Bringing Smile and Head Mouse Control to AAC and Eye Tracking Devices

Introduction

Perceptive Devices LLC announced today a worldwide, multi-year partnership agreement with Tobii Dynavox (a business unit of Tobii AB) to bring a new generation of hands-free and voice-free control for those with physical difficulties.

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This partnership gives users of Tobii Dynavox's products a new option to control their devices using only eye gaze and gentle smiles, without the use of hands, voice, mouse, keyboard or adaptive switches.

Perceptive Devices' award-winning head mouse and gesture control technology allows users to achieve mouse control in a completely hands-free, touch-free, and voice-free fashion.

Their software product, Smyle Mouse, tracks users' head motions and facial gestures via a simple webcam and translates them into mouse commands for precise and responsive mouse control.

A user can initiate a click, scroll, or drag by simply smiling.

Users can also use the smile gesture as a novel access method to exercise switch control over their AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) software and devices.

"Our technology can be very useful to millions of people around the world who experience difficulties in using their hands due to disabilities such as spinal cord injury, stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Cerebral Palsy and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome," said Uday Parshionikar, Founder and CEO of Perceptive Devices LLC.

"Pairing our facial expressions based head mouse control with Tobii's gold standard eye tracking technology is a match made in heaven for users looking for a simple yet powerful hands-free and voice-free control solution."

Tobii AB is the global leader in eye tracking.

Tobii Dynavox makes specially designed computers that are controlled by eye movement or touch screens for use by people with special needs.

Tobii Dynavox will start including a full version of Smyle Mouse on all its I-Series products (such as I-15+ and I-12+ products) in Q3 2017. A trial version of Smyle Mouse will be included with its Indi products as well as bundled with its standalone eye tracking peripherals in a similar timeframe.

Attribution/Source(s):
This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its significant relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Perceptive Devices LLC, and published on 2017/10/25 (Edit Update: 2023/09/14), the content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For further details or clarifications, Perceptive Devices LLC can be contacted at percept-d.com. NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranties or endorsements related to this article.