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Subscribe to RSSPeople suffering from motor neuron diseases, such as ALS, often lose their ability to speak. Being unable to communicate can be frustrating and alienating. To help them, various researchers have searched for ways to help such patients “talk.”
A researcher in France taught people to write with their eyes, making it possible for people who lost the ability to speak to communicate again.
Jean Lorenceau, director of research in cognitive neuroscience at CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research), and six others learned how to use smooth pursuit eye movements to write in cursive. Smooth pursuit eye movements are those we use to track something as it moves, like watching a car drive down the street. These movements only occur if there is something for the eye to follow.
“We have an exquisite, fast, and accurate oculomotor system that has a whole repertoire of movements,” says Lorenceau via email.
“Too bad that [the oculomotor system] is only used to see and cannot be used to act on the environment. Cursive writing is continuous, curved, and smooth, just as pursuit eye movements are, so [these] eye movements should be suitable for this activity.”
In anywhere from three to five, 30-minute training sessions (the faster the learner, the fewer training session), the subjects learned how to control their smooth eye muscle movements to write in cursive.
“We move the eyes all the time, so eye writing relies on a natural activity, although slightly unusual,” he says.
On a computer screen, Lorenceau projected a reverse phi-movement effect, an optical illusion where static objects look like they are moving, in the background as the object that the eye tracks. This allowed them to learn how to independently move their eyes using smooth pursuit eye movements.
"[The paper] presents a novel and highly innovative new technique for gaze-controlled cursive writing," explains Miriam Spering, an assistant professor in the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences perception and action at the University of British Columbia."The type of eye movement used here are so-called smooth pursuit eye movements--the eyes' main response to moving visual stimuli. Until [Lorenceau's] contribution, it was widely believed that this type of eye movement could not be controlled at will."
Lorenceau recorded the subjects, using an eye tracker, a video camera connected to a computer. As the camera films the movement in one eye, a software program tracks the position of the pupil over time and Lorenceau collects all the recorded movements and compiles them, making the letters.
While learning how to move their eyes—which Lorenceau says is similar to learning how to surf and stay on a wave—the subjects experienced frustration because they could not initially force their eyes to move how they wanted. Users cannot see what they are writing with their eyes; it can be tiring and confusing at times.
While others have designed systems that enable people to communicate with their eyes by blinking to select a letters from a screen or to surf the web, Lorenceau’s method offers something more.
“My device brings personal, creative, and emotional ways of communication, for instance the ability to sign a document using one’s signature,” he explains.
Lorenceau plans on testing this technology with people with ALS. And he is working with a French technology company to create other applications of this system so that it might be easier for people to access.
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Impressive, except for the fact that many school systems are REMOVING cursive writing from their curriculum....
rolls eye's...O-o...
Incredible. With something as natural as our eye movement, it's great to see that medical technologies are expanding to take something as natural, and a bit taken-for-granted, as our eye movements to help people communicate. While technology may be it it's "primitive" form currently, it's only a matter of time before it advances to even more amazing heights.
On a personal note, it's a bit of a relief that I did learn and still use cursive!
Agreed - This is great technology. Anything that can be done to allow those with severe disabilities to communicate more easily is well worth the investment. It allows these people to live much fuller lives and to not feel so trapped inside their bodies.
I also learned to write cursive in school but, other than signing my name, have not done so in a very long time. I tend to block print anything I write down since when I try and write cursive quickly even I can not read it when I go back to the note later. I may not be a doctor, but I have the handwriting of one.
very, very cool! However, for those of us who write with our hands, I found the article a little hard to follow. It would be nice if you had a visual to go with it.
your kidding right? you still write with your hands? what? you still drive a covered wagon too... I have not written a letter since the PC became a house hold word and being on line is in the Norm... writing with our eye's will open up a all new world of communication for all of us wow way to go.
Very interesting subject, but poorly written article. It is as though someone randomly took bits and pieces of a much larger article and ended up with a rather chaotic compact version.
Dorothy of Oz...
I agree! It’s called cherry picking and cut & paste! It’s the 21st century form of communication, be it bias, prejudice or simply being too lazy in fulfilling a deadline on an article you were assigned to complete. Politicians do it to each other, religious people and religious groups do it to everybody constantly, anyone who has a cause or a personal agenda takes advantage of it, the news media does it as a matter of routine and the general public is left with zilch when it comes to the real facts! Now-a-days, accuracy and research isn’t really necessary, implication and innuendo has replaced facts and figures and if someone questions the story, the speech or a specific remark, all the author, speaker or commentator has to say is… “That’s not what I really meant.” …or “It was taken out of context”…and they’re off the hook…no responsibility!
Kinda sad, especially when you grew up in a time where a person’s word was their bond and they were held responsible for what they said.
I know, I got a little off the subject, but that’s also one of the current forms of communication! :)
I had an ALS patient years ago who got one of the first systems that used blinking and such to control the computer. Very hard to learn for her, and hard on the eyes....at least as far as she told me. She could still talk but had a trach and was on a ventilator, so it could be difficult to understand her. Plus, towards the end when I was with her (she died about 2 months after I left the assignment), she had to have the cuff on her trach inflated more often than not due to leaking and aspirating, so it became necessary to become very proficient in lip reading. But still some things were missed, so they tried this.
too bad...poor woman. i bet they could couple this tech with the other tech that i read about earlier where companies can track what products you stare at in the stores with specialized cameras, so they can track what product you're more focused on...shouldn't be too hard to use this tech with maybe an alphabetical board so that they can spell something out just by staring at the letters in order...
This is amazing technology but there is another US company doing even more. Grinbath has created an eye tracker that is not only available but affordable. Their Eyeguide give the disabled full control of a computer for less the $1,000. Still neat technology.
This is really not that astounding. I've been undressing people with my eyes for years! Have to be really careful with eye hooks, though. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
Advances in technology are coming faster and faster.For now,quadraplegia is NOT a realistic lifestyle.Nor is living like that desirable.Exceedingly expensive and resourse intense as well.