Change Can Be a Good Thing!

Week 4:

During the week four lab, the plan was to connect the mouse to the oscilloscope to determine what each wire in the mouse specifically controls (for example, moving left or right clicking), which would give a better understanding of how the mouse works. This would also be helpful when interfacing the signals from the EOG tests with the mouse to control the movement on the screen.

After examining the internal system of the mouse, there was a realization that there was a a micro-computer chip that converts the movements from the mouse into digital signals that the computer can read.  This chip seen in Figure 1 was pre-programmed, so it would be very difficult to interpret the signals of the mouse from the wires. The signals would not give readings for the individual movements of the mouse.

                              

 Figure 1: Close-Up View of the Pre-Programmed Micro-Computer Chip (Black Rectangle on the Left)

Entirely, the idea of interfacing the mouse with the electrode signals would be too difficult and time consuming, due to the complexity of the computer chip inside and the wires. Because of this, it was ultimately decided that a MATLAB simulation program would be created to see how a mouse can control the cursor on a computer screen instead of actually interfacing with the wheel mouse. Essentially, there will be a MATLAB window that will act as a computer screen and there will be a code that will work in conjunction with the electrode signals captured to replicate the idea of an EOG controlled mouse.  

Because of the changes made, the week's procedure was slightly altered.  During the remainder of the time period, the mechanical team, now mainly the MATLAB programming team, watched tutorial videos to assist in creating the MATLAB program later on in the project. The video tutorials provide a basis for the complicated code that needs to be written, especially helpful for Freshmen with minor MATLAB programming experience.