Communication will be easier for locked in syndrome patients through Eye Tracking

Researchers have been given $300,000 to develop the eye tracking technology. It will be tracked with tiny eye movement.

Locked in syndrome often occurs after a stroke which damages a part of the brain stem which paralyses the majority of the face but never the eyes. Memory is not lost when this happens so patients of locked in syndrome are aware of what’s going on.

One of the technologies being used is Eye Home which looks like a tablet and by looking at different parts of the screen to show what they want to do. The topics at the moment are quite unspecific but that is currently being developed.

A patient who has suffered from locked in syndrome for 9 years is hoping to be able to communicate his thoughts for the first time since his stoke as he has unwillingly had to keep everything to himself.

One of the patients who have benefitted from the researchers’ early technology is Bob Veillete, a Connecticut journalist and jazz pianist who suffered a stroke that rendered him paralyzed in 2006. Earlier this year, the researchers have begun testing their eye-tracking technologies to help Veilette communicate beyond the blinking he had been doing since his stroke. The $300,000 grant should be enough to get this new technology over the line.