Examining the Feasibility of Face Gesture Detection for Monitoring Users of Autonomous Wheelchairs

The user interface of existing autonomous wheelchairs concentrates on direct control of the wheelchair by the user using mechanical devices or various hand, head or face gestures. However, it is important to monitor the user to ensure safety and comfort of the user, who operates the autonomous wheelchair. In addition, such monitoring of a user greatly improves usablity of an autonomous wheelchair due to the improved communication between the user and the wheelchair. This paper proposes a user monitoring system for an autonomous wheelchair. The feedback of the user and the information about the actions of the user, obtained by such a system, will be used by the autonomous wheelchair for planning of its future actions. As a first step towards creation of the monitoring system, this work proposes and examines the feasibility of a system that is capable of recognizing static facial gestures of the user using a camera mounted on a wheelchair. The prototype of such a system has been implemented and tested, achieving 90% recognition rate with 6% false positive and 4% false negative rates.