Energy and loudness for speed control in the vocal joystick

We propose and describe several methods for using speech power as an estimate of intentional loudness, and a mapping from this loudness estimate to a continuous control. This is performed in the context of a novel voice-based human-computer interface designed to enable individuals with motor impairments to use vocal tract parameters for both discrete and continuous control tasks. The interface uses vocal gestures to control continuous movement and discrete sounds for other events. We conduct a user preference survey to gauge user reaction to the various methods in a mouse cursor control context. We find that loudness is an effective mechanism to control mouse cursor movement speed when mapping vocalic gestures to spatial position.