Prototype

The psychology department at UVic uses a HyperCard program in order to conduct different types of psychology tests. A typical test would include flashing an image or question on the screen, and the test subjects verbally respond to the stimulus. Often it is not the actual response that is important, but the time that it takes for the patient to respond. The department has been wrestling with different timing setups for some time now, but none of the solutions have completely satisfied their needs. Both a hardware solution and a software solution have been tried recently, but the hardware didn't work very well (it was only for the old Mac mouse connector, and the software wouldn't work on other computers that have different operating systems and/or different microphones.

A voice detection device was created that we named the “Voice Activated Mouse Click”. It uses a Logitech USB mouse, which was automatically detected by Mac, pc, and Linux operating systems. In layman's terms, the device would detect, recognize and interpret a human voice in both quiet and noisy conditions. It would transmit a mouse click signal to the computer a very short time after it detected voice. It was powered completely through USB power (5V and 200mA shared with the mouse). The user has complete control over device sensitivity, reset time, and certain aspects such as noise and voice training (so that it would be more accurate in identifying the difference between the target voice from the background noise).

West Coast Design is extremely happy with the performance of the Voice Activated Mouse Click, as it has exceeded all performance expectations. Click on the side navigation button labeled “Voice Activated Mouse” in order to find out more details on the device.