Communication Tool

Challenge

The young woman affected by locked-in syndrome can only communicate with her environment through eye movements, which is a significant challenge for everyone involved. Any of her needs must be specifically queried using yes/no questions. Due to her condition, she is unable to communicate on her own when she needs something, making the regular presence of a person—or regular checking of her basic needs—necessary.

However, she is able to consciously move the little finger of her right hand by a few millimeters. As part of our project, we are therefore developing a communication tool at her request that allows her to actively indicate when she needs something through the movement of her finger.

A challenge in designing the tool is the randomly occurring spasms, which can cause her entire arm or even her whole body to tremble. The communication tool must therefore function reliably without false activations caused by these spasms.

Solution