Head Movement Control of Powered Wheelchair

This paper presents an efficient method to implement head gesture recognition to be the base of a framework for the physically disabled people. Currently, the most common way to control an powered wheelchair is to use a joystick. However, there are some individuals unable to operate joystick-driven powered wheelchairs due to sever physical disabilities. This paper proposes a novel head pose control algorithm to assist disabled patients (persons who cannot move their hands or legs but are able to make head movement). It this paper an interface that enables an powered wheelchair to be operated by gestures, such as head movements, is presented. The control system translates the position of the users head into speed and directional control of the wheelchair. The proposed algorithm was implemented/tested in real-time on the powered wheelchair.