Control of wheelchair dummy for differently abled patients via iris movement using image processing in MATLAB

The purpose of this paper is to present a low cost and real time solution to enable differently abled people navigate their wheelchair independently through movement of eyes. We accomplished this task by capturing frames of eyeball movement via a web cam which is temporarily mounted on cap. The camera would be mounted on the arm of the wheel chair for ease and comfort. Processing of the eyeball movement is performed on MATLAB environment by employing Voila-Jones algorithm. MATLAB communicates with Arduino micro controller using serial communication. Arduino relays the control signal to L293D (half H bridge motor driver), which in turn generates signal for movement of the differential drive (dummy wheelchair). Pulse width modulation guarantees the smooth motion of the drive to avoid jerks and lurches.