Most telerobotic applications rely on a Human-Robot Interface that requires the operator to continuously monitor the state of the robot through visual feedback while uses manual input devices to send commands to control the navigation of the robot. Although this setup is present in many examples of telerobotic applications, it may not be suitable in situations when it is not possible or desirable to have manual input devices, or when the operator has a motor disability that does not allow the use of that type of input devices. Since the operator already uses his/her eyes in the monitoring task, an interface based on the inputs from their gaze could be used to teleoperate the robot. This paper presents a telerobotic platform that uses a user interface based on eye-gaze tracking that enables a user to control the navigation of a teleoperated mobile robot using only his/her eyes as inputs to the system. Details of the operation of the eye-gaze tracking system and the results of a task-oriented evaluation of the developed system are also included.
Hands-free interaction with technology is a dream for any person with limitations in the use of his/her arms and hands. This paper describes two new original low-cost hands-free computer peripheries-I4Control Ò and Magic Key, which use movements of the user's eye or nose as an actuator of a computer cursor. Both systems emulate the PC mouse and thereby mediate direct access to any mouse-controlled computer application. Functionality of the presented systems is compared to that of PC mouse using one of the usability tests recommended by the ISO 9241 methodology. The data obtained as a result of testing a group of ten unimpaired novice users indicated that the users' performance improves over time of usage of the system, but the process is rather slow. The paper describes several easy to use toy-applications intended to improve the user's confidence in working with the considered devices. One of these applications demonstrates that I4Control Ò can be employed to control home appliances or a wheelchair.
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