Head/neck control performance measurement and task interface model

Communication is of vast importance to us all. The head/neck facilitates communication, especially for those individuals with the handicap of not being able to vocalize or sign. The prescription of augmentative communication devices used by individuals with disabilities can be assisted by application to the Elemental Resource Model in the specific context of head/neck control. The Elemental Resource Model provides a quantitative comparison of human and task resources. A model and measurement device/strategy for head/neck subsystems and their interface to tasks, focused on Control Performance (i.e. speed vs accuracy tradeoff), was developed. The communication performance which can be achieved by a given individual with a given assistive device will be predicted, or what device characteristics are necessary for a given individual to achieve a specified level of communication performance. The model was validated through simulation by perturbing inputs and verifying the results were as expected.