Implementation of application by gaze interaction on a tablet computer for challenged people

The Japanese government conducted measures for persons with disabilities in 2013 and they reported that about 2.2 million of challenged children aged 17 or younger live in Japan. Those children cannot communicate with others without somebody's help because of severe physical disabilities and they are wholeheartedly keen to become a member of a society and crave a device/application to communicate with other people. Indeed, there are many models of computer and tablet produced in Japan, however, quite small number of products are designed for the challenged children because difficulties of the children are unique and each assistive device should be designed individually. Therefore it's not easy to produce common-use devices or applications, and it's not easy for company to gain a profit from such special devices/applications. Finally, few types of assistive product are available even though a lot of challenged children desire such assistive device and application to be produced. In this paper, application by gaze interaction on a tablet computer was proposed and examined the performance and effectiveness of this application through trial classes in special-needs school. Results of experiment through trial classes suggested that the proposed application gained high appreciation from teachers of special-need school.