FOR people with hand tremors, using a computer mouse can be arduous, or downright impossible. IBM believes it has a solution that will allow millions of people with this problem to use a computer normally.
Jim Levine, a researcher at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in New York, has invented a mouse adapter that filters out the “noise” produced by shaky hand movements. Compatible with any computer, the adapter has a small microprocessor that digitally smoothes the motion data from the mouse. In effect, it suppresses rapid tremor oscillations, while leaving the slow, steady progress toward the user’s goal.
Levine first thought of developing his “assistive mouse adapter” when he noticed his uncle, who has Parkinson’s disease, struggling to use a mouse. And, while people often associate hand tremors with Parkinson’s, a far more common cause is a genetic disorder known as “essential tremor”, which affects as many as 1 in 25 people.
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“Using a computer mouse is well known for being extremely hard for people with tremors,” says Karen Walsh, manager of the UK’s National Tremor Foundation based in Romford. “So we’re delighted to hear that a technology has been developed to address this problem.”
IBM has licensed the product to UK-based firm Montrose Secam. The director of the company, James Cosgrave, has suffered from hand tremors since he was a teenager, yet despite this he spent most of his career as an airline pilot. For him, using a mouse proved to be a far more difficult task than flying a plane. “I have used a prototype mouse adapter for over a year now, and it has literally transformed my life,” he says.
