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Hands-free interaction with a computer and other technologies

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Abstract

Hands-free interaction with technology is a dream for any person with limitations in the use of his/her arms and hands. This paper describes two new original low-cost hands-free computer peripheries—I4Control® and Magic Key, which use movements of the user’s eye or nose as an actuator of a computer cursor. Both systems emulate the PC mouse and thereby mediate direct access to any mouse-controlled computer application. Functionality of the presented systems is compared to that of PC mouse using one of the usability tests recommended by the ISO 9241 methodology. The data obtained as a result of testing a group of ten unimpaired novice users indicated that the users’ performance improves over time of usage of the system, but the process is rather slow. The paper describes several easy to use toy-applications intended to improve the user’s confidence in working with the considered devices. One of these applications demonstrates that I4Control® can be employed to control home appliances or a wheelchair.

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Acknowledgments

The presented research and development has been partially supported by the grant MSM 6840770012 of Czech Ministry of Education Transdisciplinary Research in the Area of Biomedical Engineering II and by IST Network of Excellence IST-2003-511598 COGAIN (Communication by Gaze Interaction).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technická 2, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Marcela Fejtová, Petr Novák & Olga Štěpánková

  2. Department of Informatics, ESTG Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

    Luis Figueiredo

  3. Agrupamento de Escolas Infante D. Henrique, Viseu, Portugal

    Ana Gomes

Authors
  1. Marcela Fejtová
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  2. Luis Figueiredo
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  3. Petr Novák
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  4. Olga Štěpánková
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  5. Ana Gomes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olga Štěpánková.

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Fejtová, M., Figueiredo, L., Novák, P. et al. Hands-free interaction with a computer and other technologies. Univ Access Inf Soc 8, 277–295 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-009-0147-2

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