EMOHEX: An eye tracker based mobility and hand exoskeleton device for assisting disabled people

People suffering from a variety of upper and lower limb disabilities due to different neuro-muscular diseases or injuries, often find it difficult to perform day-to-day activities of mobility and grasping (pick and place) objects. This paper presents the feasibility and utility of a newly developed assistive device named EMOHEX, for disabled people to perform some activities of daily living (ADL). EMOHEX is an integrated platform that combines a low cost eye-tracking device with a powered-wheelchair mounted hand-exoskeleton, which can assist disabled people in grasping objects while moving around. A dual control panel based graphical user interface is designed wherein the user's intention to select any command button is detected through eye-tracking. The dual control consists of wheelchair control panel and exoskeleton control panel, which are interchangeable by a switch button common to both the panels. The hand-exoskeleton is capable of assisting grasp, hold, and release action. Experiments conducted on 16 healthy participants revealed that performance metrics were significantly (p<;0.01) similar for the same task complexity while for different task complexities the performance metrics were significantly (p<;0.01) different across all the participants. These results showed the feasibility and stability of the system, respectively. Moreover, the information transfer rate (ITR) of eye-tracker was found satisfactory at 55.28±1.29 bits/min and 51.02±1.72 bits/min for simple and complex task, respectively. Thus, EMOHEX has the potential as a quality assistive device for disabled people.