Nowadays, internet is everything. We can order anything online, don`t even have to leave the house for the tiniest of things. We can work from home, keep in touch with friends and all sorts of things.

To use the internet for a so called normal user is an easy enough thing to do. Just grab a computer connected to the internet use a mouse and a keyboard, and off you go. This is not the case with eye gaze users though.
Luckily, there are several ways for us to go online, too. I personally use three ways. Two of these are via the Grid 2 from Sensory Software. I created a gird set for Firefox docked on top but this method involves the Computer Control workspace which makes the use of this browser a bit cumbersome.

The Grid 2 also contains a built-in workspace for browsing online content. As far as I know, this workspace is pretty much based on Internet Explorer. Links, the address bar, etc are accessible through cells which is good. The good side of this is that the program reads all links out loud, word prediction can be used; the downside is that going through all the links is quite a long procedure and I don`t look at the actually active workspace while searching through links on the page.

The third way, for me anyway, is tobii`s built-in browser. This is one is great because it combines mouse control with different mouse click types and with dwell activated cells. Also magnifies certain areas on the screen, like links for example. Huge problem is that word prediction cannot be used or not available yet. A little feature – supporting preinstalled speech engines – could also make life much easier: read out links, emails loud, etc. I would also prefer a Tobii Studio look like eye control (scrolling on the page with eyes easier, a more direct feedback to support the eyes) with a little modification.

*UPDATE #1* here is the video link I am referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f906DfRSp7I

*UPDATE #2* Just got to know this morning that there is a so called Read mode in the tobii`s web browser which enabled autoscroll. For this just have to activate this mode by clicking on the Book looking Icon. Thanks for Aron Yu for this info.

The eye gaze feedback could act in a similar way to the default Windows system mouse cursor.

What I mean is as follows: obviously, the feedback is located where I look at but have the dwell clock in the top right corner like the system busy mouse cursor. This brings up another problem. I would imagine, that quite a number of users prefer not to have any feedback of where they are looking at on the screen. Trouble is, that this option cannot be turned on for different workspaces – like have it on for the web browser and have it off for the other user interfaces –.

Looking forward to hear from other users!

Chris
Pro tobii user

P.S.: sorry about the picture links, still investigating how to embed them in a better way

*UPDATE #3* Embedded pictures sorted :)