An Adaptive Hardware and Software Based Human Computer Interface for People with Motor Disabilities

This paper introduces IOM (an acronym for Interface Oculos Mouse, in Portuguese), an adaptive human-computer interface for people with motor disabilities in the upper limbs. The device, designed to be a low-cost hardware solution, consists of an eye frame glasses with integrated sensors responsible for detecting head movements and eyes blinks. IOM is accompanied by a user-friendly software interface that allows its users to adjust configuration options according to their needs and preferences. The goal of the interface is to enable the users to control the computer entirely. The paper presents the main components of both hardware architecture and software design that make up the developed prototype. At the end, the paper also reports the first evaluation process of the IOM device. Initial experiments performed using the AttrakDiff tool evaluate IOM, specifically from the end user's perspective, emphasizing desirable characteristics related to both hedonic and attractiveness dimensions. A comparison between some same purpose devices and the IOM using the Fitt’s Law is presented in the paper. The preliminary experimental results show that the proposed platform attends to the usability aspect to computer requisites, in special for people with disabilities.