Applications

We just released MyTobii 2.4.5. This release is mainly a bug fix release, but it also contains a new language, Turkish. Any user that experiences problems with the MyTobii e-mail client or with the feedback dot should upgrade to this version.

You will find the new downloadable version, a document describing all the changes and an installation instruction on www.tobii.com

The guys and girls at Viking R&D have made a photo symbol library that is available as a free download for all VS Communicator 4 customers.

The symbols sets, that are not part of the standard VS Communicator 4 installation, are translated into Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German and Dutch. All symbol languages reside in the same installation file.

To download the symbol set go to http://www.viking-software.com/products/04/updates.php (The Communicator Photos link is a the bottom of the page).

As for now there are 280 picture in the library. Please provide us with any suggestions, thoughts, etc. Your feedback will impact whether we move further with this project.

Have you ever been in VS Communicator 4 and accidentally dwelled on a button that opened up a screen that is not eye controlled?  I know it happens.  For example, you are on the Complete Email page set and you accidentally dwell too long on the Configure button.  The Email settings screen appears and you cannot get out of it through eye tracking.  Well, that is not necessarily true.  Exit out of VS Communicator and follow these steps.  *Warning:  You will need someone who can access the touchscreen in order to complete these directions:

1. Get to the Basic Settings screen in MyTobii.

2. Choose Advanced Settings. This is the screen that is not eye controlled.

3. Click on the plus sign next to Applications

4. Click on the plus sign next to Partner

5. Click on VS Communicator 4 (or 3 if that is what you are using).

6.  Choose Use mouse control.

7. Choose Save and Close

8. Choose Back

9. Go back into VS Communicator.

Now you have mouse control in VS Communicator, so if a non-eye tracking window comes up, you can close it with the mouse arrow.

This month’s tip is mainly for professionals.

Sometimes it could be better to use an image instead of the normal calibration point. For example when working with very young children or infants. It could be hard to get them looking at the calibration point because it just isn’t interesting enough. Instead you can use something more personal or more fun. Why not a photo of mom? Or maybe a fun-looking bus?

To use an image instead of the normal calibration point you will have to bring up the Basic Settings dialog and then go to Advanced Settings. Then choose Calibration in the settings list. I.e: Basic Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Calibration

At the upper-right corner you can see choices for Stimulus type. Choose Image. After that you change the image by going to Primary calibration stimulus (see the screenshot to see the different areas, they are marked in red).

MyTobii comes with several fun and nice looking images, but you can use any image files that you have.

Remember however that you should preferably choose images that draws the users attention to the center of the image. That will give you the best calibration results.

You can also use video files to calibrate, and there are several more helpful calibration options that you can play around with. Just try it out and for more help look in your MyTobii manual.

Pioneered by the University of East London’s SMARTlab team, MyTobii is being used in a world premiere of a live, eye-controlled music and dance session.

Using specially created software, Katie Gilligan and James Brosnan will be using their eyes to play music from the MyTobii screen – with live musicians as a part of the band. Due to be performed at The Science Gallery in Dublin in early April, this show is sure to be inspirational.

Led by a team of scholars, engineers, artists and medical experts, SMARTlab is an environment where new technology tools are used to improve the quality of independent life and creative expression of people with disabilities.

So how do they do it?
Using buttons that have been pre-programmed with different sounds, James and Katie simply look at each button when they want a particular sound. Brand new music has been written for the performance, with and for the artists.

Valentines day is rapidly approaching, and what better way of celebrating it than by sending an email with an attachment to your loved ones? You can attach any file that you can open in the MyTobii Document Browser to your email (note: this may vary depending on your Internet Service Provider).

The first step is to write your email the MyTobii Email program. How you write it all depends on your personality and personal writing styles, but I found the following tips very helpful http://www.everythingvalentine.com/cards.html. Make sure to write a descriptive Subject so that the recipient will get excited when they open their mailbox! :)

The second step is to add the attachment. This could be a long letter or a picture. In the following example I’ve chose to attach a scanned Valentines Day card, which was placed in the My Pictures folder. To attach it to the email, click “Attachments” and “Add Attachment”. Use the “Open File” dialog to navigate to the picture you want to attach and click the “Add attachment” button. You should now see the file in the attachment list. If you want to attach more files, repeat the previous steps. Once you’re done, click “Finished”.

You should now see an icon on the “Attachment” button that displays the number of attachments added. You’re now ready to send your Valentine emails! If you want to send this email to several people at once, just add them all in the “To:” category, that way you won’t have to repeat all the steps for each email.

Happy Valentines!

I work as a developer at Tobii but my background is not only in developing, I have also studied occupational therapy. By working at Tobii with the MyTobii software I have the opportunity to combine my two interests and knowledge’s. I think it is really fun and interesting to visit therapists and end users to see how they use MyTobii.

As a developer of AAC products I think it is of great importance to get to know the people who really use the products, to understand what is needed and how it is used for making the existing products better and develop the right/wanted new things.

In a way of doing this I made some visits during the autumn, two of them were at two different resource centers;

• DART, a centre for AAC and computer access located in Gothenburg, Sweden
• SIKTE, a resource centre and advisory body in the field of adaptive technology located in Norway.

I also wanted to try the Gaze Evaluator myself on a real user and made a visit to Vuxenhab in Karlstad, Sweden, where I tested it with a potential MyTobii user.
This visit gave a good insight and knowledge on how it is to use it in real life; what is useful, what works good and what it lacks and so on.

So to make good software it is really good to know the users and their needs!

I’m my last blog entry, I talked about how helpful all the feedback we receive from users, family members, therapists and resellers are. For this tip of the month, I wanted to stay within that theme and tell you about a feature that started out a workaround discovered by one of our resellers – David Goldberg of Health Science in Princeton.

David informed me that some users preferred to not see the feedback dot while using the MyTobii in eye-tracking mode. Davids workaround involved shrinking the clock feedback until it became invisible, hence creating the illusion of not having any feedback at all. This feature then became implemented as a feature in 2.3, making it easier to active this “no feedback”-mode.

To completely remove the feedback from any MyTobii version from 2.3 and onwards, simply go into Advanced Settings, open the “Interaction” settings pane and under “Feedback type”, select “Invisible”. There – you’re good to go!

Until next time – have a great Holiday season and a wonderful New Year. Oh, and keep sending us feedback, either through our support department, as comments to our blogs or posts in the forum!

I’m sure a lot of you professionals have been using the User Profile functionality a lot. Certainly for try-out situations it could be good to save profiles if you have gotten a good calibration or a good setup of settings. When the user returns it will be easy to just start were you left off!

But profiles could actually also be used by the same user! Also since users can switch between profiles themselves it allows them to be able to choose for example different dwell times by themselves. MyTobii has functionality to create a profile from an existing one. So if you want to change the dwell time just create a new profile from the one that you are currently using. Change the dwell time, and voila, the user can now select between different dwell times by themselves depending on how e.g. how tired they are. Or maybe you just work in another way in the morning and the afternoon? Why not create a profile for that and let users choose what they like.

Using Talking Photo Albums provides a natural and meaningful mode of communication. The advantage of using Talking Photo Albums on the MyTobii is that you are able to share your story and turn to look at your listener to see their response without worrying about losing calibration!

To describe a picture:

• Import a photo you want to talk about as a background picture

• Create buttons over relevant areas of the picture. Each of these buttons will speak a sentence about the picture. You want multiple buttons on the picture rather than one large button on the picture to have a more natural discussion of the photo. Multiple buttons allow the listener time to make comments about the picture and provide a natural turn taking style of conversation.

• Each button’s color should be selected as “transparent.”

• You can choose to make the button’s border transparent as well, or the border can be a color of your choice. You need to be sure that you remember where you placed the buttons if you choose the borders to be transparent!

• Remember to add link buttons to turn to each page of the photo album.

• Under the sound settings for each button, type in the text you’d like for each button.
• Alternatively, you can use recorded voice files for each button’s sound.

To tell a narrative about a picture:

You can also link your photos to a second page with the same background picture, but with a longer narrative stored into buttons.

• Create 2, 3, or 4 buttons that tell the parts of the story. By breaking your story up into parts, you can allow your listener to ask questions and make comments about the story. Each part of the story should be no longer than 2-3 sentences.

• It can also be helpful to add “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know” buttons on your page so you can respond to any questions asked of you while you are telling your story.

Using the Talking Photo Albums concept is a great, natural way to communicate. Everyone likes to look at photos and discuss photos that are meaningful to them. Talking Photo Albums can be used with people of all ages and all abilities….you just need your eyes!