Detection of eye blinks from EEG signals for home lighting system activation

The improvement in the development of lighting system has not considered eye blinking activity as a parameter to activate the system. In addition, the use of eye blink extracted from EEG signal has not been investigated. This study examines a suitable eye activity for activating home lighting system and then detects the occurrence of this activity from EEG signals. Two types of eye activity were analysed; eye blinks and eye movements. It was found that EEG signal obtained from voluntary eye blink condition produces clearer signals with larger amplitude than that obtained from eye movements. An efficient algorithm for detecting the occurrence of eye blinks was then developed and its performance was investigated. Using this algorithm, the required eye blinks could be detected successfully from 85% of the records. Results from this study show that with proper filtering and accurate detection, the eye blinks could be used for activating home lighting system.