Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility
People with neuromuscular diseases often experience limited upper limb mobility, which makes the handling of standard computer mice and keyboards difficult. Due to the importance of computers in private and professional life, this work aims at implementing an alternative mouse and keyboard interface...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/12/104 |
| _version_ | 1797456038828441600 |
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| author | Daniel Andreas Hannah Six Adna Bliek Philipp Beckerle |
| author_facet | Daniel Andreas Hannah Six Adna Bliek Philipp Beckerle |
| author_sort | Daniel Andreas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | People with neuromuscular diseases often experience limited upper limb mobility, which makes the handling of standard computer mice and keyboards difficult. Due to the importance of computers in private and professional life, this work aims at implementing an alternative mouse and keyboard interface that will allow for their efficient use by people with a neuromuscular disease. Due to the strongly differing symptoms of these diseases, personalization on the hardware and software levels is the focus of our work. The presented mouse alternative is based on a spectacle frame with an integrated motion sensor for head tracking, which enables the control of the mouse cursor position; the keyboard alternative consists of ten keys, which are used to generate word suggestions for the user input. The interface was tested in a user study involving three participants without disabilities, which showed the general functionality of the system and potential room for improvement. With an average throughput of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>1.56</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> bits per second achieved by the alternative mouse and typing speeds of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>8.44</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> words per minute obtained using the alternative keyboard, the proposed interface could be a promising input device for people with limited upper limb mobility. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:01:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d93dd40dd7f1400d816ead57e51322df |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2414-4088 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:01:43Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Multimodal Technologies and Interaction |
| spelling | doaj.art-d93dd40dd7f1400d816ead57e51322df2023-11-24T17:02:35ZengMDPI AGMultimodal Technologies and Interaction2414-40882022-11-0161210410.3390/mti6120104Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb MobilityDaniel Andreas0Hannah Six1Adna Bliek2Philipp Beckerle3Chair of Autonomous Systems and Mechatronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91052 Erlangen, GermanyChair of Autonomous Systems and Mechatronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91052 Erlangen, GermanyChair of Autonomous Systems and Mechatronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91052 Erlangen, GermanyChair of Autonomous Systems and Mechatronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91052 Erlangen, GermanyPeople with neuromuscular diseases often experience limited upper limb mobility, which makes the handling of standard computer mice and keyboards difficult. Due to the importance of computers in private and professional life, this work aims at implementing an alternative mouse and keyboard interface that will allow for their efficient use by people with a neuromuscular disease. Due to the strongly differing symptoms of these diseases, personalization on the hardware and software levels is the focus of our work. The presented mouse alternative is based on a spectacle frame with an integrated motion sensor for head tracking, which enables the control of the mouse cursor position; the keyboard alternative consists of ten keys, which are used to generate word suggestions for the user input. The interface was tested in a user study involving three participants without disabilities, which showed the general functionality of the system and potential room for improvement. With an average throughput of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>1.56</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> bits per second achieved by the alternative mouse and typing speeds of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>8.44</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> words per minute obtained using the alternative keyboard, the proposed interface could be a promising input device for people with limited upper limb mobility.https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/12/104personalizationassistive technologyalternative input devicekeyboard replacementhands-free mousevibrotactile feedback |
| spellingShingle | Daniel Andreas Hannah Six Adna Bliek Philipp Beckerle Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility Multimodal Technologies and Interaction personalization assistive technology alternative input device keyboard replacement hands-free mouse vibrotactile feedback |
| title | Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility |
| title_full | Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility |
| title_fullStr | Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility |
| title_full_unstemmed | Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility |
| title_short | Design and Implementation of a Personalizable Alternative Mouse and Keyboard Interface for Individuals with Limited Upper Limb Mobility |
| title_sort | design and implementation of a personalizable alternative mouse and keyboard interface for individuals with limited upper limb mobility |
| topic | personalization assistive technology alternative input device keyboard replacement hands-free mouse vibrotactile feedback |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/6/12/104 |
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