Finger Mouse and Text-To-Speech Application as Additions to the Smart Wheelchair

The smart wheelchair project is a unique investigation into the possibilities of helping the impaired navigate in a mobile chair. Many disabled people who need the help of a wheelchair to move about also need help communicating orally. My project allows the “walking” wheelchair to do some “talking.” I developed the addition of a communication program for the wheelchair as well as a finger mouse to be implemented into all the programs. The finger mouse is a switch button small enough to wear on one’s finger. When the button is pressed, a signal is sent out from the transmitter and picked up by the receiver, which sends a signal through the parallel port of the computer to execute the desired application. The application I created is a speech program that speaks text messages. The finger mouse and speech application are connected through a communication display interface. The mouse, display, and speech software work together by speaking phrases when the mouse is clicked over the icon linked to that phrase. Thus the communication program gives the freedom of speech to anyone using the wheelchair for free range of motion.