Development of Character Input System Based on Head Tilting and Breathing Actions

This paper describes support-equipment of operating a personal computer for users whohave an obstacle on the regions of upper limb. The user wears a head set device with an angle sensor,and holds a plastic pipe connected to a pressure sensor in his or her mouth. Tilting his or her head andbreathing are used for mouse cursor operation and characters input. Considering user's body conditions,the voluntary angle range of head tilting and strength of breathing are memorized to the controllerbeforehand, and obtained information is reflected for operations without fatigue. The characterdisplay board is used to indicate the Japanese characters and input options such as Back Space orEnter. Tilting motions change the indicated character and breathing actions can select and input theilluminated functions on the character display board. In test trial, it is confirmed that Japanese charactersincluding Kanji and Katakana can be input with head tilting and breathing, instead of a generalkeyboard.