A Heartwarming Eye Tracking Story
At Eye Tracking Update, we generally cover a lot of the debates and conversations within the eye tracking industry, most of which, not surprisingly, center around usability testing and eye tracking’s effectiveness in determining tangible results. One subject that tends to be inarguable, however, is eye tracking’s ability to enable communication amongst the disabled.
A rather heart -warming article, for example, was published the other day in the Grand Island Independent, a daily newspaper in Nebraska. Maggie Fields, now a 4-year old from Ord, NE, was just 8 months old when she had the terrible misfortune of choking on a bug. The bizarre incident cut off oxygen to her brain, leaving Maggie, a child once developing normally and starting to crawl and speak, severely disabled.
Days later, she began to suffer from seizures, and doctors in Omaha were not optimistic, saying her natural development would be forever stunted.
Maggie’s parents apparently refused to believe the neurological diagnosis and two weeks later were surprised when Maggie began to make progress at Children’s Rehab. Maggie was soon re-learning to turn her head, grab things, and feed herself. But, as the article goes on, communication remained a problem.
That was until speech therapists began introducing her to eye tracking technology – specifically, the Dynavox Vmax with EyeMax system. From there, Maggie began to make leaps and bounds in communication, and her parents were delighted to catch a glimpse into Maggie’s developing thoughts and emotions.
The 4-year old has had the eye tracking device since September of this year, and last week she received a wheelchair to make mobility easier. The Fieldses are hoping to rig up Maggie’s new wheelchair to the Dynavox system, allowing her to bring her eye tracking communication wherever she goes.
The progress Maggie seemed to make was quite astonishing, and her parents were able to watch her utilize a retinal scanner to control a computer. Maggie began to select words like “yes,” “no” and “Mommy,” and soon began making her way through 16 words and phrases. According to the article, Anita Elson, Maggie’s speech pathologist, was shocked and pleasantly surprised at first, as she had expected her to choose between only two and four options at best when first starting.
Little Maggie Fields is the first person at the Children’s Rehab Center in Grand Island to use the new eye tracking technology, and it’s incredible to see such a young girl make headway, demonstrating the functionality and capability of eye tracking for others.
It’s a very happy thing to see a bit of silver lining on the clouds, especially after such a bizarre and awful ordeal.
New eye-tracking technology lets Ord girl express herself for first time
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