Elizabeth’s Blog

I attended a very interesting and informative presentation about eye gaze as a means of accessing technology. The technology was demonstrated by Mick Donegan of the ACE Centre in Oxford who has been involved in the development of this technology over a number of years, and also through his involvement with the COGAIN (Communication by Gaze Interaction) project  www.cogain.org), which is a pan European research project whose aim is to develop eye gaze expertise for the benefit of users with a disability The development of eye gaze systems has many obvious benefits for those who have a physical difficulty which prevents them from using more conventional devices for access and it also enables them to use a computer with a greater degree of independence.

The demonstration covered two different types of eye gaze technology, one which concentrated on using one eye to control the computer and the other system was calibrated to use both eyes.

With the demonstration complete we were allowed to try out one of the systems. Sitting in front of the screen and following a dot around for about 30 seconds calibrated the system to the users requirements. Wearing glasses did not interfere with the calibration process and then it was quite amazing to be controlling a computer through eye movements.

The benefit of this type of technology for those with a physical disability speaks for itself. It is, however, a very expensive piece of technology but one which could transform lives.