A New PC-Based Text Entry System Based on EOG Coding

Abstract

Some disadvantages of optical eye tracking systems have increased the interest to EOG (Electrooculography) based Human Computer Interaction (HCI). However, text entry attempts using EOG have been slower than expected because the eyes should move several times for entering a character. In order to improve the writing speed and accuracy of EOG based text entry, a new method based on the coding of eye movements has been suggested in this study. In addition, a real time EOG based HCI system has developed to implement the method. In our method all characters have been encoded by single saccades in 8 directions and different dwell time. In order to standardize dwell times and facilitate the coding process, computer assisted voice guidance was used. A number of experiments have been conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method and system. At the end of the fifth trials, an experienced user was able to write at average 13.2 wpm (5 letters = 1 word) with 100% accuracy using the developed system. The results of our experiments have shown that text entry with the eye can be done quickly and efficiently with the proposed method and system.