Eye Tracker EagleEyes

Opportunity Foundation of America

http://www.eagleeyes.org

The purpose of the EagleEyes Project is to help people with severe physical disabilities develop and be educated to their fullest by enabling them to access the computer. We work with people, mainly children and young adults, who cannot speak and can move only their eyes or head.

System name(s): EagleEyes

Who can use the system
Target users	People with Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type I (Werdnig Hoffman Disease), Traumatic Brain Injury, various congenital conditions, ALS, stroke.
What is required from the user	Control in one or both eyes.
Can the system be operated entirely by the user without assistance once the system is setup and running?	No
Features
Applications within AAC	Keyboard substitute (gaze writing) Mouse substitute Internet browsing Email Games Support for book reading (turn pages etc.) Speech synthesis Environmental control
Additional information/accessories	Applications for EagleEyes can be downloaded from http://www.bc.edu/schools/csom/eagleeyes/downloads/. For more information see http://www.eagleeyes.org
Supported languages	English
Technical specifications
Methods	electro-oculographic potential (EOG)
Other features	EOG requires electrodes placed on skin
Spatial resolution
Temporal resolution	15 Hz
Tolerance to ambient light / sunlight	Works well under varying light conditions. Works in all light conditions
Tolerance to eye glasses and contact lenses	Works well in most cases. Eye glasses or contact lenses have no effect on system
Accommodation to human eye variations (iris color, ethnic background)	Works well in all cases (iris color or ethnic background has no effect). Iris or ethnic background have no effect on the system
Freedom of head movements	Large movements (>20cm). Any. EOG correpsonds to the angle between the head and the eye.
Mobility	EagleEyes is a small, battery-powered box that connects to the USB port of a notebook or desktop Windows computer. EagleEyes acts as a mouse replacement system for standard Windows software. Clicking is usually done by dwell time, by holding the mouse pointer within a small location for half a second (settable).
Weight	~1 lb.
Setup and system requirements
Computer requirement(s)	User supplies own computer. Windows XP preferred. Computer needs to have a USB port.
Setup time	10 minutes
Calibration time	variable
Number of systems in use	10-50
Price	free to qualified users from Opportunity Foundation

Contact details

Email: gips@bc.edu
Phone: (617) 552-3981
Fax:

Address:

James Gips (for technical information)

Egan Professor of Computer Science
Fulton Hall 460B
Boston College
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3808

Support:

Visit our web page for information on user support

Website: http://www.eagleeyes.org

Technical Information

The technical information below is mainly targeted at developers.

What is the eye tracker physical interface type?	USB.
Does the eye tracker require manufacturer's own dedicated software to operate, or can it be used with other suitable software?	With any suitable software.
If the eye tracker can be used with other suitable software, will the manufacturer make the required control protocols available?	Yes, to all.
Does the manufacturer's own dedicated software have an API (programming interface) to allow control over the manufacturer's software and eye tracker by third party applications?	No.
If the manufacturer's own dedicated software and eye tracker has an API, will the manufacturer make the required control protocols available?
Is a stream of gaze data (x, y, pupil size, blink etc) from the manufacturer's own dedicated software accessible to other third party software?	Yes, can be accessed in real time by third party software.
If a stream of gaze data is accessible in real time, will the manufacturer make the format available?	Yes, to all.
Can gaze data (x, y, pupil size, blink etc) from the manufacturer's own dedicated software be captured and saved in a file for later use and analysis?	Yes, can be saved.
If gaze data can be captured and saved, is the saved data file accessible to third party software?	Yes open, to all in a standard file format.