to be in a physical condition that makes buying and using an eyegaze computer both necessary and reasonable is to live a life in hell. i think we can all admit that. i, for one, have ALS. there are those of you out there with spinal-cord injuries and other catastrophic circumstances. i think of all of you and pray for all of you all of the time.
for hardware and software engineers to create such incredible and enabling machines is testament to how deep human empathy for one another can flow. i would like to personally thank every single person who ever contributed to the design and production of this computer.
however, as wonderful as the software and the built-in cameras are, i feel that i must comment on the choice of the standard computing platform that the P10 is built upon. Intel celeron processors have always been "entry-level" products. even Intel themselves admit that every generation of celerons have been designed and marketed with that idea in mind. at a cost of over $17,000.00 USD, there should be absolutely NOTHING "entry-level" about the P10! software upgrades in the future may well be impossible. what then? that brings me to the real problem i am faced with. i don't know about any of you, but my P10 has an integrated mono sound-producing chipset instead of an actual sound card. it is barely capable of delivering the synthesized "voice" that we've all come to rely upon, let alone delivering the music that i know helps every single one of us deal with our lives from one day to the next. sure, this is a "speech generating device", and we all know what that means, but c'mon guys (at tobii & the us govt), do we not deserve a simple, fully-functioning stereo sound card??; one that we can plug our external speakers into?? is that too much to expect?? the difference in cost would be about $40.00 USD. it is an obvious and foregone conclusion that the P10 is designed to replace completely any computer that a patient currently uses and even the most basic of those systems (you know - the ones with the celeron processors) came with real sound cards. i wanted the D10 model but was told that it had been discontinued. so much for thinking i had all the necessary information.