Evaluating Camera Mouse as a computer access system for augmentative and alternative communication in cerebral palsy: A case study

ABSTRACT

Camera Mouse is a freely available software program that visually tracks the movement of facial features to allow individuals with motor impairments to control a computer mouse. The goal of this case study was to provide an evaluation of Camera Mouse as a computer access method as part of a multiple modality communication system for an individual with cerebral palsy. The participant was asked to reproduce sentences and respond to ethical dilemmas for language sampling. Tasks were completed using natural speech and an AAC solution consisting of Camera Mouse paired with an orthographic selection interface and speech synthesis. The participant completed a questionnaire for satisfaction with the introduced assistive technology. Camera Mouse resulted in higher intelligibility than natural speech, while natural speech had a higher rate. She used more complex language with her natural speech. The participant rated Camera Mouse as at least 3/5 on all measures, including 5/5 on weight and safety. The results of this case study suggest Camera Mouse is a promising computer access system for communication supported by the participant’s satisfaction rating, expressive language, and synthesized speech production capabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
• cerebral palsy
• camera
• cursor control
• speech
• language

Acknowledgements

The authors would first like to thank the participant for her work; we are very grateful for her help and her expertise as an AAC user. We would further like to thank Amrita Nishtala and Saniya Shah for their contributions in the early design stages of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The participant was instructed to produce half of sentences as fast as possible, and the remaining sentences as accurately as possible. However, initial analysis showed no differences between the conditions. Thus data from both conditions were ultimately pooled to calculate accuracy and rate values.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health - National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders under grants F31 DC014872 and F32 DC017637 (GJC) and the National Science Foundation under grant 1452169 (CES).