Eye interface opens new worlds in Darwin
A $10,000 grant has given disabled students in Darwin a new window on the world, and new opportunities to learn.
A high-tech computer setup is on trial in Darwin, which allows the user to control a computer cursor using only their eyes.
The program is giving a voice to students who cannot communicate verbally.
The technology was funded by a grant from Telstra for Darwin’s Henbury School.
The school teaches children with disabilities, and will use the technology to cater for six of its current students.
“These are students who would not have otherwise have had a chance to have a say,” Henbury School principal Carolyn Edwards has told the ABC.
“So it's the students who are able to control their eyes.
“It's about eye control and interacting with a computer screen.”
The device uses infrared light to sense where the user is looking, and specifically what the pupil is pointed at, which indicates the user's choice.
“It's about giving students choices on grids and the questions are asked and the students are able to reply with an answer which they're not normally able to do,” Ms Edwards said.
“So when you learned to read, you had to learn what the letters were, how the letters go together and that's what the students are learning now, what's cause and effect.
“What we would ideally like is to take that technology that when the student leaves the school, that technology would then follow them.
“So we're at the very start of that process at the moment, so when that student then goes to a worksite, they're still able to communicate at that worksite.”