The voice activated mouse was a project intended to fill the design requirements as part of the Electical Engineering program, at the University of Victoria. The device was build specifically for the UVic psychology department to be used with the current research software.

Verbal Response time to a give stimulus is often required in many psychology experiments. Many experiments include patients verbally responding to visual stimulus such as a picture on the computer screen. Often, it is not the actual response that is important, but the time that it takes for the patient to respond. In the past, patients have been asked to click a button (or press a key) as they verbally respond so that the response time could be recorded. For tests involving gestural knowledge and gestural memory responses, a physical response could distort the results. As a result, a device was built that would detect verbal responses, and have the ability to transmit the voice detection signal to a computer where the response time could be calculated.

The device was created in such a way that it is compatible with all current PC and Mac computers. It has the ability to detect human voice (filter out many of the typical testing environment sounds) and transmits a “mouse click” signal to the computer. It is powered completely hrough USB connection, thus, eliminating the need for an
external power source when used on a laptop.