Control Mouse Cursor by Head Movement: Development and Implementation

Abstract

As there is an excellent advancement in the technology in recent years, there has been much improvement in various fields of computing such as Human Computer Interface (HCI), Computer Vision and Perceptual User Interface (PUI). The input to the computers has sensed information about the physical properties of the user, places, or things. For example, a computer mouse operates by motion imparted by the user’s hand. Many active researchers have been working on finding an alternative solution to control computer mouse like by using a finger, eye, hand/palm, marked gloves, etc. These all techniques may not be suitable to physically disabled people. The system of control the mouse cursor by the movement of the head of a person who is positioned in front of the monitor of a microcomputer is presented in this paper. At the top of a monitor is a color video camera with the standard National Television System Committee (NTSC) output that captures user images. These images are processed using digital image processing techniques, and the final objective is to proportionally relate the user's head movements (identified by a blue circle painted on a tassel) with the mouse cursor. The captured of the colored images are 320 pixels by 240 wide by high. Preliminary results have shown efficiency in controlling the position of the cursor on the computer screen.