抄録
Hemiplegic patients often have reduced typing speed due to finger paralysis. Our motivation is to develop a device that enables their typing speed to increase. For this purpose, we developed a three-dimensional keyboard that reduces the distance that fingers move while typing. Our objective was to verify the best arrangement of the three-dimensional key for increasing typing speed. We hypothesized that typing speed will increase effectively when the keys are placed at the neutral posture of fingers. We analyzed finger motion speed and finger muscle fatigue when pressing the three-dimensional key. We found that finger motion speed was fastest when the finger is rather bending than neutral posture, and finger muscle fatigue was lowest when finger is rather extending than neutral posture. Finally, the optimal key arrangement that compatible high motion speed and low fatigue was indicated as the arrangement that was set to the neutral posture of finger.
