Smartphones are very intuitive devices that simply requires taps and swipes to function but this can be hard for people with upper limb disabilities who face difficulty when using their fingers and hands. Samsung Electronics has come up with a new application called DOWELL which allows those users to control their smartphones with existing assistive computer devices. The company plans on launching this service in 2016.
Existing assistive computer devices include trackballs, head mouse devices and other technologies which can be used by people with upper limb disabilities to control devices through software that eliminates the need for button click control. Smartphones on other hand require taps, swipes, pinches and other actions which can be hard for people with this disability but Samsung aims to make it easier with DOWELL. Once the app is installed the user needs to connect their smartphone to a USB-type computer assistive device. The upper and lower sections of the smartphone's screen can then be accessed as DOWELL's user interface. Within the upper screen the user can tap or drag and use other touch commands and from the lower screen they can bring up the menu, home screen and even use the basic hardware keys of the Galaxy smartphone.
Thus the app lets people with upper limb disabilities to easily and efficiently use smartphones by connecting assistance devices they already own without having to purchase additional equipment. DOWELL will work with most Samsung smartphones, from the Galaxy S3 to the most recent models, and will be commercially launched later this year.
