Vocal joystick gives computer control to those with disabled hands
SEATTLE--For many Iraq war veterans who have returned home with debilitating injuries that, for example, make it impossible to use their hands, doing anything on a computer is an impossible task.
But a research project being worked on in the Electrical Engineering department at the University of Washington could be the latest tool at such veterans' disposal, as well as anyone who suffers from the lack of full use of their hands.
The project, known as the Vocal Joystick, which, according to University of Washington graduate student Jon Malkin, is an extension of speech recognition technology, is designed to allow someone to control a computer cursor using nothing more than their voice.
Malkin gave a talk on the project at the Gnomedex conference here Saturday.
It works by having a user train the Vocal Joystick software with his or her voice, mainly using the mouth and lips.
"We can do a lot with that," Malkin said. "Speech is a very complex signal."
Indeed, he explained that the software allows a user "four degrees of freedom" meaning that the cursor can be moved up, down, left and right, all with different vowel sounds.
For example, to move left, the user would sound out the "ee" tone in "feet." To go right, it would be the "aw" sound in "law." Hitting the equivalent of the mouse button would be the "u" sound in "but."
It might be tempting to think that only the most basic tasks are possible with this kind of software, but Malkin said that one artist who has used the Vocal Joystick had employed it to paint a picture of Mount Fuji that he then showed the audience.
The picture was very good, something many people with full use of their hands would never have been able to make.
He said the artist had made the picture in just three hours.
Malkin also demonstrated the software in real-time, showing how it is used in conjunction with a simple game where a player controls a fish swimming around trying to catch other fish.
He proceeded to sound out vowel after vowel, and sure enough, on-screen, his fish moved around dexterously, chomping up snack after snack. The Gnomedex crowd went wild.
Source: Yahoo News
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