Guidance of a wheelchair for handicapped people by face tracking

This paper shows a guidance system for an electrical wheelchair for handicapped people by head movements. A color face tracking system has been developed in order to compute head movements of the user and, depending on them, some commands are generated to drive the wheelchair. The system is non-intrusive and it allows visibility and freedom of head movements. It is able to learn the face features of the user in an automatic initial setup, working even for people of different races. It is adaptive and, therefore, robust to light and background changes in inside environments. It has been tested with several users and some results are given.