Dear Listserv,

I am new to AAC and have been having difficulties with the MyTobii P10 eye gaze systems.  I only have two PALS who have this system so far, but we cannot get it to read their eye movements consistently in either case.  For one patient who also has ptosis and nystagmus, we have had MyTobii reps out 5 times trying to help.  I saw the second patient yesterday, he calibrates fine with the device, but then when we go to use it, it inconsistently reads his eye movements.  In this case, we have tried one eye and both eyes, taping the eyelids (also has ptosis) and adjusting the monitor and re-calibrating repeatedly.  I know it's not a cognitive problem as this gentlemen is excellent using a head mouse with dwell selection.

I don't want to make a premature judgment on this product, but I'm very frustrated.

In both of these cases, the evaluation was done by another clinician approximately one year ago.  Both patients report good use of the system during the evaluation.  Any references on changes in eye/pupil functioning with ALS?  Has anyone else encountered these problems?  If so, has it been more with the P10 than other eye gaze systems?

Also, could anyone offer any other suggestions on how to get these two systems to work?  I took one of them home to play with over the next couple of weeks.  It will be interesting to see if I have the same problem.  But even so, I've tried at least one other eye gaze system that doesn't read my eye movements well, so I don't know if I'm a good test subject.

Any suggestions are thoroughly appreciated!

Jen Coggiola, MA, CCC/SLP
The ALS Treatment & Research Center at UCSF