SBIR Phase I: Adapting Touchscreen Devices for Motion-Disabled Users

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力不仅包括为目前无法使用触摸屏的严重运动残疾人提供辅助技术，还包括许多未被正式诊断为运动残疾的人。面向这些更富有的美国观众(通常是老年人)的初始销售将支付50美元，这有助于为公司增长提供资金。第一阶段的实验将为人机界面增加新的科学见解。第一阶段将生产一种低成本的配件，在大规模生产中，最终的价格将在10美元左右，与现有的触针和短信手套市场类似，后者对运动残疾人的好处有限，而且比电子笔等配件更具成本效益。这种低成本的单芯片配件可以在制造过程中扩大规模，以使全球数亿运动残疾人获得选举权。拟议中的设备将独立于操作系统和设备，并且比竞争对手的硬件(如电子笔)需要更低的开发成本。如果拟议中的技术以合理的价格成功商业化，被触摸屏革命边缘化的数百万美国人(以及全球数百万人)将能够完全参与这些设备为社会带来的创新。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目有可能为(约3,400万美国)运动障碍用户改善人机交互(HCI)，这些用户与电容式触摸屏作斗争。这些屏幕假定用户的手指充当断断续续连接的电容器。行动不便的人无法做出这样的手势。纯软件改编和成熟的配件(触针或短信手套)对行动不便的人没有帮助。该项目结合了廉价的硬件附件、定制芯片和运行在触摸屏操作系统(OS)上的额外软件层。许多运动残障人士都是低收入人群，他们需要低成本的单芯片配件--然而这种芯片的寄生电容太大了。该项目旨在1)展示制造触摸屏配件的可行性，这些配件可以可靠地将来自运动残障人士的低带宽信息编码到电容触摸屏接收的信号中；2)开发额外的软件层应用程序，在人体受试者评估中为运动障碍者提供此类配件；以及3)为此类配件设计芯片，以克服成本和寄生电容问题。来自人体受试者和电子测量的反馈允许同时优化三个相互关联的问题：硬件可靠性、附件外形因素和额外的软件层功能。结果将包括主观和客观的人体主体评估，配件外形系数，低寄生电容集成电路设计，代码，以及此类配件的操作系统/应用程序接口技术。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project includes not only assistive technology for the severely motion-disabled, who currently find it impossible to use a touchscreen, but also many who are not officially diagnosed with a motion disability. Initial sales to this wealthier, typically elderly, US audience will pay $50, helping to fund company growth. Phase I experiments will add new scientific insights in HCI. Phase I will yield a low-cost accessory that, in large-scale production, will ultimately have a ~$10 price that is similar to the existing market for styli and texting gloves, which are of limited benefit to the motion-disabled, and more cost effective than accessories such as electronic pens. This low-cost, single-chip accessory can be scaled up in manufacturing efforts to enfranchise hundreds of millions of motion-disabled individuals worldwide. The proposed device will be operating-system and device independent, and will require lower development costs than competing hardware such as electric pens. If the proposed technology were to be commercialized successfully at a reasonable price, millions in the US (and many times that worldwide) marginalized by the touchscreen revolution will be able to fully participate in the innovations these devices bring to society. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project has the potential to improve Human Computer Interaction (HCI) for (~34 million US) motion-disabled users who struggle with capacitive touchscreens. These screens assume users' fingers act as intermittently connected capacitors. The motion-disabled are unable perform such gestures. Software-only adaptations and the well-established accessories (styli or texting gloves) do not help the motion-disabled. This project combines an inexpensive hardware accessory, a custom chip and an extra-software-layer running on the touchscreen operating system (OS). Many motion-disabled are low-income individuals who require low-cost, single-chip accessories?yet such chips have too much parasitic capacitance. This project is designed to 1) demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating touchscreen accessories that reliably encode low-bandwidth information from the motion-disabled into the signals received by a capacitance touchscreen; 2) develop extra-software-layer applications that interface such accessories for motion disabilities in human-subject evaluation; and 3) design a chip for such accessories that overcomes cost and parasitic-capacitance problems. Feedback from human-subject and electronic measurements allow simultaneously optimization of three interrelated issues: hardware reliability, accessory form-factor, and the extra-software-layer functionality. Results will include subjective and objective human-subject evaluations, accessory form factor, low-parasitic-capacitance integrated-circuit design, code, and OS/application interfacing techniques for such accessories.