Empowering the autonomy of children with cognitive and physical impairments by inertial head tracking

Abstract Physical and cognitive disabilities affect to motor skills and social integration. Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of motor disability in children. Motor skills of disabled infants are affected by different forms and different aids may be adapted to empower the infants' residual abilities. This work presents an interface based on inertial sensors that translates the movement of the head of the infant into movements of the cursor on the computer's screen. The interface can be considered as an input device for the computer (text editor, multimedia and playful applications) and assistive devices as well as a rehabilitation tool (biofeedback therapy).