Glossary

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MIDI Controller(also: MIDI Input Device)

A hardware device that generates MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) messages to control music software or sound modules without being a traditional musical instrument. MIDI controllers include keyboards, drum pads, wind controllers, joysticks, and purpose-built…

Makey Makey

A small electronic invention kit that uses alligator clips to connect everyday conductive objects — fruit, foil, playdough, drawn pencil lines — to a computer, which sees them as keyboard presses or mouse clicks. Created by Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum at the MIT Media Lab,…

Mapping by Demonstration

A personalisation technique for gestural and sensor-based interfaces in which the system learns the relationship between user input (movement, breath, gaze) and output (sound, visuals, commands) from examples the user provides, rather than from designer-authored rules. The…

Marking Menu(also: Pie Menu, Radial Menu)

A marking menu is a radial (pie-shaped) menu that can be operated in two modes: a beginner mode that displays labelled wedges around the cursor for the user to aim at, and an expert mode that lets an experienced user draw the directional stroke toward the desired item without…

Morse Code(also: Morse Code Input)

A communication system that encodes text characters as sequences of short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes). Originally developed for telegraphy, Morse code has found significant application in assistive technology as an alternative text input method for people with…

Mouse Alternative(also: Alternative Pointing Device, Mouse Replacement)

A mouse alternative is any input device or technique that lets a user perform pointer-control tasks — moving a cursor, clicking, dragging, selecting — without using a conventional mouse. For people with motor impairments, mouse alternatives include trackballs, head-pointer and…

Mouse Emulation(also: Mouse Simulation, Virtual Mouse)

Software or hardware that simulates mouse pointer movement, clicks, and other mouse actions using alternative input methods such as head tracking, eye gaze, joysticks, switch scanning, keyboard commands, or biosignal interfaces. Mouse emulation enables people who cannot use a…

Mouth Interface(also: Mouth-operated interface, Mouth-based input)

An input modality that uses mouth movements - tongue position, cheek puffs, jaw motion, lip gestures, breath, or sip-and-puff - to control a computer, wheelchair, or XR system. Mouth interfaces serve people with limited upper-limb mobility (e.g., spinal cord injury, muscular…

Mouth Joystick(also: Lip Joystick, Mouth-Operated Joystick)

An assistive input device controlled by the user's mouth, lips, or tongue that functions as a pointer or gamepad joystick. The user moves a small stick held between the lips to direct cursor or on-screen movement; selection is typically triggered by a sip-and-puff switch, chin…

Multitouch Surface(also: Multi-Touch Interface, Multitouch Interface, MTS)

A multitouch surface is an input device that uses optical or capacitive sensors to detect and track multiple simultaneous finger contacts on a flat surface. Unlike conventional touchpads that rely on a single finger for functionality, multitouch surfaces can recognize complex…

Muscle-Computer Interface(also: MCI (Muscle-Computer Interface), EMG Interface)

An input modality in which signals generated by muscle contractions — typically recorded via surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors worn on the forearm or other muscle group — are interpreted by a computer to recognise discrete gestures or continuous control signals. Coined by…

Myo Armband(also: Thalmic Myo)

A commercially available wearable gesture-recognition armband released by Thalmic Labs in 2014 and discontinued in 2018, containing eight dry sEMG electrodes sampling at 200 Hz plus a 9-axis IMU. Despite its discontinuation, the Myo remains widely used in accessibility and HCI…

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