Hands free mouse

The headset mouse is an assistive technology created for individuals with limited to no mobility in their arms. Specifically, this device was created for persons with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The design utilizes a NeuroSky headset, which is used by reading EMG signals to implement mouse clicks using hard blinks and eyebrow raises. A gyroscope is used to read in the values created by the user's head movement and translate that into mouse movement. After creating a prototype device, we were able to test it on both healthy subjects, and persons with ALS (PALS). The PALS had varying neck mobility, with differing progressions of the disease. All subjects were asked to perform four different tasks on a Windows PC that included testing the mouse movement and clicking. Feedback from PALS during testing was used to modify the device in order to better suit their needs. After the four different tasks were conducted with healthy subjects versus PALS, the results showed that most PALS were able to complete the given tasks. Their times of completion were not far off from their healthy counterparts.