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DEVELOPMENT OF BRAIN SIGNALS ACTUATED ARTIFICIAL

HAND FOR THE DISABLED

The Census 2011 has revealed that over 21 million people in India are suffering from

one or the other kind of disability. This is equivalent to 2.1% of the total population. Among

the handicapped population, the persons corresponding to immobility totals to 61, 05,477

who are unable to execute their daily chores and have to depend on others.

Fig. 1: Split Up Of Differently Able Persons In India

The main objective of the proposed project is to develop a prosthetic model which

utilises the brain signals to activate the artificial hand which is connected with the human

body. The prosthesis is an artificial device to replace the impaired part of the body. This

needs the brain signal capturing, processing them based on the requirement and to command

the prosthetic hand to perform the desired activity.

This model exists in abroad already but it is so expensive that it can’t be afforded by

common people. So, to make it feasible for the commoners to utilise prosthetic hand this

Fig. 2: Block Diagram Of The Proposed Project

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solution is proposed.

The basic units of the project are brain signal capturing unit, the signal processing

unit, the controller unit and actuator and hand unit.

The brain signal capturing unit acquires the brain signals using EEG head-set, filters

only the thought signals which are needed to be processed using band pass filters. Once

filtered out, the signals are fed into signal processing unit where the signals are processed to

remove the noises present and the signal strength will be improved so as to minimize the

mismatch with the pre-recorded signals, stored in the memory corresponding to the action to

be performed by the artificial hand.

Once, the signal matching is performed the controller unit initiates the respective

program related to the movement of the hand. This program sends commands to the artificial

hand elements to constitute the motion.

The actuator and hand unit have number of actuators to perform the actions. The

motors are embedded at different points, like fingers and elbow and shoulder, constitute to

the hand movement.

SNAPSHOTS OF EEG CAPTURING PROCESS

Encl: Classifier values obtained for the different actions required for the project

Fig. 3: EPOC EEG Capturing Head Set

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Fig. 4: Head Set Setup Guide

Fig. 5: Positioning of Head Set

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Fig. 6: Live action

Fig. 7: EEG Signals Obtained

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SNAPSHOTS OF THE PROSTHETIC HAND MODEL

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Fig. 8: Prosthetic Hand model with Drives