Assisting people with disabilities in actively performing designated occupational activities with battery-free wireless mice to control environmental stimulation.
A $20 battery-free wireless mouse can be turned into an assistive switch that lets clients with motor/ID challenges earn preferred stimulation by placing objects in the right spot.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two adults with disabilities learned to place objects in the right spot. When they did, a $20 battery-free wireless mouse sent a signal. The signal turned on their favorite music or toys.
The study used an ABAB design. First, no stimulation. Then, stimulation came on only after correct placement. Then off again. Then back on. This proved the mouse caused the improvement.
What they found
Both people quickly placed more objects correctly when the mouse gave them their preferred stimulation. Their work output jumped during the intervention phases.
When the stimulation stopped, their correct placements dropped. When it returned, the high performance came back. This shows the mouse-plus-stimulation package worked.
How this fits with other research
Shih et al. (2012) used the same mouse system one year earlier. That study taught simple instruction-following. The 2013 paper extends the tool to harder occupational tasks like sorting or assembling.
Shih et al. (2013) ran a sister study the same year. They swapped the battery-free mouse for a $30 air mouse that detects body movement. Both projects got more activity, but one used object placement and the other used physical motion.
Lancioni et al. (2009) reviewed 26 studies where microswitches gave stimulation for movement. Their summary includes mouse hacks like this, showing the idea has roots going back to 2009.
Why it matters
You can build this switch for the price of a pizza. Plug the mouse into free OLDP software, pick the client's favorite song or light, and set the object sensor. No batteries, no soldering, no wait for funding. Try it next session for sorting, filing, or assembly jobs.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The latest researches use software technology (OLDP, object location detection programs) to turn a commercial high-technology product, i.e. a battery-free wireless mouse, into a high performance/precise object location detector to detect whether or not an object has been placed in the designated location. The preferred environmental stimulation is also incorporated to assist those patients in need of occupational activities in performing simple occupational activities to acquire their preferred environmental stimulation. The result of the experiment shows that both participants have been able to control their preferred environmental stimulation by actively performing occupational activities. This study is going to extend the aforementioned researches by using battery-free wireless mice to assist patients in performing more complicated occupational activities. The ABAB design has been adopted for experiments, and the result shows that during intervention phrases, the occupational activities of both participants are significantly improved.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.01.018