A mouse adapter for people with hand tremor

  • Authors:
  • J. L. Levine;M. A. Schappert

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • IBM Systems Journal
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Hand tremor, which affects millions of individuals worldwide, can make it difficult or impossible to operate computers that rely on a mouse, or similar pointing device, for controlling the user interface. We describe an assistive adapter that, when inserted between the mouse and the computer, provides digital motion-smoothing filtering, rejection of inadvertent mouse button clicks, and enhanced double clicking. Because its behavior closely emulates a standard mouse, this setup is operating-system independent and requires no special software on the computer. Its assistive features are active for any application with a mouse-driven interface. In a preliminary test involving people with essential tremor, most subjects reported improvements ranging from moderate to considerable.