Innovative Solutions for Independence: A Synthesis of Recent Advances in Smart Assistive Technologies for Quadriplegics

Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, is a paralysis that affects both limbs and the whole body from the neck down. Sometimes it is curable, although in most cases, injury causes permanent paralysis. It’s a severe neurodegenerative disease where a person's muscles cannot be deliberately controlled or moved with the progression of the disease. Hence, these patients need personal assistance and attention to carry out their day-to-day activities. Living with quadriplegia is pricey as it needs the deployment of a permanent attendant or assistive devices. This has also been evident that the ocular muscles remain intact for a quadriplegia patient, and it is hardly affected with the progression of the disease. The current study discusses the design and development of an eye movement controlled interactive user-interface for patients suffering from quadriplegia where a person has zero physical movements. The developed system allows the detection of face followed by detection of eyeball using a camera. The user-interface screen has customized menus available as “Hungry”, “Thirsty”, “Light Off/On”, “Fan Off/On”, and “Emergency Assistance” to be chosen using eye movement and voluntary blink. The commands were generated in accordance with the intended eye movements and voluntary blinks. 20 volunteers participated in the study to validate the efficiency of the system. The overall efficiency of the system was found to be 91.25 %. The proposed low-cost system is safe, portable, user friendly and can be effectively used by quadriplegics to enhance their quality of life.