The majority of interaction techniques for individuals with disabilities to control a computer require an additional dedicated hardware like switches beyond standard computer peripherals. Furthermore, each traditional hardware switch emulates different keyboard characters or mouse clicks depending on its manufacturer. There is no commonly agreed standard on this; while some switch accessible programs expect to receive enter character, other programs expect to receive mouse left click. Switch manufacturers, therefore, distribute software drivers, which allow users to assign expected characters, with switches to overcome this standardization problem by making them adaptable. As software drivers are developed for a specific switch, they are not compatible with the other manufacturers’ switches. On the other hand, for the ones with a very limited motor activity but a complete respiration activity, sip-and-puff switches are efficient solutions. However, they are expensive and invasive systems with tubes, that have to be changed regularly due to the hygiene concern, inside users’ mouth. Although invasive respiration-based systems (sip-and-puff devices) caught enough attention by researchers over the years, using non-invasive respiration-based interaction techniques is an underestimated approach in general. In this study, we proposed two novel non-invasive interaction techniques as software switches (PuffCam and PuffMic) compatible with any switch accessible software. Both techniques are respiration operated, where a hard puff, detected by a microphone or an adapted camera, is considered as ‘switch-on’ like a puff switch. We have also collected the objective data by an evaluation software namely TestBed. A user study (conducted with 46 participants with/out disabilities) revealed that the accuracy, precision, recall, and false positive rate of our interaction techniques were quite impressive, and PuffCam performed better than PuffMic for all metrics. According to questionnaire findings, comfort assessment of interaction techniques by participants was rated quite satisfactory. All participants agreed that the idea of controlling a computer via breathing without purchasing any dedicated hardware sounded very promising. Because most interaction techniques for computer control require extra dedicated devices and there is not any adaptable (i.e., compatible with most switch accessible software) software switch to the best of our knowledge, proposed interaction techniques can help community in an open access manner without purchasing any device.

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软件开关：基于呼吸-机器交互作用的四肢瘫痪患者的新型免提交互技术

用于残疾人控制计算机的大多数交互技术都需要额外的专用硬件，例如标准计算机外围设备以外的交换机。此外，每个传统的硬件开关根据其制造商模拟不同的键盘字符或鼠标单击。目前尚无公认的标准。虽然某些可通过开关访问的程序希望接收输入字符，但其他程序希望接收鼠标左键。因此，交换机制造商分发了软件驱动程序，使用户可以分配期望的字符，并通过使交换机具有适应性来克服此标准化问题。由于软件驱动程序是为特定交换机开发的，因此它们与其他制造商的交换机不兼容。另一方面，对于那些运动能力非常有限但呼吸活动完全的人，一气的开关是有效的解决方案。但是，它们是昂贵且带有导管的侵入性系统，由于卫生方面的考虑，必须定期更换用户口腔内的导管。尽管多年来，基于侵入性呼吸的系统（s饮装置）引起了研究人员的足够重视，但使用基于非侵入性呼吸的交互技术通常被低估了。在这项研究中，我们提出了两种新颖的非侵入式交互技术，即与任何开关可访问的软件兼容的软件开关（PuffCam和PuffMic）。两种技术都是呼吸操作，在这种情况下，通过麦克风或适配的相机检测到的硬粉扑像粉扑开关一样被认为是“接通”的。我们还通过评估软件TestBed收集了客观数据。一项用户研究（由46名有/没有残疾的参与者进行）显示，我们的互动技术的准确性，准确性，召回率和误报率令人印象深刻，并且PuffCam在所有指标上的表现均优于PuffMic。根据调查表的调查结果，参与者对交互技术的舒适度评估非常满意。所有参与者都同意，通过呼吸来控制计算机而不购买任何专用硬件的想法听起来很有希望。由于大多数用于计算机控制的交互技术都需要额外的专用设备，并且就我们所知，没有任何可适应的（即与大多数可访问交换机的软件兼容）软件切换，