A Video Processing Based Eye Gaze Recognition Algorithm for Wheelchair Control

Over the past few years, a lot of research has been carried out in eye gaze recognition and its applications. From controlling wheelchairs to selecting options on a screen, utilizing the gaze of an individual has become a long-sought way for performing these tasks and in turn making the life of several differently abled people easy. In this paper a novel methodology to perform iris segmentation and gaze recognition has been introduced and described. The method elaborated utilizes a segmentation algorithm which can successfully extract the iris under varying lighting conditions with the help of machine learning. All experiments were conducted using the MATLAB R2013a software and a speed improvement of almost 3.433 times was achieved as opposed to other popular methods of iris extraction. In terms of accuracy, the algorithm proved to be 86% accurate and was also adopted to control an actual wheelchair.