Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Supporting the creative drive: investigating paralinguistic voice as a mode of interaction for artists with upper limb disabilities

  • Long Paper
  • Published:
Universal Access in the Information Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

For people with upper limb disabilities visual art is an important activity that allows for expression of individuality and independence. They show remarkable endurance, patience and determination to adapt their remaining capabilities to create visual art. There are significant advantages of digital technologies in assisting artists with upper limb disabilities. Paralinguistic voice recognition technologies have proven to be a particularly promising mode of interaction. Despite these benefits, technological support for people with upper limb disabilities to create visual art is scarce. This paper reports on a number of case studies of several artists with upper limb disabilities. These case studies illustrate the struggles they face to be creative and also show the significant advantages of digital technologies in assisting such artists. An investigation into people’s ability to use the volume of their voice to control cursor movement to create drawings on the screen is also reported. With motivation, training and practise, use of volume to control drawing tasks shows great promise. It is believed that paralinguistic voice has wider implications beyond assisting artists with upper limb disabilities, such as: an alternative mode of interaction for disabled people to perform tasks other than creating visual art, alternative mode of interaction for hands busy environments and as a voice training system for people with speech impairments.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Al Hashimi, S.: Blowtter: a voice-controlled plotter. In: Proceedings the 20th BCS HCI Group Conference in Cooperation with ACM, London (2006)

  2. Adler, A., Davis, R.: Speech and sketching for multimodal design. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI’04), pp. 214–216. ACM Press, Portugal (2004)

  3. Allchin, D.: Newton’s colors. http://www1.umn.edu/ships/updates/newton1.htm (2002). Accessed 15 Jan 2006

  4. Banse, R., Scherer, K.R.: Acoustic profiles in vocal emotion expression. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 70(3), 614–636 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Collopy, F.: Color, form, and motion: dimensions of a musical art of light. Leonardo 33(5), 355–360 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cook, A.M., Hussey, S.M.: Assistive Technology: Principals and Practice, 2nd edn. Mosby Inc., St Louis (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Darrelle, T., Checka, N., Oh, A., Morency, L.: Exploring Vision-Based Interfaces: How to Use Your Head in Dual Pointing Tasks. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Daye, C.: Designing an art program for adults with intellectual disability: an innovative approach, Doctoral dissertation. University of Melbourne, Australia (1998)

  9. Goodman, C.: The digital revolution: art in the computer age. Comp. Arts. 49(3), 248–252 (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gorodnichy, D.C., Malika, S., Roth, G.: Nouse: Use your nose as a mouse -a new technology for hands-free games and interfaces. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Vision Interface (VI’2002), pp. 354–361. Calgary, Canada (2002)

  11. Harada, S., Landay, J., Malkin, J., Li, X., Bilmes, J.: The vocal joystick: evaluation of voice-based cursor control techniques. In: Proceedings of the 8th International SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ACM Press, Portland (2006)

  12. Harada, S., Wobbrock, J., Landay, J.: Voice draw: a voice driven hands free Darwing program. In: Proceedings of the Striking the Chord workshop, CHI 2007, ACM Press, San Joes (2007)

  13. Hutchins, S.: Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press, Massachuetts (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Igarashi, T., Hughes, J.F.: Voice as sound: using non-verbal voice input for interactive control. In: Proceedings of the 14th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST’01), pp. 155–156. ACM Press, Orlando (2001)

  15. Jacob, R.J.K. (ed.): Eye Movement-Based Human-Computer Interaction Techniques: Toward Non-Command Interfaces. Ablex Publishing Co, Norwood (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Johnston, A., Marks, A., Edmonds, E.: ‘Spheres of influence’––an interactive musical work. In: Proceedings of the Interactive Entertainment (IE2005), Sydney (2005)

  17. Karimullah, A.S., Sears, A.: Speech-based cursor control. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies, pp. 178–185. IEEE, Edinburgh (2002)

  18. Kjelden, R.: Head gestures for computer control. In: Proceedings of IEEE ICCV Workshop on Recognition, Analysis, and Tracking of Faces and Gesture in Real-Time Systems (RATFG-RTS’01), vol. 61, IEEE (2001)

  19. Levin, G., Lieberman, Z.: In-situ speech visualization in real-time interactive installation and performance. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering, Annecy, France (2004)

  20. Moritz, W.: The dream of color music, and machines that made it possible. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html (1997). Accessed 16 Jan 2006

  21. Nass, C., Brave, S.: Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human–Computer Relationships. MIT Press, Cambridge (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Nielsen, J.: The usability engineering life cycle. Computer. 25(3), 12–22 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Pastoor, S., Liu, J., Renault, S.: An experimental multimedia system allowing 3D visualization and eye-controlled interaction without user-worn devices. IEEE Trans. Multimed. 1(1), 41–52 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Paul, C.: Digital Art. Thames & Hudson World of art, London (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Perera, D., Blashki, K., Li, G.: Visual art for the disabled: a user requirement study on the needs of visual artists with upper limb disabilities. In: Proceedings of the 2006 IRMA International Conference, Washington, DC (2006)

  26. Perera, D., Eales, R.T.J., Blashki, K.: The drive to create: an investigation of tools to support disabled artists. In: Proceedings of the Creativity and Cognition 2007, ACM Press, Washington, DC (2007)

  27. Rush, M.: New Media in Late 20th-century Art. Thames & Hudson, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Scherer, K.R.: Vocal affect expression: a review and a model for future research. Psychol. Bull. 99(2), 143–165 (1986)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  29. Scherer, M.J.: Living in the State of Stuck: How Technology Impacts the Lives of People with Disabilities, 2nd edn. Bookline Books Inc, Massachusetts (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Sibert, M.J., Jacob, R.J.K.: Evaluation of eye gaze interaction. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 281–288. ACM Press, The Hague (2000)

  31. Sporka, A.J., Kurniawan, S.H., Slavik, P.: Acoustic control of mouse pointer. Universal Access Inform. Soc. 4(3), 237–245 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Whale, G.: Why use computers to make drawings? In: Proceedings of the C&C’02 Fourth Conference on Creativity and Cognition, pp. 65–71. ACM Press, Loughborough (2002)

  33. Wilkinson, D., Brimingham, P.: Using Research Instruments: A Guide for Researchers. Routledge Falmer, London (2003)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and IT, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Dharani Perera

  2. School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, London, NW4 4BT, UK

    R. T. Jim Eales

  3. School of Engineering and IT, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Kathy Blashki

Authors
  1. Dharani Perera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. T. Jim Eales
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kathy Blashki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dharani Perera.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Perera, D., Jim Eales, R.T. & Blashki, K. Supporting the creative drive: investigating paralinguistic voice as a mode of interaction for artists with upper limb disabilities. Univ Access Inf Soc 8, 77–88 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-008-0130-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-008-0130-3

Keywords