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People with motor impairments often face difficulties in accessing interactive applications and services. This paper presents a tool, named Fast-Scanner that enables motor-impaired users to work with any application running in Microsoft Windows, without the
need of a posteriori modification, through the use of binary switches as an alternative to t...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... the user initiates the FastScanner tool, a window appears presenting all the application windows that are currently open, and asks the user to select the desired application. This dialog is depicted in Figure 2(a). Interaction with the initial dialog of the tool takes place through scanning, and with the use of the binary switches, as described earlier. ...
Context 2
... the manual scanning mode, the settings dialog window appears when the user presses both switches at the same time. The settings dialog appears in Figure 2(b). The user can move the window of the application by selecting one of the eight buttons of the first two rows, or resize the window by selecting one of the four buttons of the third row. ...
Context 3
... user can move the window of the application by selecting one of the eight buttons of the first two rows, or resize the window by selecting one of the four buttons of the third row. The button with the palette initiates the border settings window, which is displayed in Figure 2(c) and allows the user to set the color for each one of the dialogue states (entry, exit and selection) as well as the width of the border. The button with the input devices in the initial settings window initiates the input device settings window, which is displayed in Figure 2(d) and is used for enabling or disabling the time-scanning mode and specifying the time interval for the automatic triggering of the "next" action. ...
Context 4
... button with the palette initiates the border settings window, which is displayed in Figure 2(c) and allows the user to set the color for each one of the dialogue states (entry, exit and selection) as well as the width of the border. The button with the input devices in the initial settings window initiates the input device settings window, which is displayed in Figure 2(d) and is used for enabling or disabling the time-scanning mode and specifying the time interval for the automatic triggering of the "next" action. The last two buttons of the initial settings window can be used for pausing and restarting FastScanner and for terminating the operation of the tool. ...
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Citations
... Approaches in this domain can be categorized as follows: accessibility and scanning features of the operating systems addressing the needs of severely motor impaired users, mouse emulation, scanning tools offering access to the entire windows environment, and individual applications providing scanning-based interaction (Ntoa et al., 2014). Such applications include web browsers and add-ons (Stephanidis, Paramythis, Sfyrakis & Savidis, 2001;Ntoa, Margetis & Stephanidis, 2009), games (Grammenos, Savidis, & Stephanidis, 2009), learning environments and training systems (Savidis, Grammenos & Stephanidis, 2006;Maguire, Elton, Osman & Nicolle, 2006), as well as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) 5 systems (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013;Ghedira, Pino & Bourhis, 2009), but also scanningbased accessibility at the level of the entire Operating System (Ntoa, Savidis, & Stephanidis, 2004). Recently, efforts have also focused on scanning-based accessibility for mobile devices (Whitaker, 2020), as well as for environmental control (Felzer & Rinderknecht, 2009). ...
Intelligent everyday environments are expected to empower their inhabitants, assisting them in carrying out their everyday tasks, but also ensuring their well-being and prosperity. In this regard, the accessibility of an intelligent environment is of utmost importance to ensure that it fulfills user needs, but also that it is usable and useful for everyone, without imposing barriers or excluding individuals with disabilities or older adults. This chapter carries out a review of the state of the art in the field of interaction techniques in intelligent environments, analyzing their accessibility challenges and benefits for different user categories. Furthermore, toward the direction of universally accessible intelligent environments, the issue of multimodal interaction is discussed, summarizing the modalities that can be employed for each user group.KeywordsAccessibilityIntelligent environmentsAmbient intelligenceDesign for allInteraction techniques
... There are several types of scanning techniques, mainly varying in their approach for accessing the individual interactive elements. The most popular scanning techniques include: -block scanning (Applied Human Factors, 2012; Ntoa, Savidis, & Stephanidis, 2004; Stephanidis et al., 1998), in which items are grouped into blocks, aiming to minimize user input and enhance the interaction speed. A well-known block scanning technique is row / column scanning in which items are grouped into rows. ...
Scanning is an interaction method addressing users with severe motor impairments which provides sequential access to the elements of a graphical user interface and enables users to interact with the interface through at least a single binary switch by activating the switch when the desired interaction element receives the scanning focus. This chapter explains the scanning technique and reports on related approaches across three contexts of use: personal computers, mobile devices, and environmental control for smart homes and ambient intelligence environments. In the context of AmI environments, a recent research approach combining head tracking and scanning techniques is discussed as a case study.
... Cartesian scanning moves the cursor progressively in a direction parallel to the edges of the screen, and polar scanning selects a direction and then moves along a fixed bearing. A particular type of polar scanning that allows movement only in eight directions is commonly used [15,21] (and in a wheelchair mobility interface [16]). In both Cartesian and polar scanning systems, the interaction rate of users remains very low. ...
... Examples of some existing systems in the same discipline are the Autonomia System [21], the FastScanner system [15], the Gus Scanning Cursor [11], the ScanBuddy system [23] and the SSMCI system [14]. The Autonomia system [21] replaces the windows and widgets of a typical Windows interface by Frames and Wifsid (Widget for Single-switch input devices) respectively. ...
... The cursor frame provides eight-directional scanning whereas the frame itself and other frames are scanned using the block-row-item based scanning approach. The FastScanner system [15] starts the scanning process by showing a list of currently open applications and asks the user to choose an application. The scanning procedure then restarts itself to the selected application. ...
This chapter presents brief overview of a few new technologies used in interfaces for people with different range of abilities. We discuss about scanning systems that enables one to use a computer or tablet using only one or two switches, eye tracking system that moves a pointer in a screen following eye gaze and finally EEG-based brain computer interfaces. The chapter discusses state of the art on each system, points to a new system by combining more than one modality and finally present existing problems and future vision regarding these technologies.
... Scanning is an interaction technique that enables motorimpaired users to have access to interactive applications and services [13]. The basic idea is that a special ''marker'' (e.g., a colored frame) indicates the interaction item that has the input focus. ...
User interface development in Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environments is anticipated to be a particularly complex and programming intensive endeavor. Additionally, AmI environments should ensure accessibility and usability of interactive technologies by users with different characteristics and requirements in a mainstream fashion. Therefore, appropriate user interface development methods and tools are required, capable of both reducing development efforts and ‘injecting’ accessibility issues into AmI applications from the early design stages. This paper introduces two tools, named AmIDesigner and AmIPlayer, which have been specifically developed to address the above challenges through automatic generation of accessible Graphical User Interfaces in AmI environments. The combination of these two tools offers a simple and rapid design-and-play approach, and the running user interfaces produced integrate non-visual feedback and a scanning mechanism to support accessibility. AmIDesigner and AmIPlayer have been evaluated to assess their usability by designers, and have been put to practice in the redevelopment of a light control application in a smart environment as a case study demonstrating the viability of the design-and-play approach. The results confirm the usefulness and usability of the tools themselves. Overall, the proposed approach has the potential to contribute significantly to the development, up-take and user acceptance of AmI technologies in the home environment.
... Augmentative and alternative communication aids [2, 29, 35, 45]. New interaction techniques o Scanning interfaces [30, 33, 46], ...
We have developed a simulator to help with the design and evaluation of assistive interfaces. The simulator can predict possible interaction patterns when undertaking a task using a variety of input devices, and estimate the time to complete the task in the presence of different dis$ abilities. We have evaluated the simulator by considering a representative application being used by able$bod ied, visually impaired and mobility impaired people. The simulator predicted task completion times for all three groups with statistically significant accuracy. The simula$ tor also predicted the effects of different interface designs on task completion time accurately. hat inhibits their use of standard computer systems. There are ethical and legislative reasons for designing products and services for this vast population. In particular, computers offer valuable assistance to people with physical disabili$ ties and help to improve their quality of life. However the diverse range of abilities complicates the designing of human$computer interfaces for these users. Existing in$ clusive or assistive software systems often address a spe$ cific class of user and thus many elderly people and users with disabilities find existing technologies hard to use. We have taken a novel approach to designing and evaluat$ ing inclusive systems by modelling performance of users with a wide range of abilities. In this paper, we present a simulator that can predict possible interaction patterns when undertaking a task using a variety of input devices, and estimate the time to complete the task in the presence of different disabilities and for different levels of skill. We briefly describe the simulator and demonstrate its use in evaluating interfaces for an application used by able$ bodied, visually impaired and mobility impaired people.
... The efficiency of the cluster scanning system can be attributed to the following factors. The cluster scanning system does not introduce any new interface element like a frame or form in the screen as Autonomia [5] or FastScanner [3] systems do. The cluster scanning system does not blindly divide the screen in a predefined number of segments as the ScanBuddy [6] or block scanning systems do. ...
Many physically challenged users cannot interact with a computer through a conventional keyboard and mouse. For example, spasticity,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cerebral palsy confine movement to a very small part of the body. People with these disorders
may interact with a computer through one or two switches with the help of a scanning mechanism. Scanning is the technique
of successively highlighting items on a computer screen and pressing a switch when the desired item is highlighted. We have
developed a new scanning system that works by clustering screen objects in a graphical user interface (GUI). Currently we
have implemented it for Microsoft Windows operating system, however it can be extended to any other GUI based operating systems.
In a previous paper we compared the cluster scanning system with other scanning systems using simulation (Biswas and Robinson,
2008a). In this paper we validate the results obtained in simulation by evaluating the cluster scanning system through a controlled
experiment with motor impaired users. We describe the scanning systems and results obtained using simulation in the following
two sections. In Section 11.4, we present our study followed by concluding remarks.
... Scanning tools, on the other hand, enable users to operate the entire environment of the operating system and interact with any application [2], [7], [18], [16], [3]. One important concern regarding scanning tools is the interoperability issues they face. ...
The web has become the most commonly used gateway to information, commerce and entertainment. As a result, accessing online
resources without any barriers has turned to be of utmost importance for all the citizens of the Information Society. One
common obstacle faced by users with motor impairments of the upper limbs is their difficulty to interact with a computer application
using standard input devices, such as the keyboard and the mouse. This paper presents a browser add-on, named FireScanner,
providing access to the web for people with hand motor impairments, through the scanning technique.
... Cartesian scanning moves the cursor progressively in a direction parallel to the edges of the screen, and polar scanning selects a direction and then moves along a fixed bearing. A particular type of polar scanning that allows movement only in eight directions is commonly used (Steriadis & Constantnou, 2002;Ntoa et al, 2004; and in a wheelchair mobility interface, O'Neill et al, 2002). In both Cartesian and polar scanning systems, the interaction rate of users remains very low. ...
... Examples of some existing systems in the same discipline are the Autonomia System (Steriadis & Constantnou, 2002), the FastScanner system (Ntoa et al, 2004), the Gus! Scanning Cursor (Gus Scanning Cursor, 2007), the ScanBuddy system (The ScanBuddy system, 2007) and the SSMCI (single switch mouse control interface) system (Moynahan & Mahoney, 1996). The Autonomia system (Steriadis & Constantnou, 2002) replaces the windows and widgets of a typical Microsoft Windows interface by frames and wifsid (widget for single-switch input devices) respectively. ...
... However, AAC systems are not sufficient to engage a user more fully with the world -other software like internet browser, word processor etc are also quite useful for people with disabilities. Recent studies (Steriadis & Constantnou, 2002;Ntoa et al, 2004;Gus Scanning Cursor, 2007;The ScanBuddy system, 2007) already used scanning systems for other software. Our study keeps up that trend and provides a new scanning system that can be used to access any software. ...
Many physically challenged users cannot interact with a computer through a conventional keyboard and mouse. They may interact with a computer through one or two switches with the help of a scanning mechanism. In this paper we present a new scanning technique based on clustering screen objects and then compare it with two other scanning systems by using a simulator. The analysis shows that the best scanning system is a type of block scanning that divides the screen in four equal sized partitions for four iterations and then switches to eight-directional scanning. However, with a more accurate target acquisition process, the cluster scanning technique is found to outperform other scanning systems.
... Scanning is an interaction technique that enables motor impaired users to have access to interactive applications and services with the use of binary switches [20]. The basic idea is that a special "marker" (e.g., a colored frame) indicates the interaction item that has the input focus. ...
Ambient Intelligent (AmI) environments bring a number of interoperating computing-embedded devices into our everyday life. The related usage scenarios get more complex when users with disabilities and elderly are taken into consideration. This paper presents an interactive application for intuitively controlling multiple sources of light in AmI environments, built so that it can be used by anyone, the young, the elderly, people with visual disabilities, and people with hand-motor disabilities alike. In order to accommodate such a wide range of users, we developed three different modes of interaction: (a) touch-screen-based for sighted users with no motor impairments; (b) remote controlled operation in combination with speech for visually impaired users or tele-operation by sighted users; and (c) scanning (both manual and automated) for motor-impaired users. In the paper, first we describe the design decisions taken and their rationale. Then, we present the user interface that was developed. Following that, we discuss the outcomes of a user-based evaluation in which people with disabilities also participated, suggesting potential interface improvements stemming from the evaluation results. Finally, we provide our conclusions and insight on future R&D work in this area.
This Chapter introduces the concept of Universally Accessible Games (UA-Games) as
a novel approach to creating games which are proactively designed to be concurrently accessible
by people with a wide range of diverse requirements and / or disabilities. First, background
information is provided on the various types of disabilities affecting game accessibility, the way
that people with disabilities play games, and guidance and approaches for achieving game
accessibility. Then, related work is presented, followed by an introduction to the concept and
goals of Universally Accessible Games. The main part of the Chapter is dedicated to a step by
step presentation of a structured method for designing Universally Accessible Games. Finally,
some conclusions are offered along with directions for future work.
