I am very excited to announce the new Tobii ATI C series of
communication devices, if for no other reason that an AAC company has finally put hot swap batteries in their new AAC device. Hot swap batteries, the ability to change batteries while the device is running instead of having to plug the device in is as close to a "deal breaker" as I can come when I am looking at at a device without a student in mind. Hot swap batteries means a student can go into the community, on field trips or to work without worries of "running out of juice" and either being voiceless or being tethered by their AC adapter.
The C series devices run on the Tobii Communicator software, which I have not seen, and is capable of recorded or digitized speech and can be used for text or symbol based communication. The symbols used are SymbolStix (from the News-2You people, about 15,000 symbols). It doesn't say if there is an option to use other symbols such as Boardmaker. Otherwise the devices seem to be comparable to other devices on the market. The C8 is smaller and the C12 larger weighing in at 4 and 6.5 pounds. You can add premium features like text messaging, e-mail and the internet to the software if you wish. There are the usual multiple means of access including touch screen and switches. You can also add the eye gaze control that Tobii is most famous for (meaning that there is now eyegaze avaliable from every major AAC company - Tobii ATI, PRC and Dynavox). The C series is compatiable with all of the major mounting devices. You can personalize the style of the C series by changing the side panels to different colors.
Considering the Tobii ATI company (or part of it) is located in my home state perhaps I will get a chance to give you all more information soon.
communication devices, if for no other reason that an AAC company has finally put hot swap batteries in their new AAC device. Hot swap batteries, the ability to change batteries while the device is running instead of having to plug the device in is as close to a "deal breaker" as I can come when I am looking at at a device without a student in mind. Hot swap batteries means a student can go into the community, on field trips or to work without worries of "running out of juice" and either being voiceless or being tethered by their AC adapter.The C series devices run on the Tobii Communicator software, which I have not seen, and is capable of recorded or digitized speech and can be used for text or symbol based communication. The symbols used are SymbolStix (from the News-2You people, about 15,000 symbols). It doesn't say if there is an option to use other symbols such as Boardmaker. Otherwise the devices seem to be comparable to other devices on the market. The C8 is smaller and the C12 larger weighing in at 4 and 6.5 pounds. You can add premium features like text messaging, e-mail and the internet to the software if you wish. There are the usual multiple means of access including touch screen and switches. You can also add the eye gaze control that Tobii is most famous for (meaning that there is now eyegaze avaliable from every major AAC company - Tobii ATI, PRC and Dynavox). The C series is compatiable with all of the major mounting devices. You can personalize the style of the C series by changing the side panels to different colors.
Considering the Tobii ATI company (or part of it) is located in my home state perhaps I will get a chance to give you all more information soon.
We just previewed this device with the eye gaze for several children in my school district. I was really impressed with system overall and really thought the eye gaze was very efficient. Compared to PRC and Dynavox's eye gaze system, Tobii's was at the top of the pack. From what I understood, we cannot use Boardmaker symbols, but pictures and movies can be easily imported. I look forward to hear what others have to say on this device. If we do end up getting this for one of our students, I will share what we find!
ReplyDeleteWe viewed the C12 and the Ceye hoping to be impressed. The hot swap batteries are a good idea. However, it seems as is they compromised durability in the idea, as one of the batteries on the C12 I saw was already 'broken off' - the attachment was cracked and the battery could not stay in place.
ReplyDeleteThe Ceye was fine overall, but would not allow the speed of head movement that I was hoping for. We had a bit better success with the DynaVox trial. None of the new Tobii content seems to be done very well for children. They should look closely at improving that area.
Just a comment from us at Tobii;
ReplyDeleteWe did show our new C-series units for the first time at ATIA. Right or wrong, we were just very eager to show you the units even though they were not perfect.
The units we showed where “pre production units” and not the final products that will be delivered to customers. Batteries will be improved, mesh over the speakers will be better, sound more powerful, eye tracking more precise and tolerant. So, please be patient with us, we are working on it and it is already better. So if you were not pleased with something, please give us a new try.
Roger Henriksson
Product Manager
Tobii, C-series
Just a comment from us at Tobii;
ReplyDeleteWe did show our new C-series units for the first time at ATIA. Right or wrong, we were just very eager to show you the units even though they were not perfect.
The units we showed where “pre production units” and not the final products that will be delivered to customers. Batteries will be improved, mesh over the speakers will be better, sound more powerful, eye tracking more precise and tolerant. So, please be patient with us, we are working on it and it is already better. So if you were not pleased with something, please give us a new try.
Roger Henriksson
Product Manager
Tobii, C-series
Hello,
ReplyDeleteusually I would hesitate to talk about our products here, and for sure we don't want to spam this channel with marketing blatancy. But there were some specific questions that I would like to answer. Tobii Communicator comes with the SymbolStix as mentioned above. PCS (the symbolset used in Boardmaker) is also available. All other symbolsets, own symbols or simply all photos on your computer can be easily incorporated.
Also it was said that there would not be much we have to offer for kids. Maybe you haven't been shown everything? There is actually a lot of symbolbased material available, ranging from easy fun stuff, games, assessment and educational boards to complete and systematic vocabularies. We have developed a new smart symbolbased vocabulary strategy called Sono Lexis, aiming for sophisticated symbol language use. There are also well known content products like Functionally Speaking or Word Power / Picture Word Power. During the year we will release two more content bundles called Sono Scena (visual scenes) and Sono Primo (for beginning communicators), maybe we will match Father's expectations better then.
In case you are already using material that has been created in Boardmaker or Speaking Dynamically Pro, you can easily import all your work and use it right away!
Well, I am starting to get excited, I better stop rhapsodizing :-)
Ulrich Ehlert
Product Manager Content, Tobii
Dear Ulrich:
ReplyDeleteThere is much more to developing content for children than throwing symbols at it - and not from a very good or comprehensive symbol set at that. When I reviewed your Sono Scena and Sono Primo content it seemed years behind where the industry is now. Almost like your developers were trying to swipe the ideas of others and implement them without understanding them. Pushing disjointed content such as this sets AAC back many years - and doesn't help anyone move forward. Please find some people that understand the current fields of literacy and speech before trying to push content on the industry.
Dear yMT3gW1srIxzaEbWSXVIuImnjo5C6GcV,
ReplyDeletesomething tells me this might not be your real name. So let me say, dear unknown adviser :-)
Thank you for giving us hints what to do. When I read your comment the first time, I was really puzzled. This was due to the fact that the products you claimed having reviewed, don't exist at this time. Both Sono Primo and Sono Scena are in an early stage of development, and only a few internal developers and some involved AAC users know details about the projects.
But finally I understood what went wrong here: you certainly had a CD with pagesets to review, that we call the Communicator Sample CD. And among many other items the Sample Pages include a few visual scenes and a bit of early communication stuff. That's probably the reason why you thought this could be Sono Primo or Sono Scena and had the impression, we would use disjointed content.
In fact the Sample CD just contains a broad palette of pagesets that are not meant to have much of comprehension. It is just a pile of programming examples, showing how one could create both simple and complex pagesets with Tobii Communicator as a versatile authoring tool. So the CD just contains a bit of everything: text and symbol communication, educational and assessment boards, games, interactive photo albums, e-mail and enivronmental control pages, calendars and SMS pages and so on. We collected these from at least 15 different authors, and none of them attempted to create sophisticated content that we could "push on the industry".
We are very aware of the fact that it needs a lot of expertise to create communication interfaces that meet the diverse needs of our clients. This is the reason why we gathered a group of very experienced people.
I have the honor of coordinating the efforts of this group. I am in my 13th year of AAC work now and I have degrees in Sepcial Needs Teaching and Speech/Language Therapy. And, not to be unhumble here, I am one of the persons with the merest experience among our team members. Our internal staff developing or referencing content includes SLPs being 30 years and longer in the field. Master degrees in Speech / Language Pathology, degrees in Psychology, occupational therapists, teachers, engineers - we cover all relevant areas that are touched by AAC.
We believe in partnerships and we know that we can only accomplish improvements for our clients when many parties collaborate together. Some examples:
- We are happy to have very knowledgeable partners in Jacquie Clark and her team, founder of the marvelous online news service News-2-You, providing ten thousands of students all over the US with new valuable reading, learning and therapy resources every week.
- Our content product for literate users seeking PC access, Sono Key, has its roots in the work of our Danish partner Ole Brunbjerg. It is just a few weeks ago that he chattered about those early days in AAC and what a fun time he had when first meeting Caroline Musslewhite in Ireland at the International ISAAC Conference back in 1986. Yes, we have to face the fact that this is 23 years ago now - I apologize if anyone might start feeling old now ;-)
- Our content product Sono Lexis, the vocabulary strategy for sophisticated symbol communication, is being developed in a US / German cooperation with the team of Prof. Dr. Renner, the first dedicated AAC professor at a university in Germany.
We are teaming up with a number of very well known researchers and practitioners in the field of AAC. Not all of them would like to be publicly mentioned here. It takes some time to build solid and trustful partnerships, but our current list of partners and friends grows continuously.
We should also not forget to mention the booming number of users of our technology. We are extremely proud that so many of the people we dedicate all of our efforts to keep close contact with us. Their ideas, experiences and feedback have a prominent place in the processes of designing products in the Tobii family.
Yes, you are right in stating not using good content does not help anyone to move forward. But as you see, this is not the path we go. If you are interested in becoming involved in the process of creating innovative, inspiring and beneficial tools for those facing challenges in their communication, just drop us a line: content[at]tobii.com
Ulrich Ehlert
Diplom Sprachheilpädagoge (SLP)
Staatsexamen Sondererziehung und Rehabilitation (Special Needs Teacher)
Product Manager for language and educational content in Tobii Group