Camera Mouse 2011 User Manual

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INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME
Welcome to the Camera Mouse 2011 user manual!
Camera Mouse 2011 is a program that allows you to control the mouse pointer on a Windows
computer just by moving your head.
Camera Mouse uses a standard webcam to track your head. If you move your head to the left,
the mouse pointer moves to the left, and so on. Clicking can be done by “dwell time”. If you
hold the mouse pointer within a certain area of the screen for, say, a second a mouse click will be
issued by the program.



A LITTLE HISTORY
Camera Mouse was invented by Prof. James Gips (Boston College) and Prof. Margrit Betke
(then at Boston College, now at Boston University). The original version of Camera Mouse was
made available to some families of children with disabilities and some schools and facilities on
an experimental basis.
The Camera Mouse technology then was licensed by Boston College to Camera Mouse, Inc., a
start-up company out of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. Camera Mouse, Inc.
developed a commercial version and made it available on their website at
cameramouse.com and through other channels. With the demise of the company the
license was revoked by Boston College in April 2007 and all the rights to use the intellectual
property given in the license were returned to Boston College.



HARDWARE
To run Camera Mouse 2011 you will need a computer with Windows 7 or Windows Vista or
Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3) and a webcam. We use a Logitech HD
Pro Webcam C910 ($99.99 full retail as of April 2011) or a Microsoft LifeCam Cinema ($79.99
full retail) for development. Just about any good quality webcam should do, including most
built-in webcams. The less expensive webcams can produce noisier images, which Camera
Mouse can have a difficult time tracking.

BEFORE USING CAMERA MOUSE 2011
Before using Camera Mouse 2011 you should install the webcam according to the instructions
from the manufacturer. Be sure to install the driver software for the webcam that comes with the
webcam on CD or the latest driver that is downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. Do not
try to use a generic Windows camera driver. If you can, test to make sure the webcam works.