An Internet of Things (IoT) application to control a wheelchair through EEG signal processing

Abstract

Nowadays, there are technology resources that can be used to develop wearable devices, able to improve people's life. Specially for people with diverse types of motor impairment, who have this condition because of an illness, an accident or other reason. To offer an option in their autonomy of movement, the project proposes an affordable and simple way to control the wheelchair of the user, with the EEG (Electroencephalogram) signal processing. The system uses the BrainWave Headset of NeuroSky, where the EEG raw signal is processed by the small single-board computei Raspberry Pi. With the implementation of some filters and detection algorithms, is possible to recognize a slow voluntary blink, turning this action in a signal as valid as a certain command for the wheelchair control. Preliminary results seem give an important difference between an involuntary and slow voluntary blink, at the time of signal processing, which is a great advantage when interpreting the signal to execute a specific action, such as a wheelchair movement. This final signal can be interpreted to activate or perform other actions, it is also possible to develop applications through the Internet of Things (IoT), to improve the quality of life of these people. and save data of their progress or state while using this kind of applications. With this, the user will be able to improve his mobility and upgrade the control mechanism in his wheelchair. Also, the accessibility of the components makes this development economic and flexible for the user.