HCC: Easy-to-Learn and Easy-to-Use Eye-Controlled Musical Expression For Children with Severe Disabilities

尽管现在相对低成本的眼睛跟踪技术提供了机会，但计算机的实际眼睛控制仍然非常有限。这对于患有严重运动障碍的儿童来说尤其不幸，他们保持着对眼睛运动的控制，并有可能使用眼球跟踪器，但由于缺乏适当的互动软件来支持这些活动，他们错过了儿童时期重要的发展活动。在他之前开发的一个研究项目中，他开发了EyeDraw软件，使患有严重运动障碍的儿童能够根据他们的眼球运动来绘画，PI表明，对于这个社区来说，眼球跟踪可以提供一种强大的、非侵入性的创造性表达方式。尽管EyeDraw在许多方面都取得了成功，但在其开发过程中，PI发现了三个主要问题，这些问题阻碍了研究人员和从业者为这些儿童开发眼睛控制软件的努力。首先，没有专门用于开发眼睛控制应用程序的快速原型工具或软件应用程序框架。此外，眼控软件通常是专为专家使用的，乍一看并不能提供愉快的体验。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，目前还没有将严重残疾儿童作为软件设计合作伙伴的既定做法。这个项目通过在支持播放音乐的计算机应用程序的具体环境中进行一些相关的活动来回应这些问题。PI将决定哪些参与性设计技术可以与严重运动障碍儿童合作，并将建立一种设计实践，允许他直接与他们和他们的照顾者合作，开发使儿童能够根据眼球运动制作音乐的软件。他将创建一个框架，支持针对该用户社区的眼睛控制应用程序的快速原型制作，方法是为护理人员、从业者和研究人员提供一种快速生成眼睛交互草图的方法，以便孩子们能够交流、探索替代方案、提供反馈并创造性地表达自己。他将设计干预技术，解决与最初使用眼控软件相关的困难，以确保立即获得成就感、满足感、互动、控制、鼓励和表达。最后一个目标将通过接口实现，这些接口即使在低保真零点校准的情况下也支持音乐表达，并且在富有表现力的音乐活动期间逐步改进校准，同时还逐渐引入高级功能和创造性音乐表达的机会。更广泛的影响：这个项目将促进人们对如何为严重残疾儿童构建眼睛控制软件的理解，这是当前的科学或设计文献没有解决的挑战。项目成果将为严重运动障碍的年轻人提供一种从事目前遥不可及的艺术追求的手段。用于眼控应用的快速原型框架将为大学课堂教学和未来的研究人员提供基础设施。

Despite the opportunity afforded by the relatively low-cost eye tracking technology now becoming available, practical eye-control of computers is still very limited. This is particularly unfortunate for children with severe motor impairments who retain control of their eye movements and have the potential to use an eye tracker, but who miss out on important childhood developmental activities because of a lack of suitable interactive software to support these activities. In a previous research project in which he developed EyeDraw, software that enables children with severe motor impairments to draw pictures with their eye movements, the PI showed that for this community eye tracking can provide a powerful and noninvasive means of creative expression. Though EyeDraw was in many ways a success, during its development the PI identified three major problems that hinder efforts by researchers and practitioners to create eye-controlled software for these children. Firstly, no rapid prototyping tools or software application frameworks are available specifically for developing eye-controlled applications. Furthermore, eye-controlled software is typically intended for expert use and does not provide enjoyable experiences at first glance. Last but not least, there is no established practice for working with children with severe disabilities as partners in software design. This project responds to these problems by pursuing a number of related activities, within the concrete context of computer applications that support playing music. The PI will determine which participatory design techniques can work with children with severe motor impairments, and will establish a design practice that allows him to collaborate directly with them and their caregivers, to develop software that enables the children to make music with eye movements. He will create a framework that supports rapid prototyping of eye-controlled applications for this user community by giving caregivers, practitioners, and researchers a means to quickly generate eye-interactive sketches so that the children can communicate, explore alternatives, provide feedback, and express themselves creatively. And he will design intervention techniques that address the difficulties associated with the initial use of eye-controlled software, to ensure an immediate sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, interaction, control, encouragement, and expression. This last goal will be accomplished through interfaces that support musical expression even with a low-fidelity zero-point calibration, and which incrementally improve the calibration during expressive musical activities while also gradually introducing advanced functionality and opportunities for creative musical expression. Broader Impacts: This project will advance an understanding of how to build eye-controlled software for children with severe disabilities, a challenge that is not addressed by the current scientific or design literature. Project outcomes will provide young people with severe motor impairments with a means of engaging in artistic pursuits that are currently out of reach. The rapid prototyping framework for eye-controlled applications will provide an infrastructure for university classroom instruction and future researchers.