Kristin Whitfield, MA, CCC-SLP is the Clinical Education Specialist for Control Bionics. She has worked as a speech-language pathologist in multiple different settings, specializing in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for most of her career. Kristin has presented on various AAC topics at local, national, international, and online conferences/workshops. Her desire is to help others love AAC, and the people who use it, as much as she does.
She’s presenting a poster at ASHA with author Lester Lo, an undergraduate completing his Bachelors of Biomedical Engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne. The poster is titled Improving Traditional Eye Gaze Access to Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices and will go into detail about the effectiveness of eye gaze technology combined with an EMG sensor.
Improving Traditional Eye Gaze Access to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Devices
Eye gaze technology is widely used to access AAC devices. Looking at a button for a set period (dwell time) to make a selection sounds relatively easy, but it isn’t always. For some, uncontrolled movement may cause gaze to move away from the target and reset the dwell period. For others, the effort needed to hold gaze may be fatiguing. For still others, the dwell time reduces communication rate to an unacceptable level. Are there other options? Yes! In this poster session, we will look at research that compares the accuracy and efficiency of eye gaze with dwell to eye gaze combined with an EMG sensor. Results indicate a significant increase in speed and satisfaction by participants.
Read more about how combined access methods increase speed and accuracy in this whitepaper and make sure to stop by the Control Bionics booth #619 during exhibit hours!
