OptiKey - full computer control and speech with your eyes

[OptiKey_Julius]

OptiKey is an assistive on-screen keyboard which runs on Windows. It is designed to be used with a low cost eye-tracking device (including TheEyeTribe) to bring keyboard control, mouse control and speech to people with motor and speech limitations, such as people living with ALS / MND. It works out of the box once you have your eye-tracking device installed and allows selections to be made using dwell selection, as well as physical buttons and assistive devices. If you do not have an eye tracking device you can use OptiKey with a mouse.

OptiKey was written to challenge the outrageously expensive, unreliable and difficult to use AAC (alternative and augmentative communication) products on the market. It is, therefore, fully open-source and free. Forever.

Download it, read about, check out the source code (C#) and watch the demo video at http://www.OptiKey.org

(Are you, or do you know, someone who could benefit from OptiKey? Please email me - I'd love to help and know that my software has been helpful to someone.)

[MastaLomaster]

Really beautiful software!

[OptiKey_Julius]

Hi MastaLomaster - you're the author of bkb aren't you? It's fantastic to have such positive feedback from you. Great work on bkb.

[MastaLomaster]

Hi Julius.
Yes, I am. Your program is much more complicated and functional, well documented, easier to install and, yes, more beautiful.
I understand now that I have to use icons instead of just printing words.
I also started to write the program because of ALS that touched my former collegue. And a year ago I thought the program is done. But I had to add tens of modifications, because you can never expect what the real user needs.
And you have a very good software from the very beginning. Good luck!
P.S. If you wrote in C, not C#, I would steal some code snippets

[OptiKey_Julius]

That's great to hear. I think bkb is fantastic also.

Although the languages are not the same they are similar enough for us to share concepts and sample code if you are interested? I'd be happy to walk you through my code base if you think there's something in there that you'd like to see or use. Similarly I'd benefit from a tour of bkb.

My aim now is to get the word out about software such as bkb, OptiKey and Click2Speak - free software that works with these low cost eye trackers. I think there's a danger that our software is not obviously available to people who could benefit from it. To promote OptiKey I'm starting to contact as many people and forums as I can think of to get OptiKey added to software lists and discussed by the right people. Are you happy for me to mention bkb also?

[JeffKang]

>I can take you through the code

Unfortunately, a partial disability makes me more of a seeking user than a developer.
(It’s taking me a while to learn how to program).

I didn’t check out the OptiKey pointer selection and user guide yet, but will do soon.
(Thought at first that OptiKey was more of a GazeSpeaker or Tobii Sono Scribe typing and communication program than a bkb or PCEye pointer select program.)

>If ANY points stray outside of either area (during lock-on or selection) then I discard the whole thing and the user can start again.

Yeah, I made that “spray paint” fixation accumulation suggestion for bkb (viewtopic.php?f=22&t=182&start=20#p2074) because it seemed like a possibly less strict mode.

Fixation at any location would be logged into memory, and only a complete selection, or a look-back at a side menu bar would reset the memory.
(It does mean that you would have to be deliberate, and know what you want to fixate on ahead of time.
You couldn’t keep looking around aimlessly for too long, as you’d eventually and possibly prematurely trigger a magnification, and then you’d have to look to the side bar menu to escape).

I was having difficulty with gaze programs because of the vertical shifts that were resulting from forward and back head movement during use of the Eye Tribe tracker.
There was just too much resetting.
(For just reading, I now just occasionally stick with the Alt Controller program and my custom giant-sized buttons with triggers lol).

>The tricky bit was coming up with radii where the "lock-on" area is small enough to make the centre point accurate, but large enough to make it possible to keep all points within the circle for X ms.

If it would help, I wouldn’t mind the option of extra magnification steps.
It would be slower, but it could be more consistent.

But I haven’t even tried out the pointer selection yet, so I gotta do that.

Thanks.

[OptiKey_Julius]

Hi Jeff,

Give the pointer selection a go and see what you think. You can turn on the magnification step which means the first click is rough (and gets magnified), then you make a second more deliberate selection within that magnification. Is that what you had in mind?

By the way the whole point of me writing this software was to get it in front of someone who it might help. If you think you could benefit from it I'd love to work with you to make it more closely fit your requirements...

Julius

[JeffKang]

Yea, I'll check out the user guide when I can.
These essential programs should probably and primarily cater to the more disabled users that really rely on them, but I'll see if I can come up with any thoughts.

Thanks.

[MastaLomaster]

Are you happy for me to mention bkb also?

Please do it.
But the bkb was made for one particular person, I simply decided to share it. So there is no obligations for future improvements. I can occationally stop working on it, and start again in a half a year.

[OptiKey_Julius]

If it would help, I wouldn’t mind the option of extra magnification steps. It would be slower, but it could be more consistent.

Hi Jeff - that's a good idea. I'll add it to my todo list and get in touch when I have something for you. I would imagine that you would configure OptiKey to allow particularly inaccurate selections, which then trigger a number of magnifications of increasing precision so that you can hit the spot you want after 2, 3, 4 (or however many you want) magnified selections. Is that what you have in mind?