MultiAccess

The wide variety of available smartphones, tablets, and computers are great, but they are difficult to control if you don't have good hand movement. With MultiAccess you type on an Android tablet that is right-sized and it sends what you type to up to three other devices. Our MultiAccess app includes several typing methods and has built-in word prediction.

This app was developed under a grant to the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (The RERC on AAC) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) grant # 90RE5017. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the funding agency, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

What It Does For You

Mobile devices come in a wide range of sizes and often have tiny onscreen keyboards. MultiAccess enables you to use one tablet, optimally positioned for typing and cursor movement, to control up to three other devices, including smartphones, Windows and Mac computers, and other tablet devices. It also lets you type by speaking what you want to write. MultiAccess provides several ways to enter text, including:

• Standard letter-by-letter typing with word prediction. MultiAccess includes sophisticated word prediction that predicts new words based on the previous word you typed. It also learns new words as you use them.

• Swiping between letters with continuous word prediction. We call this input method "gesturing". As you gesture through the letters of a word, watch for that word to be highlighted in the word prediction list. When it is, just lift your finger off of the keyboard and the word is automatically inserted into your sentence! MultiAccess usually predicts the word you want after you gesture towards two or three letters.

• Dwelling on the first letter of a word and gesturing the remaining letters. You don't have to be good at hitting the first letter using this approach and word prediction reduces the gesturing required to enter your text.

• Dwelling on the first and final letter to be entered (with word prediction) so that you never have to lift your finger off the tablet surface.

• Automatic and Step Scanning using the switch inputs on BlueHub.

• Google speech recognition. As Google recognizes your speech, the text is typed into the selected other device.

MultiAccess lets you seamlessly switch between the typing methods above (with some limitations) so that you can use the method that works best for the task at hand. MultiAccess is also a Bluetooth mouse. You can choose between a track-pad or joystick user interface.

How it Works

The key to MultiAccess is our BlueHub. The input tablet running the MultiAccess app sends commands to the MultiAccess hub, which "translates" the commands into Bluetooth HID protocol and forwards them to one of three port devices (smartphones, computers, etc.). So what does that mean for you? It means that you have a customizable keyboard and mouse designed specifically for someone with limited hand control, but to the outside world the text from your onscreen keyboard looks exactly like text from a standard Bluetooth keyboard, and cursor control follows the Bluetooth standard for pointing devices.

This design approach assures that you can do anything on the target devices that a person using a standard Bluetooth keyboard and mouse can do. You have complete control of devices running Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, or the Android operating system. Unfortunately, Apple iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone are not designed for complete access via Bluetooth. You can use our Bluetooth keyboard with these devices, but the iOS operating system does not support Bluetooth pointing devices. This can make iOS devices a challenge to control using only MultiAccess. For more information, visit https://www.invotek.org/collections/products/products/multiaccess