Quick Glance Eye Tracker Helps Mobility Impaired Users Operate Computers

Imagine that you are an engineer with repetitive stress injuries and all of a sudden you can’t use your arms, but you do most of your work on the computer. What would you do? How would you continue to make a living?

In the 1990s, Robert Chappell developed a repetitive strain injury. He was unable to control the computer mouse or to type. “Voice dictation systems at the time were not successful for me as I found it took a long time to train on or if my voice varied in any way, the dictation system would not recognize it,” said Chappell. He also needed to find something that would allow him to continue to use a computer and that would still be accessible to both Windows and DOS operating systems.

The Quick Glance Eye Tracker allows people with mobility impairments (spinal cord injuries, severe repetitive stress damage, arthritis or stroke) to use and control the computer with their eyes, rather than with a conventional mouse or a voice dictation system, which Chappell found less than satisfactory to use. He designed the Quick Glance Eye Tracker to be compatible with DOS and Windows, making it more accessible to consumers with special needs. He says “You can control the mouse pointer by looking at the screen. Click with an eye-blink or a hardware switch or by staring. Quick Glance Eye Tracker can be combined with an onscreen keyboard for text or speech output.”

Since 1996, when the Quick Eye Glance Tracker was first introduced, Chappell estimates that “Thousands of Quick Eye Glance Tracker devices have been sold around the globe.” Chappell estimates that such a sales figure accounts for 30-40 percent of the market.

The Quick Glance Eye Tracker system has three models, ranging in price from $4500 USD to $9500 USD. The initial units must be installed onto the user’s computer while for the more expensive one, technicians will train the user wherever he or she may be.

Funding from Medicare is pending but the user can purchase the Quick Glance Eye Tracker either by paying for it directly or through an approved insurance company.  If not completely satisfied with the product, Chappell states that there is a full refund including shipping. Chappell estimates that in the US, Quick Glance has about 30-40 percent of the market share.

A newer edition of the Quick Glance Eye Tracker is in development but Chappell was reluctant to discuss any of the details. He said he hoped one day that Quick Glance Eye Tracker technology would not be just for persons who are mobility impaired but that it could be applied universally in the mainstream of society.