Model based processing of swabbing movements on touch screens to improve accuracy and efficacy for information input of individuals suffering from kinetic tremor

Abstract

As a result of demographic change the average age of many western populations increases, accompanied with age-related disease patterns. Especially tremor symptoms rise accordingly, aggravating a barrier free interaction with information systems. In order to maintain a self determined lifestyle at home, new technologies and methods need to be introduced, especially for application in health care and telemedical scenarios. Hence, a new direct input technique based on wiping movements on touch screens has been developed. The combination of a new input concept and applying regular commercially available technologies helps to avoid high costs for acquisition and therefore makes it marketable. While making an input on the touch screen the precise characteristics of every wiping movement can be tracked and is used for computation of the desired entry. The efficacy of this approach was evaluated within a clinical study with n=15 subjects. The results show that the error ratio for inputs by tremor patients can be significantly reduced in comparison to a virtual keyboard, depending on tremor strength and form. The learning curve for first time users is very steep and tends to result in inputs that are only slightly steady than purposeful movements to standard buttons and keys. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.