Testing the usability of a voice control system for assistive robotic arms in people with neurological conditions.

Only 20 participants with muscular dystrophy and 20 healthy participants were tested in a laboratory setup. The study included only muscular dystrophy, not other neurological conditions. The voice-control condition had predefined positions and orientations, while the joystick was used in its standard commercial configuration, so the interfaces were not equally feature-rich. Task time comparisons were made among participants who completed tasks, and some participants with muscular dystrophy could not complete joystick tasks. Sixteen of 20 participants with muscular dystrophy were male, and the authors note that gender imbalance may have affected voice-control results. The speech recognition language model was trained on healthy Italian-speaking subjects. Participants were not screened for prior experience with joystick or voice interfaces. The study did not test long-term use in home environments.

Funding was provided by the Italian Lombardy Region, Fondazione Cariplo, and the Italian Ministry of Health.

Do not read the higher task completion as proof that voice control is faster for all tasks. The joystick was faster for the button task in both groups, and healthy participants were faster for the drink task with the joystick. The voice condition also had predefined shortcuts that the standard joystick did not.