Emulating mouse clicks without using hand/foot/voice

This is the place for comments, criticisms and even the occasional compliment related to the SmartNav drivers and profiler. Also the place to discuss and review support issues.
Post Reply
Franck Dernoncourt
Posts: 56
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:48 pm
Contact:
Contact Franck Dernoncourt

Emulating mouse clicks without using hand/foot/voice

Post by Franck Dernoncourt »

Hi all,

SmartNAV is awesome to move the mouse cursor, however every time I present how it works to somebody the first question is: "how do you click?".
  • The dwell clicking software is very good, but sometimes we would like to be able to trigger the click and not wait for it.
  • Voice recognition it handy but there is still some latency and thinking every time you have to click may not be compatible with maintaining a healthy voice (btw some good advice about it on http://www.speakeasysolutions.com/blog/ ... -software/).
  • Footswitches may cause tendinitis to ankles if one uses it all day long to emulate mouse clicks.
  • Keyboard shortcuts are convenient but the more I am using SmartNAV the further I want to stay away from the keyboard and mouse; also, for those having RSI because they click too much it somehow only moves the issue from the mouse to the keyboard (although pressing the key on a good keyboard put AFAIK far less stress on the forearm). In addition to that some people cannot use of keyboards for medical grounds.
I am therefore looking for a way to emulate mouse clicks without using hand/foot/voice. I have looked into brain computer interfaces (especially the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset and the NeuroSky MindWave) as well as eye tracking and mouth-operated mouse (http://www.tetramouse.com/).

The Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset is pretty good at recognizing facial expressions (eye blinks, smile and a couple more), which we can bind to key(s) and theoretically to mouse clicks thanks to the application provided for free along with the headset. The main issue is that this headset is not really comfortable (wet sensors + crush your brain > I can wear it during one hour at most) and the above all requires a few minutes to place.

The NeuroSky MindWave is pretty good at recognizing eye blinks (~90%). This headset is easier to place (less than 1 min.) and uses one dry sensor. It is however not very comfortable: like the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset, I can wear it during one hour most). Unfortunately no application existed to map eye blinks with mouse clicks.

I consequently wrote NeuroClick, a program that emulates mouse clicks with eye blinks using the NeuroSky MindWave headset. The source code (C) as well as the binaries can be found here: http://francky.me/software.php#Neuroclick2012 . The slightly longer description can be found here: http://www.quora.com/Brain-Computer-Int ... l-day-long

Any feedback/comments/ideas on NeuroClick or other ways to emulate mouse clicks without using hand/foot/voice are welcome!

Thanks,
Francky

PS: SmartNAV + NeuroSky ;-)
Image
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/1027 ... 005354.jpg
Top
Post Reply

Return to “SmartNAV Support”