On average, it costs around $20,000 to purchase the tech necessary to input text on a computer via eye-tracking hardware. It’s an outrageous figure, but for those suffering from neurological disorders like Motor Neurone Disease (MND), it provides the only avenue available for them to use devices that otherwise require physical input.
That was until recently, when London-based software developer Julius Sweetland released OptiKey. Developed in whatever free time Sweetland had over a three and a half year period, the program is both free and open-source, allowing for the coding community to help expand the project.
OptiKey appears as a standard keyboard interface on a user’s computer, and can be used with low-cost eye-tracking devices, or a mouse. Its ‘swipe’ functionality employs predictive text to allow users to simply skim over the bulk of letters in a word, making the process quick and effective.
In a Reddit thread, Sweetland told a supportive forum that his aunt died due to MND, but that the decision to design OptiKey came from a broader empathy for sufferers of “a generally shitty disease”, many of whom simply couldn’t afford to shell out thousands for similar software.
“Maybe releasing this for free will disrupt the market a bit and bring the cost of the ‘off the shelf’ software down. That would be something.”
OptiKey might not revolutionise the medical arm of the tech industry (at least until competitors join the fight), but it is helping revolutionise the lives of MND sufferers, and that’s something worth celebrating all the same.
You can watch Sweetland demonstrating OptiKey in the video below, or check out the official website for more information.