Evaluating Camera Mouse as a computer access system for augmentative and alternative communication in cerebral palsy: a case study.

Camera Mouse is a freely available software program that visually tracks the movement of facial features to allow individuals with motor impairments to control a computer mouse. The goal of this case study was to provide an evaluation of Camera Mouse as a computer access method as part of a multiple modality communication system for an individual with cerebral palsy. The participant was asked to reproduce sentences and respond to ethical dilemmas for language sampling. Tasks were completed using natural speech and an AAC solution consisting of Camera Mouse paired with an orthographic selection interface and speech synthesis. The participant completed a questionnaire for satisfaction with the introduced assistive technology. Camera Mouse resulted in higher intelligibility than natural speech, while natural speech had a higher rate. She used more complex language with her natural speech. The participant rated Camera Mouse as at least 3/5 on all measures, including 5/5 on weight and safety. The results of this case study suggest Camera Mouse is a promising computer access system for communication supported by the participant's satisfaction rating, expressive language, and synthesized speech production capabilities.

Ability-Based Methods for Personalized Keyboard Generation.

This study introduces an ability-based method for personalized keyboard generation, wherein an individual's own movement and human-computer interaction data are used to automatically compute a personalized virtual keyboard layout. Our approach integrates a multidirectional point-select task to characterize cursor control over time, distance, and direction. The characterization is automatically employed to develop a computationally efficient keyboard layout that prioritizes each user's movement abilities through capturing directional constraints and preferences. We evaluated our approach in a study involving 16 participants using inertial sensing and facial electromyography as an access method, resulting in significantly increased communication rates using the personalized keyboard (52.0 bits/min) when compared to a generically optimized keyboard (47.9 bits/min). Our results demonstrate the ability to effectively characterize an individual's movement abilities to design a personalized keyboard for improved communication. This work underscores the importance of integrating a user's motor abilities when designing virtual interfaces.

Ability-based Keyboards for Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Understanding How Individuals' Movement Patterns Translate to More Efficient Keyboards: Methods to Generate Keyboards Tailored to User-specific Motor Abilities.

This study presents the evaluation of ability-based methods extended to keyboard generation for alternative communication in people with dexterity impairments due to motor disabilities. Our approach characterizes user-specific cursor control abilities from a multidirectional point-select task to configure letters on a virtual keyboard based on estimated time, distance, and direction of movement. These methods were evaluated in three individuals with motor disabilities against a generically optimized keyboard and the ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard. We highlight key observations relating to the heterogeneity of the manifestation of motor disabilities, perceived importance of communication technology, and quantitative improvements in communication performance when characterizing an individual's movement abilities to design personalized AAC interfaces.

Optimized and Predictive Phonemic Interfaces for Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Purpose We empirically assessed the results of computational optimization and prediction in communication interfaces that were designed to allow individuals with severe motor speech disorders to select phonemes and generate speech output. Method Interface layouts were either random or optimized, in which phoneme targets that were likely to be selected together were located in proximity. Target sizes were either static or predictive, such that likely targets were dynamically enlarged following each selection. Communication interfaces were evaluated by 36 users without motor impairments using an alternate access method. Each user was assigned to 1 of 4 interfaces varying in layout and whether prediction was implemented (random/static, random/predictive, optimized/static, optimized/predictive) and participated in 12 sessions over a 3-week period. Six participants with severe motor impairments used both the optimized/static and optimized/predictive interfaces in 1-2 sessions. Results In individuals without motor impairments, prediction provided significantly faster communication rates during training (Sessions 1-9), as users were learning the interface target locations and the novel access method. After training, optimization acted to significantly increase communication rates. The optimization likely became relevant only after training when participants knew the target locations and moved directly to the targets. Participants with motor impairments could use the interfaces with alternate access methods and generally rated the interface with prediction as preferred. Conclusions Optimization and prediction led to increases in communication rates in users without motor impairments. Predictive interfaces were preferred by users with motor impairments. Future research is needed to translate these results into clinical practice. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8636948.

Surface electromyographic control of a novel phonemic interface for speech synthesis.

Many individuals with minimal movement capabilities use AAC to communicate. These individuals require both an interface with which to construct a message (e.g., a grid of letters) and an input modality with which to select targets. This study evaluated the interaction of two such systems: (a) an input modality using surface electromyography (sEMG) of spared facial musculature, and (b) an onscreen interface from which users select phonemic targets. These systems were evaluated in two experiments: (a) participants without motor impairments used the systems during a series of eight training sessions, and (b) one individual who uses AAC used the systems for two sessions. Both the phonemic interface and the electromyographic cursor show promise for future AAC applications.

Evaluation of a speech recognition prototype for speakers with moderate and severe dysarthria: a preliminary report.

This study described preliminary work with the Supplemented Speech Recognition (SSR) system for speakers with dysarthria. SSR incorporated automatic speech recognition optimized for dysarthric speech, alphabet supplementation, and word prediction. Participants included seven individuals with a range of dysarthria severity. Keystroke savings using SSR averaged 68.2% for typical sentences and 67.5% for atypical phrases. This was significantly different to using word prediction alone. The SSR correctly identified an average of 80.7% of target stimulus words for typical sentences and 82.8% for atypical phrases. Statistical significance could not be claimed for the relations between sentence intelligibility and keystroke savings or sentence intelligibility and system performance. The results suggest that individuals with dysarthria using SSR could achieve comparable keystroke savings regardless of speech severity.