The students of IIT Palakkad have developed an innovative, low-cost assistive communication device to aid paralyzed and speech-impaired patients. The device uses electrooculography (EOG) for capturing the eye movements of the patient to enable them to use a customized virtual keyboard and type on the monitor. For patients affected with weak muscular movement of the eye, the device captures even a residual, miniscule voluntary motion of a finger and translates the signal for typing using the virtual keyboard without touching the keys. The device is developed by the final year BTech Electrical Engineering students, Vishal Choudhari and Anjali Agarwal, under the guidance of Prof. Vinod A. Prasad, Dean - Industry Collaboration & Sponsored Research, IIT Palakkad.
The news appeared in The Times of India on December 16 2019.