Intelligent home navigation system for the elderly and physically challenged

Abstract

There are a large number of people in the world with debilitating physical disabilities, who experience significant difficulties in performing even very basic tasks such as locomotion, speaking, writing etc. The worst affected class of physically challenged are those who have become paralyzed over a significant percentage of their bodies, i.e. quadriplegics. These people find it extremely difficult to perform any task that requires even small amounts of force. Therefore, the best option is a gesture-based interaction with their environment, in particular their wheelchairs. Our proposed system uses a small camera mounted very close to the quadriplegic's hand, which tracks the small movements of their fingers to understand where they wish to travel to. The recognition system is then interfaced to the wheelchair control system in order move it to the desired location. The wheelchair control system we are developing has the following salient features - effortless to use, customizable, economical, highly convenient and non-intrusive. The main goal that we aim by doing this project is to bring out a real working model of the system. The physically challenged can themselves sit on the wheelchair and test the product. This will definitely make a huge impact on the society because of its salient features mentioned above.