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Introduction: Due to the increasing popularization of computers and the internet expansion, Alternative and Augmentative Communication technologies have been employed to restore the ability to communicate of people with aphasia and tetraplegia. Virtual keyboards are one of the most primitive mechanisms for alternatively entering text and play a ver...
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Context 1
... of the works arrange the keys on matrix shape, while only few authors use the circular shape. The Figure 2 shows two distinct forms of circular keyboard. ...
Context 2
... TNK algorithm (acronym for Text in N Keys) is a generalization of the T9 method for any number of keys. For both algorithms, a word dictionary is required to provide the most likely word associated to the selected keys sequence (Molina et al., 2009b). Makenzie proposed a method named LetterWise to perform the disambiguation process. ...
Citations
... The development of an assistive virtual keyboard has been carried out in various studies such as in [2], [4], [6], [19], where, in addition to creating the assistive keyboard, these works aimed to optimize their results by improving typing speed, reducing errors, and minimizing user effort. ...
Communication difficulties are frequent for many people with severe motor disabilities, making it difficult for them to interact with their families, caregivers and society in general. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) then aims to compensate for the communication deficit of these people, providing the individual with a better quality of life. However, these individuals with severe neuromotor disorders who have severe movement restrictions find great challenges in the use of several current assistive technologies. In this context, the objective of this article is to present an Alternative Communication System based on Artificial Neural Networks with a user-centered approach and their needs, for use by this public. The input and processing of signals is performed by reading the facial reference points, using the MediaPipe FaceMesh library, and the development of the classifier of gestures/facial expressions is carried out by implementing a Recurrent Neural Network Model, using long memory units term (LSTM) and dense layers. Real-time experimental results indicate that the proposed system has a good performance, with an average accuracy of 91.8%, demonstrating recognized results in the recognition of registered gestures.
... In [4], it is analysed different braille devices for implementing a costeffective and portable Braille system for visually impaired people. In [5], it is introduced a new concept of assistive virtual keyboards based on a systematic review of text entry optimization techniques. Pocket Braille keyboardreader using braille back service is developed in [6]. ...
Annotation: Last 20 years, billions of people around the world are widely using digital devices. In this information technology age, it is difficult to imagine our life without digital devices including computers. Computers play an important role in the lives of visually impaired people. These devices help them with electronic tasks such as writing mailing messages, and word processing tasks. Computers based on modern technologies for blind people are available worldwide. Computers have a specially designed external USB Braille keyboard with large six dots that help blind people type SMS messages easily and quickly. This paper proposes a low-cost external USB Braille keyboard for computers which is designed to help blind and visually impaired people type quick messages. This device is beneficial through its innovative concept, its simplicity, and its availability at an affordable cost.
... The virtual keyboard began with the discovery and creation of optical technology by IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) engineers in 1992. Virtual means only a visual representation of the keyboard and nothing physically [11]. ...
Lampung script fonts, in general, can only be used for typing on a computer system and have not been developed for typing on Android-based smartphones. Therefore, efforts to modernize and build typing using Lampung script for smartphone needs are very much needed on mobile phones so they can be used flexibly. This research makes a virtual keyboard / android keyboard application that can do typing using Lampung script. The virtual keyboard layout is designed by adopting several layouts found on the QWERTY keyboard by displaying all Aksara letters on one virtual keyboard display and grouping Aksara letters in a more attractive composition. To test the Lampung virtual keyboard script, the researchers used the usability testing method, namely aspects of effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction, by 25 respondents. Through this test, an assessment of the effectiveness of the typing test on the success rate of respondents in doing the task was obtained, which was 75%. Evaluation of the typing efficiency aspect using time calculation gets the average result on the WPM score analysis, which is 34 WPM. This result is still below the average typing speed of people, which is 38 WPM. Testing on the aspect of user satisfaction using the system usability scale (SUS) method gets a SUS value of 76, and this result is included in the Acceptable/Good category Acceptable/Good so that users can type Lampung script through Android phones. The conclusion is that it can produce an optimal, efficient virtual keyboard layout and provide comfort for the user while using it with Android. It also could introduce the Lampung script to the younger generation.
... Next one demonstrates that phrases can be offered instead of words, although the user should interprets them rather as suggestions than predictions [21]. Finally, other solution adds to static text prediction of letters and words also phonetic and similarity algorithms to reduce the user's typing error rate [22]. However, some studies indicate that the effectiveness of using word prediction software to increase typing speed may vary due to the severity of physical disability or pre-intervention typing rate [23]. ...
The aim of this work was to study whether word prediction can be applied to virtual Braille keyboards and can improve typing text by visually impaired smartphone user. First the keyboards’ advantages and disadvantages were compared to choose one to extend with word prediction mechanism. Next the method was proposed and implemented in a form of a mobile application. Due to Braille code’s structure, it was possible to apply not only word, but also a letter and dot prediction. Finally, both number of dots and letters necessary for predicting letters and words respectively within the shortest time were studied. This work verified that prediction in on-screen Braille keyboards is possible and brings noticeable benefits in typing speed. The most important observation is that just after the first dot (or blank place) it is worth searching the suggested letters and words.
... There have been several gaze-based text entry systems [Diaz-Tula and Morimoto 2016;Johansen et al. 2003;MacKenzie and Zhang 2008] that use text prediction as an essential feature in the virtual keyboard space. Prediction mechanisms are particularly valuable for text entry with virtual keyboards (for gaze-based as well as touch-based systems) [de Sousa Gomide et al. 2016;Sharma et al. 2010]. The success and usability of text predictions depend highly on the presentation and user interface parameters [Garay-Vitoria and Abascal 2006]. ...
Text predictions play an important role in improving the performance of gaze-based text entry systems. However, visual search, scanning, and selection of text predictions require a shift in the user's attention from the keyboard layout. Hence the spatial positioning of predictions becomes an imperative aspect of the end-user experience. In this work, we investigate the role of spatial positioning by comparing the performance of three different keyboards entailing variable positions for text predictions. The experiment result shows no significant differences in the text entry performance, i.e., displaying suggestions closer to visual fovea did not enhance the text entry rate of participants, however they used more keystrokes and backspace. This implies to the inessential usage of suggestions when it is in the constant visual attention of users, resulting in increased cost of correction. Furthermore, we argue that the fast saccadic eye movements undermines the spatial distance optimization in prediction positioning.
... As a new design, it will need time to arouse public interest, although unskilled users need minimum time to be trained in its use. [Teixera et al. 2016] [15] proposed the concept of an optimized adaptive virtual keyboard using techniques such as static text prediction, a new layout, disambiguation algorithms, and phonetic algorithms to reduce typing errors. In our research, we will use some of these techniques to reduce errors and increase speed. ...
... There have been several gaze-based text entry systems [7,13,20] that use text prediction as an essential feature in the virtual keyboard space. Prediction mechanisms are particularly valuable for text entry with virtual keyboards (for gaze-based as well as touchbased systems) [6,33]. The success and usability of text predictions depend highly on the presentation and user interface parameters [9]. ...
Text predictions play an important role in improving the performance of gaze-based text entry systems. However, visual search, scanning, and selection of text predictions require a shift in the user's attention from the keyboard layout. Hence the spatial positioning of predictions becomes an imperative aspect of the end-user experience. In this work, we investigate the role of spatial positioning by comparing the performance of three different keyboards entailing variable positions for text predictions. The experiment result shows no significant differences in the text entry performance, i.e., displaying suggestions closer to visual fovea did not enhance the text entry rate of participants, however they used more keystrokes and backspace. This implies to the inessential usage of suggestions when it is in the constant visual attention of users, resulting in increased cost of correction. Furthermore, we argue that the fast saccadic eye movements undermines the spatial distance optimization in prediction positioning.
... Dwell-free techniques have been implemented with user interfaces of virtual keyboard applications wherein the dwellfree eye-typing systems provide moderately higher text entry rate than dwell based eye-typing systems [25][26][27]. The user interfaces of virtual keyboard systems have been designed based on various keyboard approaches such as the Dvorak, FITALY, OPTI, Cirrin, Lewis, Hookes, Chubon, Metropolis, and ATOMIK [28]. However, it is challenging to control these keyboards through gaze detection due to the underlying gaze detection procedure where the accuracy decreases in relation to the proximity of the commands. ...
... The usability of virtual keyboard systems with gaze-based access controls is currently impaired by the difficulty to set optimal values to the key parameters of the system, such as the dwell time, as they can depend on the user (e.g., fatigue, knowledge of the system) [28]. In addition, the fluctuation of attention, the degree of fatigue, and the users' head motion while controlling the application represent obstacles for efficient gaze-based access controls as they can lead to low performance [52]. ...
The usability of virtual keyboard based eye-typing systems is currently limited due to the lack of adaptive and user-centered approaches leading to low text entry rate and the need for frequent recalibration. In this work, we propose a set of methods for the dwell time adaptation in asynchronous mode and trial period in synchronous mode for gaze based virtual keyboards. The rules take into account commands that allow corrections in the application, and it has been tested on a newly developed virtual keyboard for a structurally complex language by using a two-stage tree-based character selection arrangement. We propose several dwell-based and dwell-free mechanisms with the multimodal access facility wherein the search of a target item is achieved through gaze detection and the selection can happen via the use of a dwell time, soft-switch, or gesture detection using surface electromyography in asynchronous mode; while in the synchronous mode, both the search and selection may be performed with just the eye-tracker. The system performance is evaluated in terms of text entry rate and information transfer rate with 20 different experimental conditions. The proposed strategy for adapting the parameters over time has shown a significant improvement (more than 40%) over non-adaptive approaches for new users. The multimodal dwell-free mechanism using a combination of eye-tracking and soft-switch provides better performance than adaptive methods with eye-tracking only. The overall system receives an excellent grade on adjective rating scale using the system usability scale and a low weighted rating on the NASA task load index, demonstrating the user-centered focus of the system.
... In general, AAC systems include a large set of gestural, alphabetical, and iconic communications [3]. This area of research is growing rapidly to meet the needs of severe speech and motor impaired individuals, such as aphasia and tetraplegia patients [4]. An AAC system can be divided into two distinct components: input device(s) and communication software. ...
... VIII. DISCUSSION A recent review of virtual keyboard related studies provided several developments and optimization approaches for these systems [4]. The majority of the studies focused on improving systems performance (increasing text entry rate and reducing error rate) without considering multimodality (i.e. the inclusion of several input devices). ...
Virtual keyboard applications and alternative communication devices provide new means of communication to assist disabled people. To date, virtual keyboard optimization schemes based on script-specific information along with multimodal input access facility are limited. In this work, we propose a novel method for optimizing the position of the displayed items for gaze-controlled tree-based menu selection systems by considering a combination of letter frequency and command selection time. The optimized graphical user interface (GUI) layout has been designed for a Hindi language virtual keyboard based on a menu wherein 10 commands provide access to type 88 different characters along with additional text editing commands. The system can be controlled in two different modes: eye-tracking alone and eye-tracking with an access soft-switch. Five different keyboard layouts have been presented and evaluated with ten healthy participants. Further, the two best performing keyboard layouts have been evaluated with eye-tracking alone on ten stroke patients. The overall performance analysis demonstrated significantly superior typing performance, high usability (87% SUS score), and low workload (NASA TLX with 17 scores) for the letter frequency and time-based organization with script specific arrangement design. This work represents the first optimized gaze-controlled Hindi virtual keyboard, which can be extended to other languages.
... Another significant aspect is the exploitation of intelligent text prediction methods for more efficient text entry [6]. Moreover, the placement of word predictions [7] around the foveal region [8] has been investigated. However it is unclear, how these designs do impact the user cognition, i.e., if the mental effort required in text entry process varies for different designs. ...
Gaze-based virtual keyboards provide an effective interface for text entry by eye movements. The efficiency and usability of these keyboards have traditionally been evaluated with conventional text entry performance measures such as words per minute, keystrokes per character, backspace usage, etc. However, in comparison to the traditional text entry approaches, gaze-based typing involves natural eye movements that are highly correlated with human brain cognition. Employing eye gaze as an input could lead to excessive mental demand, and in this work we argue the need to include cognitive load as an eye typing evaluation measure. We evaluate three variations of gaze-based virtual keyboards, which implement variable designs in terms of word suggestion positioning. The conventional text entry metrics indicate no significant difference in the performance of the different keyboard designs. However, STFT (Short-time Fourier Transform) based analysis of EEG signals indicate variances in the mental workload of participants while interacting with these designs. Moreover, the EEG analysis provides insights into the user's cognition variation for different typing phases and intervals, which should be considered in order to improve eye typing usability.
