Investigating the use of force feedback for motion-impaired users

For users with motion impairments, the standard keyboard and mouse arrangement for computer access often presents problems. Other approaches have to be adopted to overcome this. There is evidence to suggest that increasing the degrees-offreedom, and hence bandwidth, of human-computer interaction (HCI), can improve interaction rates if implemented carefully. Haptic feedback is not really exploited in the existing HCI paradigm, so offers a potential method for broadening the interaction bandwidth by complementing the existing interaction structure. This paper describes a series of experiments to assess the effectiveness of using haptic feedback to enhance the interaction. The experiments focused on the use of force feedback technology to assist in point-and-click activities. The results showed that, if implemented appropriately, force feedback offers a significant benefit to motion-impaired users and that the benefit obtained was increased with increasing severity of impairment.