Assistive technology to improve PC interaction for people with intention tremor

Many patients with upper limb intention tremor encounter difficulties in mo use-driven interaction with the personal computer (PC). An assistive techno logy system ("the Tremor Control System"), consisting of a motion-filtering software program that supports multiple interfaces, was developed and vali dated with 36 persons with Multiple Sclerosis in a multi-center trial. PC-t ests, requiring basic functions such as cursor placement and click and drag function, were able to differentiate between patients and control subjects (ANOVA: p<0.05). A significant time improvement on the PC-tests was found when using an optimal alternative interface instead of the standard PC-mous e (paired t-tests: p<0.01 for Point & Click test, p<0.05 for Drag & Drop te st and p<less than>0.1 for Double Click test). A significant time improveme nt was found for the Double Click test (paired t-tests: p<0.05) when the mo tion-filtering program was implemented. The number of patients able to perf orm fully the PC-tests increased with the Tremor Control System. Patients w ith marked intention tremor seemed to profit especially from this assistive technology. These users reported that working with the Tremor Control Syst em was less fatiguing and more comfortable compared to the use of the stand ard PC-mouse.