MobiAi prototype being tested moving using eye movements in a hospital

ITS Campus, ITS News —

Continuing to innovate technology with broad usefulness, students of  Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) created MobiAi, a wheelchair controlled only by eye movements. This wheelchair made by three students of the ITS Computer Engineering Department allows people with disabilities to mobilize independently without the need for physical assistance.

The three are Agus Fuad Mudhofar, Sidiq Bimo Pangestu, and Nabila Mutiara Susetio. Inspired by the Image Processing course, the team named Sambal Telur innovated a wheelchair intended for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). “ALS sufferers experience disorders in the motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord,” explained Agus.

Head of the ITS Egg Sambal team, Agus Fuad Mudhofar, showing how the MobiAi innovation works, a wheelchair with an eye movement control system.

Furthermore, the Head of the Sambal Telur team explained that this wheelchair can not only be used for people with disabilities, but also for the elderly who experience a decline in the motor system and whose mobility is getting worse. This is possible because this innovation is only controlled by using eye movements. Agus explained that this wheelchair uses a camera integrated with a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm. The use of this CNN algorithm helps the control system to detect and understand the user’s eye movement commands captured by the camera. “The detection camera on this wheelchair can be adjusted, so it will not block the user’s vision,” he added.

View of the MobiAi Patient Tracker System, a wheelchair monitoring and tracking page designed by the ITS student team.

Not only that, MobiAi also has another advantage, namely remote monitoring. Although still in prototype form, this wheelchair already uses a tracking system integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT). So that all activities can be monitored directly via a computer screen. “We named this website MobiAi Patient Tracker System which can monitor the location and history of wheelchair users’ paths,” added the student from Pangandaran.

For this innovation, the team guided by Dr. Eko Mulyanto Yuniarno ST MT has also succeeded in winning an award at the 17th National Student Exhibition in the Field of Information and Communication Technology (Gemastik), some time ago. At the competition held at Semarang State University (Unnes), the ITS Sambal Telur team successfully won the Hope Champion in the IoT category.

ITS Egg Sambal Team (far left) when receiving the Hope Champion award in the IoT category at Gemastik XVII 2024 held at Semarang State University

Finally, Agus and the team hope that the wheelchair with the eye movement control system can be further developed. With the current prototype, there are still shortcomings, one of which is the fairly expensive tool components. “Not only as a prototype, we hope that MobiAi can be distributed and used in hospitals,” he concluded hopefully. (ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS)

Reporter: Syahidan Nur Habibie Ash-Shidieq