EagleEyes Exploring Partnerships in Ireland
Irish educators express interest in BC-produced adaptive technology
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In the latest international advance for the EagleEyes adaptive technologies developed by Boston College faculty, the Campus School is assisting the Republic of Ireland with the use of the computerized tools that give people with physical and cognitive disabilities access to the personal computer.The partnership with the Campus School took root in 2007, when Irish officials, visiting campus through a program sponsored by BC’s Dublin-based Irish Institute, toured the Campus School and watched students with severe disabilities communicate using EagleEyes technology, which allows people rendered almost entirely immobile to use their head or eye movements to control the cursor of a computer.
Now, two years later, Campus School teacher and EagleEyes specialist Maureen Gates is set to return to Ireland this month, her third trip to assist in training teachers to use the technologies developed by Boston College faculty.
“This opens another world – another level of achievement for both systems,” said Gates. “It is interesting to see a different culture’s approach to educating children with special needs. I was very impressed with the Republic of Ireland and the way they care for students with disabilities.”
EagleEyes, developed by Egan Professor of Computer Science James Gips, Associate Professor of Information Systems Peter Olivieri and Associate Professor of Psychology Joseph Tecce, uses electrodes placed near the user’s eye to magnify electrical signals and convert them to cursor movements. Another technology, Camera Mouse – developed by Gips and Boston University Associate Professor of Computer Science Margrit Betke – uses a webcam to help a person move a computer cursor by moving their head.
Gates first assisted the School of the Divine Child in Cork with the use of Camera Mouse, which can be downloaded for free from the Internet. When the distributor of EagleEyes completed a re-design of the console, Gates traveled to Ireland in June to work with teachers at the school, which serves students with disabilities.
Since the first visit the Camera Mouse system has been placed in every classroom in the School of the Divine Child and the teachers are using it with many of their students to achieve educational goals, Gates said.
This past summer, Gates helped teachers add EagleEyes to their academic curricula. Gates said some students at the school once had the dexterity to use a personal computer, but have gradually lost the use of their hands through progressively debilitating conditions.
Camera Mouse allows these students to regain access to their prior proficiency on the computer and return to focused schoolwork. Other students, with more severe physical limits, have used EagleEyes. Gates has focused on assisting educators with the evaluation of students and training on the use of the technology.
Gips, the chairman of the Information Systems department in the Carroll School of Management, says he’s gratified by the global embrace of the technologies. Camera Mouse has been downloaded over the Internet by nearly 90,000 people around the world, he said.
“The people involved with EagleEyes are very dedicated to doing it and I’m grateful for the University support we receive,” he said. “I think EagleEyes fits squarely with our mission as a University.”
In the long term, the EagleEyes project participants expect an ongoing collaboration with Irish schools to help students achieve communication, recreation and education goals that would have been impossible before.
“This collaboration has expanded the impact that EagleEyes can have,” said Campus School Director Don Ricciato. “We started out working with school districts in New England and then nationally. Now we have the opportunity to work with schools in Ireland. It’s become far-reaching in its application.
“It really shows the impact that the University, the Campus School and the Lynch School of Education are making in the education of students with disabilities.”
Ed Hayward can be reached at ed.hayward@bc.edu