Empowering Disabled Persons with Hand Motions for Environmental Controls : Real-Time Sensor Display Using Python and a Smart Watch

Oppenheim, Matthew (2025) Empowering Disabled Persons with Hand Motions for Environmental Controls : Real-Time Sensor Display Using Python and a Smart Watch. Circuit Cellar, 1 (424). pp. 26-34. ISSN 1528-0608

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Abstract

In this article, I explain how to use the Python programming language to parse and display accelerometer data from a smart watch in real time. The software can save the accelerometer data to a file. I used the software to record accelerometer data from a programmable smart watch, while recreating the hand motion of a person with cerebral palsy. By analysing the recorded data in a Jupyter notebook (a web-based, interactive computer platform) I was able to develop an algorithm to identify the hand motion. I ported the algorithm to the smart watch to enable the individual with cerebral palsy to operate environmental controls through hand motion.