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Wireless technologies
Published in Alex Mihailidis, Roger Smith, Rehabilitation Engineering, 2023
Individuals with manual limitations can use a variety of low-tech and high-tech solutions to access wireless ICT devices, including non-slip skins, mounts for attaching devices to furniture and wheelchairs, as well as speech-to-text input (e.g., Dragon Naturally Speaking), voice control, and electronic personal assistants (Siri, Google Now, Cortana). In using ICT devices, people with more severe upper extremity limitations often confront accessibility and usability challenges like those with CCN. Accessibility solutions can include sip-and-puff controllers, head pointers, eye-gaze trackers, head switches mounted on wheelchairs, and other gesture inputs. This allows the user to navigate a keyboard, list, or set of commands by “scanning” rows and columns, and selecting the item. As with AAC, which often relies on similar switch-based scanning access, the process of creating content and accessing information can be slow and fatiguing.
Comparison between joystick- and gaze-controlled electric wheelchair during narrow doorway crossing: Feasibility study and movement analysis
Published in Assistive Technology, 2021
Manel Letaief, Nasser Rezzoug, Philippe Gorce
Although electric wheelchairs operated with joystick satisfy the needs of many people with disabilities, some users find it hard or even impossible to command a joystick-controlled wheelchair due to major motor disorders caused by high-level spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, or nervous system deficits. Indeed, studies considering patients suffering from tetraplegia have shown that 10% of users have great difficulties using the classical joystick-operated electric wheelchairs due to motor and cognitive deficiencies inducing low force capabilities or tremor (Brochard, Pedelucq, Cormerais, Thiebaut, & Rémy-Néris, 2007; Fehr, Langbein, & Skaar, 2000). Thus, alternative interfaces are needed for these people to ease the wheelchair navigation. Several technologies have been proposed such as eye tracking, hand gesture recognition, electroencephalography (EEG), head movements, speech recognition, touchpad, and Sip and Puff to name a few. However, each technology has limitations that prevent its use in daily life. For instance, Brain–Computer Interfaces (BCI) (Jenita Amali Rani & Umamakeswari, 2015) use electrodes placed on the patient’s scalp to measure the brain electrical activity allowing the patient to control an electric wheelchair. While promising, the limitations of BCI include very slow information throughput, the fact that the acquired signals are weak, strongly noisy, and prone to interference (Nicolas-Alonso & Gomez-Gil, 2012). The movement of the head (Kupetz, Wentzell, & BuSha, 2010; Lee, Kim, & Kim, 2016) can be detected by switches mounted in the headrest or by a camera (Lee et al., 2016; Ju, Shin, & Kim, 2009). The major drawback of switches is the need for a constant regulation of the pressure applied to the sensor. The resulting stress on the neck can lead to chronic musculoskeletal conditions. This type of solution is designed for a user with a good motor capacity of the neck muscles and is not recommended for people whose trunk function is impaired. Voice recognition can also be used to command a wheelchair (AL-Rousan & Assaleh, 2011; Pires & Nunes, 2002) but this technology suffers from several drawbacks that may affect the quality of speech recognition such as the noise, position of the microphone, speed and manner of the user’s speech. Furthermore, touchpad technologies are promising to lower the required force to maneuver the wheelchair, but they need a particular calibration phase to adapt the command to the person’s deficiency (Rabhi et al., 2018; Wobbrock, Aung, Myers, & Lopresti, 2005). The Sip-and-Puff system (Kim et al., 2013; Plotkin et al., 2010) is a method of sending signals to a device using air pressure. The signals are transmitted by inhaling and exhaling into a straw. The main drawback of breathing and exhaling is the user’s range of respiratory capacity. The system is calibrated to respond to puffs and hard sips, and for people who have difficulty controlling their breathing, consistency can be difficult to achieve.