Development of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) System Operated Using by the Mouthpiece Type Remote Controller and/or the intraoral Joystick for Seriously Disabled People

摘要

We have tried to develop an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system operated by users' tongue motion for seriously disabled people. This system consists of two input devices of a mouthpiece type remote controller and an intraoral mini-joystick. The mouthpiece type remote controller has 4 switches to operate PC's mouse up/down and right/left. The intraoral mini-joystick has a three-axis force Sensor (operating direction in the plane and the magnitude) to detect the user's tongue motion. To make sure the basic characteristic of this system, the maneuverability was tested. The candidate of 5 to 10 able-bodied male tried to operate the PC's mouse using the two input devices. The required time to input the prescribed sentence using the mouth piece type remote controller by tongue was 6-16% increasing. Using the intraoral mini-joystick, the average duration was about 2[sec] and the accuracy was good enough to apply this system to the assistive tools. These results suggest the possibility that this system would be effective as an assistive tool for severely disabled people.