Abstract:
There is a growing need for objective and quantitative tools to measure the outcome of
assistive technologies (AT), such as powered prostheses and communication aides for people
with disabilities [1,2]. The most typical types of assessment are task completion tests or
performance tests, where the user performs specific tasks relating to practical daily activities and
the time required for task completion is used as the assessment.
The main purposes for such outcome measurements are the assessment of patient
improvements, the selection of appropriate AT devices for patients and the evaluation of newly
developed AT devices. The appropriate choice of an assessment method requires careful
consideration, because assessment results can be influenced by many factors. For instance,
applications to AT device selection, where a therapist would investigate the outcome differences
for different AT devices; assessment results may be influenced primarily by task proficiency,
which thus makes the appropriate selection of an AT device difficult.
This paper introduces a basic form of assessment that is both task- and applicationindependent,
which focuses on the operation capacity of an input device to an AT. In most AT
devices, single or multiple switches are widely accepted as the de facto standard input devices,
so the proposed method evaluates the operation capabilities of single switches.
At the same time, there are also a number of research projects that are seeking to develop
augmentative and alternative input methods for AT devices. However, because of the wide
variety of impairments, certain restrictions still remain on increasing the number of candidate
input methods. Accordingly, we are working on general purpose myoelectric interfaces that are
compatible with various commercial AT devices. Preliminary evaluations of the myoelectric
interface are also presented in this report.
