Virtual keyboard with scanning and augmented by prediction

All our teenage users are confined to electric wheelchairs and are unable to speak or make any voluntary movements much beyond either moving their head against one of three switches mounted in the chair’s headrest or to hit a large “banger” switch. Real-world devices are beyond reach, only devices in a virtual world are attainable. This virtual keyboard project was designed to meet their needs for interacting with commercial off-the-shelf software such as word processors, spreadsheets, electronic mail and Internet tools. The virtual keyboard uses scanning augmented by character prediction and word completion.