Hands-free Cursor Control using Intuitive Head Movements and Cheek Muscle Twitches

This paper presents a proof of concept prototype for a Human-Computer Interface (HCI) device, using which, a person can control a computer cursor solely with head movements and cheek muscle twitches. The prototype is realised as a light-weight wearable headgear that beneficially utilises two different voluntary signals of human head for computer cursor control: 1) intuitive head movement for proportional cursor movement, and 2) cheek muscle twitches for cursor clicks. This potential Assistive Technology (AT) can be immensely helpful for people with tetraplegia and Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH). This paper proposes use of accelerometer and magnetometer for head movement tracking, and flex sensors to detect cheek muscle twitches, to achieve a hands-free HCI device for cursor control. In experimental trials, when using this prototype, five novice users took 2.12 times more time on an average as compared to a standard optical computer mouse to move a cursor from one point to another and perform a click.