Single-Cycle Multidirectional EOG Classification Faster than Human Reaction Time for Wearable Human-Computer Interactions

Electrooculogram (EOG) is a non-invasive bio-signal generated by the potential difference between the retina and cornea during eye movement, and is widely utilized in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) systems. Expanding the range of detectable eye movements enhances system capability. However, increasing the number of classes typically degrades classification performance. While AI-based approaches can mitigate this limitation, their complexity increases significantly when operating on single-cycle EOG signals. Although single-cycle signals offer advantages such as low latency, reduced power consumption, and improved responsiveness, they are inherently limited by reduced informational content and higher susceptibility to noise. Ensuring low latency remains critical for real-time HCI applications, where system response must remain below human reaction thresholds. In this experimental study, using explainable AI, we address these challenges by developing 1-dimensional (1D) and cascaded ANN and CNN architectures capable of highly accurate classification across ten EOG classes (Stare, Blink, Up, Down, Right, Left, Up-left, Up-right, Down-left, and Down-right) using single-cycle signals, while simultaneously achieving latency substantially lower than human reaction time. The study achieved an accuracy of around 99% for all the models with a latency of 38.6 ms for the 1D ANN, and 82.85 ms for the cascaded CNN. These findings confirm that cascaded neural network architectures, can effectively balance high classification accuracy and low latency for single-cycle, multi-class EOG-based HCI systems under limited data availability.