Evaluation of alternative mouse devices using nod detection and gaze tracking

Abstract

As an alternative mouse device for people with upper limb disabilities, methods that used gaze tracking for cursor operation have been proposed. The methods need no mounting equipment and can reduce the time and effort for pointing. For the click operation, the time of fixation or the blink detection are adopted. However, this causes unintentional click. In this report we propose an alternative mouse device which adopts nod for detecting the click. We aim that human can keep to gaze during head movement by producing eye movements in the direction opposite to head movement known as the vestibular-ocular reflex. To detect the nodding movement, we tracked the lips extracted from facial images and calculated normalized cross-correlation between the y-coordinate of the lips and a nod template.