity recognize the EOG gesture. Controlling Robots and
due to eyeball movement, recorded from the different points on developing Human-robot interface are being attempted by
the face of a person. Human-Machine Interface (HMI) many groups around the world [9-11]. A hospital alarm
application based on EOG could be very helpful for the patients system was also developed, which is useful for emergency
suffering from neural diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
(ALS) or paralysis. In the present work a low-cost device is
conditions [12]. Cost effective designs could be helpful to
developed to detect and switch on or off any of 16 LEDs in a 4×4 make the device available for people with low income [13-14].
matrix. Two EOG amplifiers have been used to detect five
different movements or actions of the eyes of a user. Right, Left, The goal of the present work is to design a low-cost EOG
Up and Down movement of the eye shifts the position of the lit based controlling system which will be useful for full body
LEDs while a Blinking action of the eye activates an action on paralyzed patients, who can only move their eyes. EOG
that chosen LED. The scheme has been implemented using an detection is difficult due to its very low amplitude and
Arduino Uno microcontroller board. This mechanism can be frequency. Developing a controlling system and providing
used in a virtual keyboard or to control machines including a multi functionality using only limited number of eye
wheel chair by a paralysed person. In future this technique can
be used in other HMI based applications as well.
movements is hard to achieve. In the present work eye
movement in four directions combined with blinking action
Keywords - Electrooculogram, EOG, Human Machine have been used to choose and turn on or off any of 16 LEDs
Interface, Automatic Machine control, Medical Instrumentation. arranged in a 4×4 matrix, which can be the basis of
applications like virtual keyboard for communication, wheel
I. INTRODUCTION chair control for easy movement or any human machine
interface applications.
Electrooculography (EOG) is the electrical potential [1] that
is produced across the cornea and retina due to eyeball
movement of a person [2-3]. This potential for different II. METHODS & MATERIALS
movements of eye can be detected from the forehead, temple Detection and utilization of EOG signal is a step by step
and upper side of the cheek. procedure involving both hardware and software interfaces.
These steps and procedures are described below.
EOG can be used for HMI (Human-Machine Interface)
applications. A controlling system based on this electric signal
could be very helpful for patients suffering from neural
diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) [4], a type
of Motor Neuron Disease (MND). ALS patients suffer from
muscle weakness and shrinkage and lose the ability of
movement and speaking. However, eye movement is not
usually affected and EOG signals received from the ocular
movement may provide ALS patients with a means to control
equipment or communicating with others [5].

Many research teams around the world are working on

building HMI system depending on EOG. Rafael Barea, along
with his colleagues, developed a standard electric wheelchair
with an on-board computer sensors and a graphic user
interface that is eye-controlled [6]. Their system uses the eye
movement as the mouse controller of a computer. This system
also gives audio-visual feedback to the user to make the
system user friendly. Some other research teams are
developing EOG based graphical interface systems where
patients will be able to communicate using only eyeball
movement [7-8]. Some researchers used neural network to Figure 1: Detection method of the EOG signal.
A. EOG detection and controlling system:
For every movement of the eye an EOG signal is produced.
EOG signal has very low potential difference of about 0.1 to 2
mV with a typical timespread of about 300ms to 400ms. The
frequency range of this signal varies from Dc to 30 Hz. In this
project an attempt will be taken to detect five basic
movements of the eye: Left, Right, Up and Down movement
of the eyeballs and Blinking action of the eyelid. This process
requires two EOG amplifiers as different movement produces
different electric potential across different points. The signals
were collected using skin surface electrodes from the face. To
detect the right and left movement of the eyeball, inputs of one
of the amplifiers (amplifier A in Figure 1) are connected to
electrodes placed on the temples of the two sides of the face
(positions P and Q). This amplifier shows a positive peak of
potential difference more than a threshold, +Va1, for eyeball
movement towards right and negative (less than −Va1) for the
left. The detection of Up, Down and Blink actions requires
placing of input electrodes of the second amplifier (amplifier
B) at the corner of the forehead and at the upper side of the
cheek (position R and S in Figure-1). The common electrode
for both the amplifiers is connected in the middle of the
forehead (position T). This second amplifier will also produce
positive potential above a threshold, +Vb1 and a negative
potential less than −Vb1 for corresponding upward and
downward movements of the eyeballs. In addition, a higher
positive potential (more than +Vb2) will be found from this
amplifier for blinking the eye which is distinguishable from
the Up move. Double blinking signal could be distinguished
by detecting a positive potential of more than +Vb2, twice
within 250ms. Two or three such consecutive blinking signals
may be detected as Double Blink or Tripple Blink to produce a
confirmatory signal eliminating actions due to chance
blinking. The left hand part of Figure 2 shows the scheme of
the LED matrix and of the movements while the right hand
part shows the Truth table for the whole detection procedure
from both the amplifiers (n/a means not allowed).
Figure 2: Movement scheme in the LED matrix and the Truth table for
detection of various movements from EOG.
The amplified signal is to be analyzed properly by the
microcontroller to distinguish different patterns of potential
variation for different movement actions of the eye (e.g., left,
right, blink) given in the truth table. This study of detection
will be used to control any system with appropriate algorithm.
In this case the user will be able to blink any selected LED
from a two dimensional matrix (4×4) of 16 LED arrangement.
The movements will be divided into two different types,
1. Shifting Commands (LEFT, RIGHT, UP DOWN)
2. Action Commands (BLINK, DOUBLE BLINK)
To illustrate the mechanism, suppose initially LED number
6 is on (Figure 2). One of the four adjacent LEDs will be lit
depending on the detected shifting command. For example, if
Right movement is detected the LED 6 will be off and LED 7
will be on. In this way through the shifting commands the user
will reach the target destination LED. Next a Blink action (or
a Double Blink) will confirm the choice of the destination and
for carrying out desired control action.
B. Amplifier Design:
EOG signals have potentials between 0.1 and 2 mV and a
frequency range from DC to 30 Hz. The amplification
required for typical applications should be about 1500 and a
band pass filter in the range of 0.1Hz to 30Hz. To remove the
common mode noise, which is mainly from mains power line
of 50Hz, the CMRR of the amplifier should be about 80dB.
The instrumentation amplifier in the present work was
designed to have a gain of about 500. A high pass filter with a
cut-off frequency of 0.1Hz, followed by a low pass filter with
cut-off at 30Hz was used. A non-inverting amplifier was used
with a gain of 3 which gave the desired total gain of about
1500. A level shifter was used to raise the signal level so that
there are no negative potentials at the output. This is required
because the signals will be detected using the
microcontroller’s ADC (Analog to Digital converter) port
which detects only positive signals.
Figure 3: Experimental Setup.
C. Hardware:
To show that the controlling system works, a 4×4 matrix of
16 LEDs is used. The whole experimental setup is shown in
Figure-3. An Arduino Uno board with a built-in
microcontroller was used to develop the hardware. Eight pins
from the Arduino (pin no. 4-11), connected to rows and
columns of the LED matrix respectively, were used for the
LED control. Two analog inputs (A0 and A1) were used to
acquire signals from amplifiers A and B. The power was
provided using two 6V Lead-acid batteries. For the prototype,
disposable self-adhesive ECG electrodes were used as shown
in Figure 3.
D. Software:
The outputs from the two amplifier circuits are analysed to
detect and distinguish different EOG signals. The scheme of
detection is based on the observation that the EOG signals have
a typical spread between 300ms and 450ms (shown in Figure
5). Instead of measuring the peak values we used a time
difference method to detect the presence of the EOG signal.
We keep on measuring the differences of consecutive output
values at intervals of 50ms. When there is no EOG signal, this
difference value will be low. As soon as an EOG appears, this
difference will be high. From actual observation on a subject,
thresholds for these difference values will be adjusted (to
correspond to thresholds based on Va1, Vb1 and Vb2 Figure 5: Detected EOG signals (A: Right, B: Left, C: Up, D: Down, E: Blink,
respectively). A specific signal will be said to be detected if the F: Double Blink)
corresponding potential difference value (at a time gap of
50ms) is greater or lower, as appropriate, than respective III. RESULTS
threshold values. The outputs from the amplifiers are collected using a digital
If a signal is detected from amplifier A, Right movement will oscilloscope. The measurements are performed with the
be indicated for signals greater than Va1 and Left movement voltage axis set at 1 volt/div and time axis at 250 ms/div. A set
will be indicated for signals less than –Va1. A steady value in of acquired signals are shown in Figure-5. Here, image A is
the signal will be the indication for no movement. indicated for Right movement of the eyeball, B for Left
movement, C for Up movement, D for Down movement while
E and F are indicated for the Blink and Double Blink actions
Start Input of the eyelid.

B Signal n\a
Detected?

Signal B Signal A
A

B>+Vb2
+Vb1<B<+Vb2
B<-Vb1 A>+Va1 A<-Va1

BLINK
Figure 6: The signal for Blink (left) and Upper movement of eyeball (right).

UP DOWN RIGHT LEFT
Figure 4: The flowchart for the algorithm.
For amplifier B there are four possibilities. If the signal is
less than –Vb1, Down movement will be indicated. If the
signal is greater than +Vb1 but less than +Vb2, Up movement
will be indicated. If the signal is greater than +Vb2, Blink will
be indicated. Two such Blink signals within a period of 250mS
will be detected as Double Blink. As for the previous case, a
steady low value will represent no movement. The complete
procedure is shown on the flowchart of Figure-4.
The received signal for blinking and upper movement of the
eyeball is distinguishable with respect to both time and
voltage. The Blink signal (left pulse in Figure-6) is
approximately 0.5volt greater than that from the eyeball
movement (right pulse in Figure-6). The width of the Blink
signal is about 250ms whereas that of the eyeball movement
signal is about 400ms. Of course the widths of both the signals
vary somewhat depending on the time duration of the blinking
and the eyeball movement. But the potential is approximately
the same for all the measurements. So only potential values
were used to distinguish between these two movements.
After installing the setup with electrodes fixed on the face,
users were able to control the system reasonably well. It was
simple to use and the users got adjusted to system very
quickly.

Figure 7: Controlling of the 4×4 LED matrix.
Figure-7 shows the steps of movement performed by a user
to move the lit LED position from 6 to a target position of 15
using three successive commands - Down, Right and then
Down again. The system was tested on two different users and
both of them succeeded using it with a very little training.
Approximately 80% of the shifting commands (through
eyeball movement) and 88% of the action commands (through
blinking action) were correctly indicated even on the first time
trial by the users.
IV. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
The main advantage of this system is that it has a fool proof
confirmation scheme through a blinking or double blinking
action after a movement to a target destination using eyeball
movements have been achieved. Besides, the scheme follows
the natural reaction of a user to move eyeballs in the desired
directions. Therefore, it requires very little training. It has no
limits on how many LEDs it could control. But increase in the
number of elements (LED) will delay the controlling
procedure as the user would have to take longer times to reach
a destination. The system is very low cost, with a component
cost of about US$20, which is a great advantage. This system
could easily be used to develop a virtual keyboard and hence a
communication medium for full body paralyzed patients.
More action commands can be implemented using
combinations of actions like Blink and Right movement, Blink
and Left movement, Triple Blink, etc., just through editing the
software. This system could be used to control GUI based
application from smart phone or Computer. Wheel chair
control could be another application of this EOG based
controlling system.
The controlling of the LED in the matrix worked as
predicted on actual tests performed as mentioned above.
Although a very small number of times the system was unable
to detect the correct movement, but the user could avoid the
error through additional movements. The system was able to
detect majority (above 80%) of the shifting and action
commands from the user on first time use. This detection
accuracy improves after multiple use of the device.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge Abdullah-Al
Amin, Kamrul Hussain and Kristie Huda of the laboratory for
help and support during the experimental procedures.
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