Edinburgh Napier University

  For users with motion impairments, the standard keyboard and mouse arrangement for computer access often presents problems. Other approaches have to be adopted to overcome this. There is evidence to suggest that increasing the degrees-of-freedom, and hence bandwidth, of humancomputer interaction (HCI), can improve interaction rates if implemented carefully. Haptic feedback is not really exploited in the existing HCI paradigm, so offers a potential method for broadening the interaction bandwidth by complementing the existing interaction structure. This paper describes a series of pilot studies to assess the effectiveness of two possible methods for incorporating haptic feedback into the interaction. The aim was firstly to ascertain whether the motion-impaired could detect the feedback successfully and then to assess whether the feedback may be of benefit. Two experiments were performed, one to test vibrotactile feedback and the other force feedback. The vibrotactile results were inconclusive, but the force feedback results were very positive.