Design and development of an intelligent neck and head support system based on eye blink recognition for cervical dystonia

Cervical Dystonia, also known as spasmodic torticollis, is a painful disorder in which the neck muscles spasm, causing the head to twist or swivel, pull in one direction, or shake (tremor). It may also result in a forward or backward head tilt. In certain instances, the hands may also shake or tremble. This project focuses on designing and developing an Intelligent Neck and Head Support System (INHS) system that can improve the quality of life of Cervical Dystonia patients by utilizing their natural eye movement. The designed INHSS is divided into two subsystems: the neck and Head Support mechanical system and the Intelligent control system. The Intelligent control system estimates the face landmark positions and extracts a characterization by calculating the eye aspect ratio (EAR) in each real-time video frame. Finally, an SVM classifier and threshold approach to classify eye states. The operational test of the proposed INHS provides successful and promising results.