The Headmouse and the VirtualKeyboard have been downloaded over 340,000 times

The University of Lleida (UdL) presented this morning the new versions of the VirtualKeyboard 3.1 and of the HeadMouse 4.1, which seek to facilitate access to the labour market to people with mobility impairments. Both versions are available for download from Indra's website: www.tecnologiasaccesibles.com UdL's website  http://robotica.udl.cat.

The continuous progress of both projects, started up in the framework of the Accessible Technologies Chair of Indra in collaboration with Adecco Foundation, seek to advance in the investigations in order to facilitate access to new technologies to people with impairments.

The new nersions of the HeadMouse and VirtualKeyboard incorporate features in response to improvements suggested by users who have downloaded the application from all over the world. Downloads amount to 340,000 in total of both the HeadMouse and the VirtualKeyboard, mostly from Spain and Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia or Argentina).

Continuity of the Indra - Adecco Foundation Chair at the UdL

At the presentation, the rector of the Universitat de Lleida, Roberto Fernández; Indra´s director in Catalonia, Manel Brufau; and Regional Coordinator of Adecco Foundation in Catalonia, Francisco Javier Pérez, reaffirmed their commitment towards social responsibility by renewing the collaboration agreement signed in 2008.

The objectives of the Indra – Adecco Foundation Chair at the Universitat de Lleida are apparent in the update of the HeadMouse system and the optimisation of VirtualKeyboard. By combining both applications, a person with a disability can use the virtual keyboard through the HeadMouse, allowing them to write faster and with a minimum effort. The combination of both tools optimises the labour environment of a person with a disability and provides them with access to jobs that require use of new technologies.

 

 

 

New versions

During the presentation, professor of the University of Lleida and Scientific Director of the Indra-Adeco Foundation Chair, Jordi Palacín, explained that the new versions of HeadMouse 4.1 and Virtualkeyboard 3.1 translate a click automatically into a sequence of keys (called Macros). This way, a user with mobility impairments does not need to access a virtual keyboard or press a sequence of keys to perform a repetitive task.

For instance, even such a simple task as copying and pasting from one document to another can be done with a single click instead of pressing [Ctrl+C], or by clicking again to select the new document and then another click instead of [Ctrl+V]. This means half the effort at the same time that it increases productivity as complex and repetitive tasks can be done with a single click  without need of additional programmes.

Production improvement is clearly shown by the fact that by pressing a single key a browser could be configured, a website can be accessed or the login and password could be written automatically. All this saves a 97% of the required effort to press the keys.

Indra in Catalonia

Indra employs around 3,000 professionals in Catalonia distributed across 8 centres in Barcelona and Lleida. The regional headquarters are located in the 22@ district in Barcelona, where it was one of the first companies to set up facilities.

Indra also opened a Software Lab, located at the Science and Technology Park in Lleida, which gives support to the company's operations at world scale. It also operates a Help Desk center (CAU), which offers 24x7 support to companies either based in Spain or abroad.

The company recently signed a collaboration agreement with Catalonia's regional government and El Prat's town council to startup an international aeronautics training centre near El Prat airport, Barcelona. The new centre, with an initial investment of 10 million Euros, will be equipped with state-of-the-art simulators. The  high technological development of the systems will permit to train pilots of the world's main airlines and could also be used as a complementary training for novice pilots.

 

 

 

 

Additional information

Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to investment in R&D with over € 500 M during the last three years. In 2010 revenues reached € 2,557 M and the international market already accounts for a 44%. The company employs more than 35,000 professionals and has clients in more than 110 countries.

The University of Lleida is a public institution with approximately 9,665 students and 1,708 professors. It is made up of seven internal centres and two affiliated centres. The University of  Lleida holds the third position of public state universities in terms of teaching quality, according to the most recent report by the Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo (CyD, Knowledge and Development Foundation) tof 2010 and is the third public university in the World University Ranking 2011 which considers 3000 centres across the globe.

Adecco Foundation carries out its social objective of professionally integrating people with difficulties in accessing the labour market through collaboration agreements with entities and companies, designing and implementing social responsibility policies within the framework of human resources, and developing re-orientation and integration programmes that facilitate access to jobs for people who face additional challenges. The Adecco  Foundation team relies on the support of the 350 Adecco offices.