Wearable EOG goggles: Seamless sensing and context-awareness in everyday environments

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bulling, Andreas^; | Roggen, Daniel | Tröster, Gerhard

Affiliations: Wearable Computing Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected]; Tel.: +41 44 632 2996; Fax: +41 44 632 1210.

Abstract: In this article we introduce the analysis of eye motion as a new input modality for activity recognition, context-awareness and mobile HCI applications. We describe a novel embedded eye tracker that, in contrast to common systems using video cameras, relies on Electrooculography (EOG). This self-contained wearable device consists of goggles with dry electrodes integrated into the frame and a small pocket-worn component with a DSP for real-time EOG signal processing. It can store data locally for long-term recordings or stream processed EOG signals to a remote device over Bluetooth. We show how challenges associated with wearability, eye motion analysis and signal artefacts caused by physical activity can be addressed with a combination of a special mechanical design, optimised algorithms for eye movement detection and adaptive signal processing. In two case studies, we demonstrate that EOG is a suitable measurement technique for the recognition of reading activity and eye-based human-computer interaction. Eventually, wearable EOG goggles may pave the way for seamless eye movement analysis in everyday environments and new forms of context-awareness not possible today.

Keywords: Wearable eye tracking, electrooculography (EOG), context-awareness, activity recognition, human-computer interaction (HCI)

DOI: 10.3233/AIS-2009-0020

Journal: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 157-171, 2009