Developing A Hands-Free Human-Computer Interface That Senses Tooth/Jaw-Movements With Headphones

Abstract

People with motor disabilities such as amputated limbs are often incapable of using computers traditionally. Instead, they rely on other ways of computer use relying on sense facial movements by sending the signals from the sensor to an interface, and finally translating the signals into computer commands. The goal of this research is to create a hands-free Human Computer Interface (HCI) that detects sounds near the ears from teeth and jaw movements (e.g., clicking or grinding), and translates it into computer commands. Our research aims to make computers accessible to a wider range of people, as it does not require one to use their hands. The novelty of the proposed HCI is how it gathers input, which it does by receiving signals strictly from headphones, making it inexpensive and user-friendly. Our goal is to create a proof-of principle setup to show the feasibility of this HCI. To achieve this, a pair of headphones were wired to an m-audio amplifier, and the sound settings on the computer were set so that both the speaker/microphone were using the m-audio amplifier. A script written with Octave software plotted the recorded signals from the amplifier (recorded with headphones). While the script was running, facial movements, such as a tooth click, or jaw opening performed by the user generated audio signals that were recorded by the computer. The script then mapped the frequency distribution of the recorded waves. Our work so far shows that headphones can indeed gather inputs of different facial movements.