Communication device to use an acceleration sensor for the seriously disabled.

A communication device is proposed for use as an acceleration sensor for the seriously disabled. This device is mainly for disabled people with problems such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or a cerebral infarction, who have communication difficulties because of a physical disability. A feature of this device is that the sensor can readily be mounted on the user’s body. The mounting of the sensor on the body is easy, unlike a conventional touch sensor. Another feature is that even though the physical disability of the user is serious, this device can be operated by slight movements of a part of the body. In addition, we have developed an adaptive word processing software for seriously disabled people. A feature of this software is that the arrangement and size of the buttons and the window on the display can be optimized based on the user’s physical ability. In a field test, we confirmed that our communication device incorporating this adaptive word processing software was applicable to disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]