New to this forum with a question

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RobW

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Joined
Sep 18, 2007
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3
Reason
Loved one DX
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N/A
Country
CA
State
Ontario
City
Ottawa
Hello All,

Sounds like you might be a group that could help point me in the right direction.

My Dad has had als for approx 4years. He is now at the point where he is having trouble using the computer because of his diminishing ability to use his hand. He is currently using a trackball input device which has a buttons like a typical mouse. He is having trouble producing the force required to activate the button and his thumb is getting too shaky to control the cursor properly.

It seems that a sort of eye input device would be in order. His head motion is pretty much zero. It seems to me that eye tracking for the cursor motion would be good and blinks for 'select' would work. The other part of his body that still has reasonable funtion, at this point, are his feet.

Anyhow, my folks have been looking into QualiEye software but upon my quick review it seems that it requires finger or head for cursor motion with blinking of the eye for 'select'. I have tried to contact Qualilife to further discuss but they seem to be totally absent ?!?

Anyhow, I have not searched all of the threads on this forum and apologize if this is a question that you all have recently got into.

Any info would be helpful at this point whether its similar experience, a software to look into, a name of a savvy tech person that knows about this stuff ....

Thanks in advance!

RobW
 
Hi Rob. If you use search and type eye gaze there are threads that will give you some info. Welcome anyway.
AL.
 
Hi Al,

Thanks! I am new to forums and online communities. I did not make the connection that there was a way to search within forum/thread content. This will help me go over covered ground ... I can see that already.

Thanks,
Rob
 
Hello Rob- it took me awhile to learn the site, too. there is just so much information here! :-D Write more and tell us what you decide to do for your Dad. Who knows, maybe he will log on himself one of these days! :) Cindy
 
Some equipment is being tested

Hi Cindy,

It has been a busy week. The QualiEye software people did get back to us and seem very helpful. Their whole team had been on the West Coast for a trade show.

There has been further progress. An O/T and a computer technician met at my parents house with some software and some sensitive foot control switches. I will be going there this weekend and will report on setup 1.0. I suspect that it is a work in progress but having the ball rolling is the most important thing. Since he can still use the trackball, a bit, it is good to know that progress to the next solution is being made. I look forward to talking to my Dad about it.

Thanks for you reply,
RobW
 
Well, Rob- You and others who are testing equipment and technological devices will be a big help on this forum. David and Al are considering putting up a page where people can write about their experiences regarding these issues as well as the insurance maze. As I understand it, it will be modeled after wikipedia, where people can write articles on a given issue. So keep good notes on your Dad’s selection and his adjustment to it! You may be one of our first contributers! Cindy
 
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