A mouse adapter for people with hand tremor

Abstract

Hand tremor, which affects millions of individuals worldwide, can make it difficult or impossible to operate computers that rely on a mouse, or similar pointing device, for controlling the user interface. We describe an assistive adapter that, when inserted between the mouse and the computer, provides digital motion-smoothing filtering, rejection of inadvertent mouse button clicks, and enhanced double clicking. Because its behavior closely emulates a standard mouse, this setup is operating-system independent and requires no special software on the computer. Its assistive features are active for any application with a mouse-driven interface. In a preliminary test involving people with essential tremor, most subjects reported improvements ranging from moderate to considerable. © Copyright 2005 by International Business Machines Corporation.