Psychmatrix: empowering users through advanced interactive control

Abstract

This project introduces the concept of PsychMatrix, a very simple yet effective and affordable assistive technology for controlling home appliances using hand gestures without touching the appliance. The system makes use of wearable gloves embedded with flex sensors to obtain information related to the bending of the fingers and muscles. These signals are processed by ESP32 microcontroller which sends commands to a cloud-based firebase realtime database via Wifi . These commands are then sent to a second ESP32 unit which works as a home controller by turning appliances on and off using relays. An assistant mobile application gives the system real-time monitoring and user interface. PsychMatrix is a control board with a safe, responsive design (with a measured end-to-end Latency of under 500ms) arranged to benefit the elderly and those with disabilities, as well as high-voltage workers, which has an interaction recognition accuracy rate of 98%. The system proves that with low-cost off-the-shelf components, a well-built, cloud-connected assistive technology can be enacted to ensure a higher degree of independence and safety.