Supportive communication system for the elderly disabled people

Abstract

As age progresses, the elderly people experience speech impairment and physical disability due to several health problems like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s and essential tremor. At some point in the disease progression, 60−80% of elderly people is unable to meet their daily communication needs using natural speech. The plight of large majority of older individuals by and large remains unnoticed. Here, we propose an assistive device for their communication to meet their daily needs. But, the shakiness in hands makes them unable to operate assistive devices. As eyes are not affected by most of the diseases, the tracking of eye movements can be employed as a tool for operating the assistive device. Therefore, we propose an eye movement-based supportive communication system for the elderly disabled people. The proposed method is proved through simulations results.