I am a volunteer for a neuronal disease (ALS) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
I need the software to detect the wink of an eye.
It would be very useful for many sick people. since it could be used to activate a help request alarm, when the patient is in bed.
I live in Seville (Spain).
I have ideas to improve the communication of the patients and help them to solve their needs in the subject of communications, but I am not a developer. In some cases I have made small programs or used others that already existed; I have even manufactured small devices.
I ask your help.
Incidentally, if someone knows how I can contact the developer. Javier San Agustin Lopez, I would appreciate it. It is to give you development ideas that will surely not only be good for people with disabilities, but also for professional players of the network.
Since I do not speak English, I use google for translation from Spanish.
Hi Pepe. That's really important work, and I'm glad you volunteered. In terms of your question, Oculus Rift has sensors that detect head orientation (rotation) similar to the sensors in an iPhone or Android phone. Additionally it can track the entire head position in space (and hands with Touch). The device does not, however, track eye movement or facial gestures like winking. Hope that makes sense.
I think for someone who is confined to a bed, a VR headset isn't a good idea. Most VR software can't handle lying down (you can't reset the default orientation to be lying down), and for someone who needs to wink to call for help, covering their face with a large headset isn't ideal.
Luciferous' suggestion of the Emotiv headset (probably the Insight would be the best option) is good. It's an EEG headset that can read electrical signals in your head to sense:
Facial expressions:
Blink
Left wink
Right wink
Furrow (frown)
Raise brow (surprise)
Smile
Clench teeth (grimace)
Emotional States:
Instantaneous excitement
Long term excitement
Stress
Engagement
Relaxation
Interest / Affinity
Focus
Mental commands:
Neutral
Any of up to 4 pretrained items from a list of 13 labels:
Push
Pull
Lift
Drop
Left
Right
Rotate clockwise
Rotate anti-clockwise
Rotate forwards
Rotate backwards
Rotate left
Rotate right
Disappear
Being able to read stress and other states sounds useful in addition to the facial tracking.
However, I haven't tried one myself. I saw the Emotiv Epoc in use at a convention back in 2007, it seemed to mostly work for the mental commands, but they didn't demo the facial stuff. I haven't read any reviews of the Insight recently that I can remember. It's only $299 though.
