Writing with the Eyes

People who suffering from motor neuron diseases, such as ALS, often lose their ability to speak. Being unable to communicate can be frustrating and alienating. To help them, various researchers have searched for ways to help such patients "talk." Thanks to researchers in France, where they developed a system that allows users to write cursive letters (such as handwriting) on ​​a video monitor using their eyes.

Device translating eye movement into
handwriting developed. (Picture from:

http://www.panarmenian.net/)

Dr Jean Lorenceau, director of research in cognitive neuroscience at CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research), and six others from the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris learned how to use smooth pursuit eye movements to write in cursive. Smooth pursuit eye movements are those we use to track something as it moves, like watching a car drive down the street. These movements only occur if there is something for the eye to follow.

The gadget was previously not possible because the human eye responds instinctively to surroundings and makes lots of involuntary movements. People actually do not have much control over the organ. Lorenceau found that an optical illusion called reverse phi motion allowed him to create a tracking system for the voluntary smooth eye movements.

Quoted from The BodyOdd on NBCNews.com, Dr Lorenceau technique to outwit circuits within the body by using a screen blink. This technique is fishing the brain into thinking that both eyes are following the motion of an object. The device then uses motion-detection technology known eye to translate these movements into writing cursive letters are smooth, which is fully controlled by the subject. He said with a 90-minute training session, a person could use the system to write 20 characters in a minute.

Dr Lorenceau has just been chosen by the French National Research Agency to become partner of a doctor who was caring for ALS patients to develop tools creation, and also a company to develop such a device, and a programmer to develop a joined-up writing recognition software with the eyes. The results were published on the journal Current Biology (July 26, 2012). *** [RIF | THE BODY ODD | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 27092012]
Note: This blog can be accessed via your smart phone.