Webcam-Based Hands-Free Communicator Offers Low-Cost Alternative to Eye-Tracking for Paralysis
NeuroScribe Studio is a project that turns an ordinary consumer webcam into an assistive communication console for people with severe motor and speech impairments. It aims to replace costly infrared eye-tracking hardware, which can exceed $3,000, and to address problems with dwell-time interfaces such as visual fatigue and accidental selections. The system uses iris and head-pose tracking to navigate communication boards, separates involuntary blinks from deliberate ones, and freezes input when the user looks up to make eye contact with a caregiver. A companion caregiver view syncs composed messages in real time to a second device with audio and haptic alerts, and speech is produced only after the user confirms it. The project was built for the Presage SmartSpectra SDK Challenge and its code is publicly available on GitHub.
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