2205 is ready with the requested changes. You can download this version from abilitydrive.app

Here is the list of changes in 2205:

• All the drive screens have the 3x3 grid layout.
• The Mode button has been placed in the lower left corner. Note this may not be enabled in your version of Ability Drive™.
• The Settings button has been placed in the lower right corner.
• The Stop button is now a combination of Stop and Pause. Looking at the Stop button stops driving, continuing to look at the Stop button for the delay time will pause Ability Drive™. When Pause is activated the Stop button will turn yellow and driving functions will not work. To un-pause Ability Drive™ look at the Stop button for the delay time and continue driving.

• There is now a Delay setting for non-drive buttons. This is the time it takes to activate a non-drive button (pause, mode, settings are all non-drive buttons). Delay now has a choice of short, medium, or long. Long requires 4 seconds of looking at the button.

• There is now a choice to turn off access via eye gaze to the settings button on the drive screen. This choice is NOT eye gaze enabled and can only be turned off or on via touch. This button is set to “Settings GazeEnabled” by default. When set to “Settings GazeEnabled” the settings button on the drive screen will access the settings screen using the time set in the “Delay (short, medium, or long). When this button is set to “Settings TouchOnly” this will make the ability to access the settings page using eye gaze extremely hard to accomplish.  If this get turned on you can still get to the settings page, but only by looking at the settings button on the drive screen for a whopping 16 seconds. Disabling the settings button entirely has been a major request. After user feedback from the 2203 release this is the compromise.

• The Semi-Latched mode is now a request only feature.

• The Mode button is a request only feature. If you upgrade and it is already turned on it will remain on. If Ability Drive is installed on new computer, you will need to contact us to turn the mode button on.  This is only available if the the OMNI2 display (Permobil and Sunrise), Enhanced Display (Quantum), or REM 500 (Invacare) display is mounted next to the eye gaze device.

At Tolt Technologies™, we work hard to ensure Ability Drive™ works with many different eye gaze devices.  It's important to us that we enable as many people as possible to drive with their eyes.  We know that assembling a person's suite of assistive technologies is a multi-step process that involves many decisions by the person and their doctors, clinicians, and assistive technology professionals.  These decisions are sometimes made together at the same time and sometimes made independently over months or years.

It's also our job to make sure Ability Drive is safe to use.  Independent mobility is critically important, but so is avoiding injury.  When eye gaze driving was first introduced, we focused on compatibility with eye gaze cameras from companies such as Tobii-Dynavox, IRISBOND, Alea, and Smart Eye.  But through experience, we learned that focusing on being compatible with cameras wasn't enough.  The camera, the computer's hardware, and the computer's operating system all play a role in creating a safe driving experience.

In one example, a person's computer battery was low and to lengthen battery life their computer slowed down to save power.  Ability Drive became sluggish, taking three seconds to recognize movement commands, putting the person in danger of collision.  In another example, a person's Bluetooth speaker disconnected and the device popped up a disconnection warning on top of the Ability Drive application, preventing driver control.  They narrowly avoided driving over a set of steps and tipping their power wheelchair.  These are but two of the issues we saw with 'build your own' eye gaze devices over the years.

Because of what our customers experienced, we require that eye gaze systems be tested for safety in combination with Ability Drive and only approved devices be used.

The Solution

Today we support over 10 different eye gaze devices from Tobii-Dynavox, TalkToMe, Smartbox, PRC-Saltillo, and more.  With each of these devices, we have a quality assurance and customer support relationship with the manufacturer.  Each approved device has been thoroughly tested with Ability Drive in their factory configuration.  Each device is tested again as we make improvements to Ability Drive.

If you are interested in becoming a supported eye gaze device, please contact us at info@tolttechnologies.com.  From every approved eye gaze device manufacturer, we require:

• Registration as a medical device which includes compliance with FDA and/or EU medical device quality and safety regulations
• Electronic marking of device id (e.g. serial number, manufacturer, make, and model viewable via Windows Management Instrumentation)
• Two current devices, one for our customer support lab and one for our Quality Assurance lab
• Exchange of customer support and quality assurance points of contact and service level agreements to ensure a good experience for our mutual customers

Approval Process

Each device will be reviewed for quality of experience and safe behavior, which includes tests like (but not limited to):

• Sufficient performance to ensure control responsiveness at least every 100 milliseconds
• Responsive when battery charge is under 10%
• Screen brightness when battery charge is under 10%
• Prevention of notifications, pop-ups, screen overlays, and any other behavior which might obscure or interfere with safe driving while Ability Drive is running
• User Account Control Settings is set to 'Do Not Dim My Desktop' to allow eye gaze control of Ability Drive installation
• Compatibility and good user experience when mouse emulation or communication software is jointly installed and running
• Solid mounting adapter to handle the stress of mounting on moving wheelchairs
• Caregiver handle to assist with safe transfer of the eye gaze device from wheelchair to other locations

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I build my own PC system to use with Ability Drive at home?  I've always built my own computers and I'm not about to stop now.

Unfortunately, no.  For our system, the A13J, we make over 200 adjustments to Microsoft Windows in order to create a safe driving experience.  We have tested 'off the shelf' Microsoft Windows and found multiple safety issues.  We cannot ensure your personal Windows installation has been safely configured and as an individual it's difficult to create a safe device without the systems and processes that medical device manufacturers follow.  It is our responsibility to provide a safe product, so we have implemented logic to detect and prevent this unsafe situation.

There are a few people who were provided Ability Drive before we understood these issues.  For those people, we are grandfathering their use of Ability Drive on custom systems and giving them a warning that this combination has potential safety issues.

My clinic / hospital / care facility creates custom assistive technology for our clients, can I use my own device?

Absolutely!  We love to see innovative assistive technology in action and do everything we can to support it.  Your custom technology needs to meet our safety criteria, so we ask you to send us an email to info@tolttechnologies.com and start the review and approval process outlined above.  Once that is complete, we will gladly add your custom device to our supported devices list.

Note that we can't make exceptions to our requirements or approval process, as we are obligated to follow medical device regulations and follow risk management practices as part of our liability insurance.

We don't use one of the devices on your supported list, we only use the Ultimate Taco Supreme Eye Gaze system.

Ugh!  What a conundrum!  Please contact the manufacturer for the Ultimate Taco Supreme Eye Gaze system.  Let them know that you'd like to drive your wheelchair with your eyes and that the people at Tolt Technologies are ready to help make this happen.  Also, we like tacos.

Quite a few things have changed in this release.

• Works better with Tobii Computer Control and Tobii Communicator 5, Tobii Computer Control now pauses when Ability Drive starts
• Updated eye gaze camera integrations
• A new simplified 3 large button driving layout was added (Pediatric Request)
• Reduced contrast of Settings button to make it less 'attractive to the eye' (Pediatric request)
• When a button is activated its color now changes to violet giving more contrast and feedback on what is active (Pediatric Request)
• Removed the non-functioning calibration button
• Improved device detection and connection logic for Tobii devices older than Q4 2019 (e.g. PC Eye Mini, iSeries 12+, iSeries 15+) and Prentkey Romich Look-2 cameras
• Improved diagnostic logging to help us work better on the many different eye gaze devices our customers use
• Improved display of error states on main screen
• Improved the gaze dot precision

Tolt Technologies is excited that we have teamed up with Talk To Me Technologies.  The eyespeak alli and eyespeak inspo come with the Ability Drive software out of the box!  Check out Talk To Me for more information.

The Ability Drive app has been updated.  It has quite a few new features including different screen layouts, different button sizes and transparencies, and even the ability to turn on a gaze dot.  The update can be downloaded from abilitydrive.app

We recently updated Ability Drive.  The new features in the 2104 release are:

• Settings: Whenever an update is available, show an 'update now' button that is eye gaze enabled
• Settings: Add the computer name and the support phone number / chat room
• Settings: Enable choosing between different drive button layouts
• Settings: Increase/Decrease the size of the drive buttons
• Settings: Update button on the settings page
• Settings: High Contrast Buttons
• Work with Irisbond Eye Gaze Cameras
• Beta: Work with Alea Eye Gaze Cameras
• Beta: Work with EyeTech DS Eye Gaze Cameras

Ability Drive is supported the following funded devices:

• https://tolttechnologies.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/70000605079

Ability Drive is not supported on untested devices such as consumer tablets. Use on an unapproved device is unwarranted and unsupported. We are aware of safety issues that can arise when using unapproved devices.  We strongly discourage the sale or reuse of Ability Drive in these circumstances.

The following devices are NOT supported

• Tobii TD Pilot
• Skyle for Windows or iPad

Warning! Installing software, changing power management or notification settings on devices can cause dangerous Ability Drive^TM application behavior.

Installing software, changing the power management settings, or changing the notification settings on approved devices can lead to Ability Drive^TM to become unresponsive to eye gaze leading to undesired chair behaviors such as a chair crash.