Abstract
For many people around the world, electric wheelchairs remain a practical means of regaining mobility. Unfortunately, some are not able to use power wheelchairs because of difficulties using a standard joystick. People suffering from neuromuscular diseases who experience a loss in muscular strength can find it difficult to use a standard joystick. In this paper, we explore an alternative steering device in the form of a tactile interface on smartphones. We outline some design choices that are meant to alleviate some of the challenges that may rise with respect to users with neuromuscular diseases. We then detail a study that investigates the usability of this interface over two phases. In the first one, 11 users with neuromuscular diseases tried this type of steering in free learning sessions. 4 among them took part in the second phase where we tested their kinematic performance between the use of the tactile steering interface and the joystick. The paper presents data and observations from both phases and tries to detect tendencies and draw hypotheses that can guide further in-depth clinical testing of the tactile steering for wheelchair users suffering from neuromuscular diseases. Overall, the user performance with the tactile interface was close to or the same as their performance with the joystick. In addition, the users reported a lesser level of physical demand of the tactile steering over the joystick and some of them even preferred the former over the latter.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the occupational therapists and the staff of Le Brasset functional rehabilitation center for their help, without which this study would not have been possible. Their constructive feedback helped us to carry out our tests. We also extend our warmest thanks to the residents of the center who took part in the study. Despite their motor challenges, they showed great enthusiasm during the tests. They were very cooperative and gave us constructive feedback. Finally, we would like to thank the team of the Technical Aid and Innovation Center of the French Association against Myopathies (AFM TELETHON) for their valuable help in setting up this test campaign with people suffering from neuromuscular diseases.
This work was funded by IDEX Paris-Saclay, ANR-11-IDEX-0003-02.
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Guedira, Y., Dervin, D., Brohm, PE., Farcy, R., Bellik, Y. (2020). A Tactile Interface to Steer Power Wheelchairs for People Suffering from Neuromuscular Diseases. In: Krömker, H. (eds) HCI in Mobility, Transport, and Automotive Systems. Driving Behavior, Urban and Smart Mobility. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12213. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50537-0_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50537-0_15
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