This is good information Jennifer! I have not had a PALS use this device but I know they are targeting the ALS/MND market so this feedback is important.
Thanks for sharing.

Alisa

Alisa Brownlee, ATP
Assistive Technology Specialist
ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) Association, National Office and Greater Philadelphia Chapter
215-631-1877

Follow me on Twitter: @alsassistivetec

Follow my blog, dedicated to assistive technology issues, disability issues, and ALS: http://alsassistivetechnology.blogspot.com

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com [mailto:xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Coggiola, Jennifer L.
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 11:14 PM
To: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com
Subject: RE: Update on BCI please...

One of my pts tried out the headset. Here is her response:

"When you carefully watch the YouTube link, you can see that the subject, Brian, is moving his head a lot. In fact you can observe that the on screen cursor movement directly collates to the movement of his head.

He is in fact using the Gyro function to move the cursors around. Once, the cursor is on the letter keyboard on the screen, he may be thinking to "push" (select) the letter.

In my experience, the cursor was "not" moving with my mind. It was using the gyro, velocity, and trajectory mathematical calculation to move the cursor by interpreting the movement of the individual wearing this Epoc Imotive head set with his/her head movement. Also, thinking to push (or select a letter) was way too mentally tasking and fatiguing.

I did not see much benefit of using this headset for me. It was wearing out my neck muscles. Also, in my experience, the cursor would eventually get quite a bit off from initial starting point, way off to the left or to the right of the screen (using my slight head movement).

I owned it for about a year and a half and ended up selling it on eBay. To me, for ALS patient, with neck weakness, it was not conducive to use itas an effective for adaptive communication. This think was 10 times more frustrating than even compared to the uae of Dynavox. You can see that the individual demonstrating for the company has no neck issue. To me, again, I felt that it was totally misleading to say that this software plus the hardware allows what they call "Mind Mouse."

Jen Coggiola, MA, CCC/SLP
Speech Pathologist
ALS Center at UCSF
400 Parnassus Ave., 8th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94143
(415) 353-2122 clinic phone
(415) 353-2524 clinic fax
(925) 323-0175 cell phone
xxxxxx@ucsfmedctr.org
________________________________________
From: xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com [xxxxxx@alsa.simplelists.com] on behalf of Amy Roman [xxxxxx@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 9:11 AM
To: AT ALS Listserv
Subject: Update on BCI please...

Hi Alicia,
Please give us an update on brain computer interface technology. I know Stanford has accepted it first patient with ALS into the Braingate trials. Yippy. We waited a long time for this.

Today someone forwarded me this video on Mind Mouse software ($100) which is matched with Emotive EEG head set ($200) that supposedly allows brain wave control of your computer. http://youtu.be/8EElJaltjn0

It looked to rely heavily on EMG rather than EEG but I thought I would ask you if this is something new we should be looking at. Anything else going on Alicia? Thanks!!!

Sincerely,

Amy Roman, MS, CCC-SLP
Augmentative Communication Specialist

Forbes Norris ALS Research and Treatment Center
2324 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Cell (415)518-0592
Fax (415)600-3778