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. 2023 Apr 17;23(8):4049.
doi: 10.3390/s23084049.

Experimental Evaluation of EMKEY: An Assistive Technology for People with Upper Limb Disabilities

Mireya Zapata  1 , Kevin Valencia-Aragón  1 , Carlos Ramos-Galarza  1   2
Affiliations

Experimental Evaluation of EMKEY: An Assistive Technology for People with Upper Limb Disabilities

Mireya Zapata et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Assistive technology can help people with disabilities to use computers more effectively and can enable them to access the same information and resources as people without disabilities. To obtain more insight into the factors that can bring about the design of an Emulator of Mouse and Keyboard (EMKEY) to higher levels of user satisfaction, an experimental study was conducted in order to analyse its effectiveness and efficiency. The experimental study involved 27 participants (Mage = 20.81, SD = 1.14) who performed three experimental games under different conditions (using the mouse and using EMKEY with head movements and voice commands). According to the results, the use of EMKEY allowed for the successful performance of tasks such as matching stimuli (F(2,78) = 2.39, p = 0.10, η2 = 0.06). However, the execution times of a task were found to be higher when using the emulator to drag an object on the screen (t(52,1) = -18.45, p ≤ 0.001, d = 9.60). These results indicate the effectiveness of technological development for people with upper limb disabilities; however, there is room for improvement in terms of efficiency. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and are based on future studies aimed at improving the operation of the EMKEY emulator.

Keywords: assistive technology; face recognition; hands-free computer interface; nose tracking; speech-to-text; usability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
EMKEY noise detection for generating cursor movement to (a) right, (b) left, (c) up and (d) down.
Figure 2
Figure 2
EMKEY block diagram.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pairing cards game flowchart and random array of figures to match.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Maze game flowchart and interface. Finish line is the red rectangle in the maze.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Car crashing game flowchart and interface.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Process that the participants underwent.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Green boundary box size comparison. (a) Rectangle of size 65 × 35 pixels/frame processed; (b) rectangle of size 35 × 20 pixels/frame processed.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Number of clicks made in the pairing cards experiment.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Execution times in the pairing cards experiment.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Numbers of errors made in the pairing cards experiment.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Execution times in the maze experiment.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Errors made in the maze experiment.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Number of obstacles evaded.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Number of crashed cars.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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