Interacción inclusiva mediante la selección de gestos oculares, corporales, touch y 3D enfocada a personas con síndrome de Down

Abstract

Digital inclusiveness establishes the need to promote technology that works for everyone: blind and deaf people, people suffering from Parkinson, people without hands, elderly, people in wheelchairs, people who cannot read and people with cognitive disabilities. These include people with Down Syndrome (DS), who have physical and mental characteristics that also must be taken into account when designing software and hardware. In the last decade the use of devices and Internet of Things has been promoted. This includes interfaces which, in turn, increasingly use gestures. Therefore, it is convenient to analyze gestures so that the designs within the following ten years turn out to be better and more inclusive. This research raises and proves the main hypothesis that all gestures are not executed with the same effortlessness. By identifying which gestures are simpler, quicker or more difficult for people, their use can be proposed in different circumstances. It will take the same effort for the designer and the software developer, to program a "tap" or a "slide", but for the person who will execute the gesture every day for the rest of the software’s life, this difference can be significant. Complex gestures can be used to confirm critical activities, while simpler gestures can be used for everyday tasks. In addition to field tests for people with Down syndrome, tools have been developed to measure gestures done correctly with different input devices: touch, body, eye and Mid-Air (3D). These tools were designed and programmed for this research. Each one measures in milliseconds which gestures are completed and how much time is invested in completing them. With the data collected and the results obtained, it has been possible to compare if all the gestures require the same effort and if it takes the same time to perform them. In general, for all types of gestures studied, the results indicate that gestures have different outcomes. Each type of entry has been analyzed taking into account different variables: gender, age, socioeconomic level and type of Down syndrome. The statistical analysis shows that gestures differ very much one from the other and that some are more beneficial for people with DS. The preference of software developers determines which gestures to design for which devices. This has to change. Finally, and in order to increase the outreach of this thesis, a visual guide was created, so a designer can quickly look up which gestures are the best to use for each software. This guide provides a practical way to design user-friendly interfaces for both neurotypical people and people with Down syndrome. It includes a description of the gestures and encloses recommendations on the visual interface design.