Questions
What is the Camera Mouse?How does the Camera Mouse work?
Who can use the Camera Mouse?
What equipment is required for Camera Mouse?
How can we obtain our own Camera Mouse?
Who is responsible for the Camera Mouse?
Questions and Answers
What is the Camera Mouse?
The Camera Mouse is a technology developed at Boston College. The Camera Mouse uses a commercial USB camera located above or below the user's monitor to replace a mouse. The Camera Mouse allows people who have very limited voluntary muscle control – just the ability to move the head – to control the computer.
The Camera Mouse is the second major assistive computer device that has been developed at Boston College in response to the language expressive needs of students with multiple disabilities. (The first device was EagleEyes.) The collaborative work of Computer Science faculty and Education faculty allow for design, development, and implementation of such new technology to take place in the human laboratory of classrooms in the Boston College Campus School, a school on campus for children with multiple disabilities.
How does the Camera Mouse work?
The image from the camera is displayed on the screen. The camera is focused on the user's face. Click on the tip of the nose or the edge of an eyebrow in the image. Control is passed over to the Camera Mouse. As the user moves his head the mouse pointer is moved accordingly. The technology works with any Windows application program. Clicks can be generated either using dwell time (hold the pointer over a spot for a certain amount of time and a click is generated) or using any other clicking device.
Who can use the Camera Mouse?
We work with children and teenagers with profound disabilities, people who cannot speak and have little or no voluntary motion. Often they were born with cerebral palsy or they have suffered traumatic brain injury from an automobile accident or accidental drowning.
By luck and circumstance, the first person to have her own Camera Mouse system was Jordan – a 33-month old girl with severe cerebral palsy. Jordan can't talk but she can move her chin up and down a little and her head from side to side a little. For more information about Jordan, please visit the Camera Mouse Gallery.
Past acquirers of Camera Mouse include an 80-year old man who obtained the system for his 50-year old son with cerebral palsy. Also, the family of a seven-year old girl in New Jersey obtained a system, as has the family of a two-year old boy with cerebral palsy in Connecticut. A 33-year old man with traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident just used Camera Mouse to spell out a message to his father.
What equipment is required for the Camera Mouse?
The Camera Mouse should work with any Windows Vista or XP OS and with any commercial USB camera that costs $50 or more. We usually work with Logitech cameras, for example the Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 or the QuickCam Fusion.
How can we obtain our own Camera Mouse system?
Originally, a start-up company was given the license for the technology and developed a commercial version of the Camera Mouse for sale. The company did not maintain the software, so the license has been revoked. We have just completed a new version of the Camera Mouse software and are distributing it FOR FREE at www.cameramouse.org.
Who is responsible for the Camera Mouse? How can I obtain more information?
Please contact:
James Gips
Egan Professor of Computer Science
Carroll School of Management
Fulton Hall 460B
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3808
(617) 552-3981
gips@bc.edu
http://www.cs.bc.edu/~gips/
or:
Margrit Betke
Associate Professor
Computer Science Department
Boston University
111 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-6412
betke@cs.bu.edu
http://www.cs.bu.edu/fac/betke/
