Integration of an Eye-Tracking Device with a Haptic Robot for Eye Hand Coordination Assessment
Authors:
Anthony Tran, Anthony Tran, Derren VersosaMentor:
Norali Pernalete, Professor of Engineering, California State Polytechnic University PomonaHaptic technology utilizes a person’s sense of touch through feedback. In the case of many commercial haptic applications, haptic technology utilizes a closed loop system in order to apply forces provided by motors back to users. This project details an application of haptics in which a commercial haptic controller is integrated with an eye-tracking device and used as an experimental system in order to acquire data that helps assess hand-eye coordination for further studies and possibly to be used as a therapy tool. We developed a working prototype of a haptic system while integrating an eye tracker in order to monitor user activity to provide hand-eye statistics.The haptic device used in this research is the Novint Falcon controller. The Novint Falcon is a low cost haptic controller aimed at the gaming community. It features 3 brushed DC motors in order to provide force feedback. The eye-tracking method used in this research is based off the University of Copenhagen’s ITU EyeGazer Using H3D, and Python programming scripts, a maze interface was created that could successfully record the position coordinates. After the test maze sequence is completed, a text file is produced that contains coordinates of the user’s position path, which is then plotted and compared to the user's eye trajectory. By comparing both trajectories, there were obvious similarities between the two paths traced by a healthy individual.The information obtained has the potential to be used in future research regarding the relationship between the haptic and the visual feedback upon executing a task. The information presented details the development of a reasonable cost eye-tracking device and its integration with the robotic haptic device. Results showed that the prototype developed has the potential to gather data that will be useful to researchers and clinicians studying eye-hand coordination.