Eyegaze Apps

The products seen in this video are the first steps towards a comprehensive curriculum to teach purposeful eye gaze interaction leading to eye gaze controlled communication and computing.  We have road maps and progressions to teach keyboards and switch skills but this will be important for us to teach learners what they need to access an eye gaze controlled device.  Amazing.

The computers seen here are the Tobii PC Eye, the software is by Sensory Guru and the interactive floor mat is a Magic Carpet.

Sample Eye Gaze Boards

Eyegaze for Education: Women and Girls with Rett Syndrome

Many thanks to the Rett Syndrome Association Massachusetts for hosting me for this presentation.


Also thank you to everyone who watched the live broadcast of this workshop on Ustream.TV!

I apologize for the technical difficulties. It was a first time thing, broadcasting a workshop and I learned a lot.

Ingrid Harding of Girl Power 2 Cure taped (most) of the broadcast, which is seen below.



Please comment and let me know if you saw the broadcast! (I never saw the social stream.)

Kelly Presents for Future Music Therapists

You can see this presentation on the Tobii website.

Things you never thought you would say...

One of my tutoring students is a late bloomer in terms of AAC.  It wasn't until 17 when he received his first dynamic display device, a Tobii C-Eye. 

Six months later he was hanging out in his kitchen with a friend, blasting Shania Twain on his iTunes, through her Tobii.

"That's too loud; turn it down!" his mother told him.  Like any other teen would he turned it down, but just a little.

One of the best gifts of AAC and accessible environmental control is a chance to be like any other kid.  Not to mention the chance for a parent to be like any other parent.

Flashback Friday - Tips for Low Tech Eye Gaze Communicators

Flashback Fridays is a new feature that will bring back blog entries that readers found useful, inspiring or that provoked conversation in years past.

This is a re-post from September 2008 by guest blogger Rose Marie. Since this entry was first posted I have had two students who are very good eye gaze communicators and have really learned how to become a better communication partner for them. One of my favorite tips is to use photo mats to make eye gaze boards, I like to make them and laminate them so the symbols are always in the same place and motor automaticity is built. My current student who is an eye gaze communicator can eye gaze to the correct corner of one of the laminated boards in less than a second because the icons on the board and their locations have been memorized. Another tip for students who may hyperfocus on your face instead of the icons or the board is to hold the board in front of the student in then bring your face into the center of the board slowly (it helps to be seated on a rolling stool). Enjoy Rose Marie's re-post!

1) Just because the concept of eye gaze is simple, reading eye gaze is not necessarily easy. We need practice and experience to become competent partners. Not all kids use the same techniques, in part because the end goal for each child may not look the same (see #2).

2) Eye gaze response procedures should keep in mind technologies to be used in the child's future. If a child will be using a dwell-click with head mouse or eye gaze software, for example, then it is important that they learn to hold their gaze to a choice for a specific length of time. Children who will not be advancing to a head mouse or eye gaze may find it beneficial to confirm their choices with eye contact to the communication partner, especially if they are socially motivated.

3) Similarly, if head mouse use is in the child's future, helping them learn to turn their head along with their eyes will support that technology. This can roughly be considered "nose pointing," although the child is merely directing the nose toward the choice, rather than touching it with the nose. If head mousing is not in the child's future or if you plan to go with eye gaze not head mouse, it's fine to hold the head still and cast long sideways glances with the eyes.

4) Motor ability must be considered. The length of dwell to a choice should be reasonable...five seconds (a standard dwell time expectation in too many IEP goals, sad to say) is WAY (WAY!!!) too long for most children, both in terms of head stability and attention span. Try it...five seconds is an ETERNITY and it slows conversation down to a pathetic pace. At our house, .90 seconds is a good dwell time and doesn't interfere with the flow of communication.

5) Positioning yourself as a receiver is very important. You must be able to see the child's eyes clearly. However, some children fixate on the face of the reader, so you need to be flexible. Head-on (180*) will work for students who do not fixate on faces, but for children who are hyper-fixated on faces, an angle just over 90* may be more appropriate. You learn from the child what they need as far as positioning in relation to the partner.

6) Children with hyper-fixation to faces may benefit from loose symbols held side-by-side in front of the reader's face, then slowly moved apart. The child's eyes will (hopefully!) follow the intended choice as they move.

7) Boards intended for finger-pointing tend to have symbols spaced too closely for all but the most skillful eye gaze readers (and users). Loose symbols allow you to distance the choices at optimal points from the user. These can be held in the hands or affixed to velcro-sensitive boards (I personally like 3"-wide strips of indoor/outdoor carpet mounted to mat board, 15-18" long. Post-It makes poster board that can be cut into strips that holds symbols temporarily as well).

8) Not all days are necessarily the same. Some "off" days may require few choices spaced at farther distances, while other "on" days may allow a child to handle many choices placed closer together.

9) Along these lines of "off" and "on" days, if the child suffers neurological swings, it is imperative to tailor our expectations to the child's ability at the time. This may sound basic, but it is a point often overlooked in our hurry to take data.

10) Some children do very well with fixed frames. These are nice because they free the partner's hands and can often hold many choices. There are directions for some wonderful PVC frames online. There are also commercial e-Tran frames of Plexiglass (Cogain and others). Again, you must keep in mind the child's preferences and tendencies to fixate...

11) The goal of eye gaze communication is COMMUNICATION! It is NOT testing! Kids pick up on the fact that they are being heard or being tested, so make sure you honor what they tell you!!! This is probably the single most important point in all the discussion of eye gaze. For some reason, we tend to doubt eye gaze responses. This is because of our OWN insecurity in reading the answer correctly. If we honor a child's response, they learn to trust us as communication partners. If they indicated what they intended, we validate their answer. If they answered in error, we STILL validate their answer and demonstrate that we honor what they say. The children learn they must change their strategy to communicate the accurate answer and that they must find ways to negotiate to get what they had meant to tell us.

12) When you are unclear of a child's answer, DON'T repeat the same question. Ask it a different way. Try asking it in a way that would require they show a different answer ("Do you need more time?" becomes "Are you all done then?"). Show respect by letting the child know that you are the one having difficulty understanding; it is not the child's fault.

13) Try to keep the same placement of symbols offered for choices. This allows the child to develop motor automaticity. You may start to see eyes heading to a location before a symbol is even offered; this definitely suggests the child has achieved motor automaticity.

14) Not all children need to demonstrate "scanning of all the options" before making a selection. Motor automaticity may come to play, as well as peripheral vision skills. This does not mean kids aren't expected to know what all the choices are, but it does mean that "scanning" them may not look quite like we expect. An example is this: A teacher offered my child yes/something different/no in the same order each time (hurray! Way to build motor automaticity!) but would not accept the answer until she had gazed at each choice first. This is both unnecessary, slows communication, and discounts motor automaticity).

15) As soon as possible, eye gazers need to have introduced an option to indicate that what they want to say is not among the choices. This can be most anything ("something else," "not here," "different idea," whatever works for you and the child), but it is not fair to force a child into choosing only between choices they don't really want. Otherwise, the only option we give them is to NOT choose...and then we've set them up to be labeled as "non-communicative."

There are usual communication strategies that we can't forget: motivating topics, making the child responsible for sharing information that they alone would know (highly motivating!), respecting the answer, GENUINE conversation...

I hope this helps. Again, it's just what I've learned from walking in the trenches.

Rose-Marie

Free for Download - Eye Tracker using Web Cam

This from myEye Project:



Free web cam based eye tracking! It is designed as a free alternative to commercial systems for use by those with significant disabilities especially for computer and AAC device control.

Here are the specs:

• CPU: 1.5 Ghz or higher
• RAM: 256 DDR RAM or higher (Recommendation 512 RAM)
• Space: at least 100MB hard disk space.
• Camera: 640x480 capture resolution or higher. (At least 30fps)
• O.S.: Microsoft Windows XP SP2

PRC introduces new ECOPoint EyeGaze System

PRC's new ECO-14 has an option for their new eye-gaze system called ECOpoint. The ECO-14 is a large screened, touch enabled AAC device running on a Windows XP machine (available closed for those using Medicaid for funding). It comes in a few (4) colors and now has the new ECOpoint eye tracking avaliable in addition to the built in head tracking it has had for some time. All PRC systems use the Unity (Minspeak) language system.

ECOPoint adds $7250.00 to the price of the device, which is pretty standard in the scheme of eye gaze systems these days. The ECO-14 itself costs $7795.00. Once you add in warrenties, mounting systems and other items, like switches and carrying cases, you are looking at $16 to 18,000.00 for a full system. Also fairly typical for cost wise for an individual who needs a device capable of eye gaze.

PRC is also currently hosting a giveaway contest for the new device.

Eye Gaze Communication Review - A Guest Post

1) Just because the concept of eye gaze is simple, reading eye gaze is not necessarily easy. We need practice and experience to become competent partners. Not all kids use the same techniques, in part because the end goal for each child may not look the same (see #2).

2) Eye gaze response procedures should keep in mind technologies to be used in the child's future. If a child will be using a dwell-click with head mouse or eye gaze software, for example, then it is important that they learn to hold their gaze to a choice for a specific length of time. Children who will not be advancing to a head mouse or eye gaze may find it beneficial to confirm their choices with eye contact to the communication partner, especially if they are socially motivated.

3) Similarly, if head mouse use is in the child's future, helping them learn to turn their head along with their eyes will support that technology. This can roughly be considered "nose pointing," although the child is merely directing the nose toward the choice, rather than touching it with the nose. If head mousing is not in the child's future or if you plan to go with eye gaze not head mouse, it's fine to hold the head still and cast long sideways glances with the eyes.

4) Motor ability must be considered. The length of dwell to a choice should be reasonable...five seconds (a standard dwell time expectation in too many IEP goals, sad to say) is WAY (WAY!!!) too long for most children, both in terms of head stability and attention span. Try it...five seconds is an ETERNITY and it slows conversation down to a pathetic pace. At our house, .90 seconds is a good dwell time and doesn't interfere with the flow of communication.

5) Positioning yourself as a receiver is very important. You must be able to see the child's eyes clearly. However, some children fixate on the face of the reader, so you need to be flexible. Head-on (180*) will work for students who do not fixate on faces, but for children who are hyper-fixated on faces, an angle just over 90* may be more appropriate. You learn from the child what they need as far as positioning in relation to the partner.

6) Children with hyper-fixation to faces may benefit from loose symbols held side-by-side in front of the reader's face, then slowly moved apart. The child's eyes will (hopefully!) follow the intended choice as they move.

7) Boards intended for finger-pointing tend to have symbols spaced too closely for all but the most skillful eye gaze readers (and users). Loose symbols allow you to distance the choices at optimal points from the user. These can be held in the hands or affixed to velcro-sensitive boards (I personally like 3"-wide strips of indoor/outdoor carpet mounted to mat board, 15-18" long. Post-It makes poster board that can be cut into strips that holds symbols temporarily as well).

8) Not all days are necessarily the same. Some "off" days may require few choices spaced at farther distances, while other "on" days may allow a child to handle many choices placed closer together.

9) Along these lines of "off" and "on" days, if the child suffers neurological swings, it is imperative to tailor our expectations to the child's ability at the time. This may sound basic, but it is a point often overlooked in our hurry to take data.

10) Some children do very well with fixed frames. These are nice because they free the partner's hands and can often hold many choices. There are directions for some wonderful PVC frames online. There are also commercial e-Tran frames of Plexiglass (Cogain and others). Again, you must keep in mind the child's preferences and tendencies to fixate...

11) The goal of eye gaze communication is COMMUNICATION! It is NOT testing! Kids pick up on the fact that they are being heard or being tested, so make sure you honor what they tell you!!! This is probably the single most important point in all the discussion of eye gaze. For some reason, we tend to doubt eye gaze responses. This is because of our OWN insecurity in reading the answer correctly. If we honor a child's response, they learn to trust us as communication partners. If they indicated what they intended, we validate their answer. If they answered in error, we STILL validate their answer and demonstrate that we honor what they say. The children learn they must change their strategy to communicate the accurate answer and that they must find ways to negotiate to get what they had meant to tell us.

12) When you are unclear of a child's answer, DON'T repeat the same question. Ask it a different way. Try asking it in a way that would require they show a different answer ("Do you need more time?" becomes "Are you all done then?"). Show respect by letting the child know that you are the one having difficulty understanding; it is not the child's fault.

13) Try to keep the same placement of symbols offered for choices. This allows the child to develop motor automaticity. You may start to see eyes heading to a location before a symbol is even offered; this definitely suggests the child has achieved motor automaticity.

14) Not all children need to demonstrate "scanning of all the options" before making a selection. Motor automaticity may come to play, as well as peripheral vision skills. This does not mean kids aren't expected to know what all the choices are, but it does mean that "scanning" them may not look quite like we expect. An example is this: A teacher offered my child yes/something different/no in the same order each time (hurray! Way to build motor automaticity!) but would not accept the answer until she had gazed at each choice first. This is both unnecessary, slows communication, and discounts motor automaticity).

15) As soon as possible, eye gazers need to have introduced an option to indicate that what they want to say is not among the choices. This can be most anything ("something else," "not here," "different idea," whatever works for you and the child), but it is not fair to force a child into choosing only between choices they don't really want. Otherwise, the only option we give them is to NOT choose...and then we've set them up to be labeled as "non-communicative."

There are usual communication strategies that we can't forget: motivating topics, making the child responsible for sharing information that they alone would know (highly motivating!), respecting the answer, GENUINE conversation...

I hope this helps. Again, it's just what I've learned from walking in the trenches.

Rose-Marie

Low Tech Eye Gaze (and Mounting)

The statistics on this page tell me that quite a few people (in the midwest and Israel) need some resources on low tech Eye Gaze communication systems. In the old days the easiest solution was the Opticommunicator by Crestwood but Crestwood is going out of business and almost nothing remains in their inventory.

Enabling Devices sells an eye gaze board they can an "Eye Talk" with either a base or a "clip clamp" to hold it in place. The base tends not to be high enough for those in wheelchairs and the "clip clamp" needs to hold the gaze board from the top to work well and thus gets in the way of the funtioning of the eye gaze board. Two "clip clamps", one on each side, works much better, if you can afford it. (Enabling Devices also offers a 3-D system with shelves for objects.)

Object Symbol Resources also sells an eye gaze board, but they do not sell any kind of mount for it. However, you could, again use any gooseneck or similar system with a clamp on each end attacked to both sides of the eye gaze board to attach to a wheelchair tray, arm rests, table or bed rail.

Zygo offers a pretty great system, however their USA/Canada website is nearly impossible to navigate. TECSOL in Australia shows the set up nicely. You might want to just call them if you are really interested in purchasing in the USA/Canada.

If the individual you are working with is capable of encoding using a color coded system and spelling out messages using his or her eyes, you should google "Frenchay Etran" or "ETRAN".

If you want to get high tech about the whole thing, without going for an eye tracker like the one on the Dynavox with EyeMax below you can check out the MegaBee.

(After you check it out the MegaBee consider this ancedote: my sister (may she rest in peace), following a brain injury at age 21, was non-speaking for some time. Although she did not spell with eye gaze, she did spell on a static display communication board by pointing with a pointer. Her older sister (yours truly) happens to have dysphonetic dyslexia and often could not decipher words spelled out letter by letter on a board. So, in a manner that sisters often tease each other, she would spell cixelsyd. Nice, huh? I never did figure out what that spelled. She told me years later. It was a case of needing assistive technology to cope with assistive technology.)

Dynavox Announces Eye Gaze Control

There have been rumors for a while, but today Dynavox has formally announced eye gaze control for the Dynavox Vmax coming in the fall. They are calling the device the EyeMax. It has been designed working with the folks at Eye Tech. The EyeMax will be an add-on accessory, it works via USB connection and is compatiable with any VMax that has 512MB or 1GB RAM for memory. Individuals at dynvaox have told me that they believe it accomodates extranneous head movement as much as any other device out there, including the Tobii, but that a full evaluation with the EyeMax should be done before ordering*.

Dynavox believes that having the EyeMax being an add-on access piece (like a switch or track pad is) will work better for folks with progressive disorders like ALS, muscular dystrophy and mitochondrial disease. Thus the EyeMax can be ordered when it is needed, as opposed to buying one device that become obsolete and then having to replace it with a device that has integrated eye gaze control. My only concern is the usual concern, funding. Maybe, just maybe the powers that be of funding will realize it is cheaper to buy one device and add an EyeMax later, but somehow, I doubt it.

*(Ed's note - obviously a full eval with device and access should always be done before ordering)

Jenna and Sarah's Quick Glances

Sarah has multiple disabilities from stroke. This video shows her using a Quick Glance system (with The Grid software; Dynavox 5 Software and Boardmaker SDP also available on the Quick Glance/Eye Tech SGD) to communicate. The device shown is now available smaller and with more portability. However the device costs about the same as a Dynavox or PRC plus the cost of the eye gaze controller which is slightly more than the device itself. Let's hope these prices come down!




Jenna has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This video shows her using the Quick Glance 3 by Eye Tech to paint a picture using eye movement only. You can't see Jenna, but you can see her paint and hear her mom chat with her. Very cool.


See more videos of Jenna.

Please note that the Quick Glance eye gaze controller cannot be added to any current AAC device on the market. The competitor to the Quick Glance is the Tobii, but it does not allow the head and body movements that the Quick Glance does and does not interact with off the shelf software as well as the Quick Glance. (I know because I have tried them both.)

Alternate Access Methods

These links connect you with porducts that allow individuals with disabilities to access technology through alternate means such as eye gaze, muscle movements or head tracking. (Updated July 3, 2008.)

• Applied Science Laboratories Company
• Boost Technologies Company (Tracer)
• Brainfingers Company
• CameraMouse (FREE!!!!)
• Eagle Eyes (FREE with approved application)
• EMG Switch (D-Switch)
• ERICA
• Eye Can Company
• Eye Gaze Company
• Eye Tech/Quick Glance Company
• Head Mouse Extreme from Origin Technology Company
• IBM Head Tracking Pointer (FREE)
• InvoTek Accu Point (NEW head tracker)
  
• Jouse Company
• MCTOS Brainwave Switch Info Page
• Natural Point Company
• NaviGaze from Cybernaut Company
• New Abilities Tongue Touch Keypad
• PCbility Mouse Company
• PRC Tongue Switch
• Quadjoy Company
• Qualieye from Qualilife Company
• SCATIR Switch
  
• Tetramouse Company
• Tobii Company
• Tracker from Madentec Company
• Turk Head Switch
• Use Your Head Gesture Central Company
• Visioboard Company
• Wild Divine Biofeedback Company
• Words+ IST Switch