3 replies to this topic

[Jarasa Kanok]

Have you used an eye tracker or head pointing device? Which one? Did it work well for you? What would make it better?

I'm a student who's currently researching the market for a new adaptive eye-tracking technology and would appreciate any thoughts from current users of these kinds of systems. Thanks!

[higgs]

Hi,

I have a similar post RE this question on this forum.

I have trialled both the head mouse and the eye tracker.


Head mouse

Using this assistive aid for any period of time becomes very mentally tiring, as I found that by concentrating on your head movement in order to move the mouse pointer meant I had to constantly focus my eyes on it too. Say your reading text and want scroll the page down at the same time; I personally found things like this to be distracting. Many people swear by the head mouse after years of use. I guess after trialling an eye tracker might have made me feel that using the head mouse was just too much hassle as the eye tracker made the head mouse look and feel dated.


Eye tracker

The eye tracker I trialled was the My Tobii D10. This was the model that doesn't have the integral PC, the P10 has the integral PC but I had considered that PCs date so rapidly these days plus if anything went wrong with the P10s computer, this would mean that the whole would be sent back to Sweden for repair as your local PC engineer wouldn't touch it (time£?).

Setting the D10 up is so easy that most carers could do this following the manufacturers instructions, although I would recommend your assistive aid supplier do this to validate the warranty.

After:
1. Intalling the eye mouse software.
2. Plugging the D10 into your PC (standard port).
3. A 2 min eye to monitor calibration.
That's the eye mouse set up.

One thing you must give a great deal of thought to prior to buying an eye mouse is:

1. what level of user are you?

2. What level of use do you wish to achieve from your eye mouse and PC?

The My Tobbi D10/P10 can give the user full access to any program that is windows based.

From basic to intermediate users, I would recommend the use of The Grid 2 by Sensory software. This is a very user freindly on-screen control package that caters for any learning disability communication signage standard. When selected on a normal standard QWERTY for on-screen contol, the user can easily select from a menu of grids the one that suits every application ie Word, Explorer etc. On The Grids 2 the user may customise the series of Grids from a set range of command icons. These set range of icons meet the needs of most users but they may limit other user in the way of font selection etc. It must be noted that more advenced users may use keyboard shortcuts from The Grids QWERTY keyboard Grid if say the eye tracker is used by a few different users at different PC awareness levels within say a day centre.

The more established may control any windows based applications by useing keyboard shortcuts from any free on-screen keyboars such as windows standard on-screen keyboard and the blazer.


See this link for different eye trackers pricing and specs: http://www.cogain.org/


A great source of info is Pamela Hardaker at Abilitynet pamela.hardaker@abilitynet.org.uk and http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/


Hope this helps


Higgs (Andy)

Edited by higgs, 03 November 2007 - 02:17 PM.

[Jarasa Kanok]

Higgs (Andy),

Thanks so much for your response! That's quite helpful. I've heard that many eye-tracking devices require calibration, and frequently. Can you comment on what level / frequency of calibration the Tobii device requires? Also, are there other downsides to the Tobii (e.g., overly sensitive to movements of your head or changes in light)?

-Jarasa

[higgs]

Jarasa Kanok, on Nov 6 2007, 02:26 PM, said:

Higgs (Andy),

Thanks so much for your response! That's quite helpful. I've heard that many eye-tracking devices require calibration, and frequently. Can you comment on what level / frequency of calibration the Tobii device requires? Also, are there other downsides to the Tobii (e.g., overly sensitive to movements of your head or changes in light)?

-Jarasa

Hi,

Happy to help.

1. Calibration. As I only trialled the My Tobii for 1 day I can't can't give my view on recalibration. However I did ask Abilitynet about this and they advised me that the My Tobii D10 may need recalibration monthly. I can say that this takes around 20 seconds and just requires that the user follows a moving dot on the eye trackers screen.

2. Head movement. I tried moving my head from side to side and didn't notice any mouse pointer movement. See eye tracker spec at http://www.cogain.org/

3. Lighting. I was advised to avoid using any eye tracker in direct sunlight. Either avoid using an eye tracker near a window or close the blinds. As I like working at the window, I had thought about applying the glass tinting kit you can buy for cars. Its cheap and like wallpaper to apply.

4. Mouse sensitivty. I found the My Tobii great to control, no doubt you could adjust the mouse speed.

5. Down sides. The My Tobii's screen has in-built speakers, music fans, gamers and movie buffs may find these a bit insufficient and may turn these off and use an alternative sound system.
The My Tobii D10 uses a 17" TFT screen. I thought that without using a 3rd party windows navigation software or keyboard shortcut-cuts made icons etc a pretty hard target to hit. Today's home PC's commonly come with 22" TFT screens.



Hope this helps


Higgs

Edited by higgs, 06 November 2007 - 07:43 PM.