Vocal Joystick

Researchers at the University of Washington have built a "joystick" that works entirely with basic vocal sounds. Vowel sounds move the cursor in various directions, while consonants like "k" and "ch" simulate clicks and releasing the mouse button. Saying the sounds louder moves the cursor faster.

Existing joysticks for the disabled require a stick in the mouth, which is tiring and interferes with speech, or head or eye tracking, which is hard to do properly. The inventors say that they elected not to use full voice recognition because it was far less efficient. That makes sense to me - syllables are much shorter and universal than whole words or phrases, and they can't be misinterpreted as easily.