Mick Donegan and the MYTOBII story

You could say that the story of the MyTobii eye control system began on June 12th 2003.  This was the day when Dr Mick Donegan (Assistive Technology Specialist) went to see the Tobii gaze analysis system at Bunnyfoot, a market research company in Oxfordshire.

At that time, Tobii didn't make an eye-controlled computer system.  They only produced systems for gaze analysis.  In other words their systems only 'read' eye movement, e.g. for market research, psychological testing, etc - they didn't have a system that you could use to control the computer.

Mick phoned Henrik Eskilsson of Tobii to arrange for a demonstration of the system to see if it had any potential as an eye control device.  A demonstration at Bunnyfoot was arranged and Mick admits to being amazed by the potential of the system. In his view, the most exciting feature was the system's potential to accommodate significant head movement – something that could open the way for many more people to use eye control systems.

It could be said that the “MyTobii” was conceived on Thursday 11th September 2003 when Tobii sent a programmer, Kirk Ewing, to spend time with Mick in order to design the interface software that would turn the Tobii from a system that just interpreted eye movement to a device that provided gaze control.  The desktop eye control Tobii, the “MyTobii D10”, was developed and, later, the “MyTobii P10”, an all-in-one tablet was produced and is now sold all over the World.

So far, Mick has resisted the temptation to join any specific eye-control company and enjoys being in a position to collaborate with them all.  He believes very strongly that, at this moment in time, with eye-control being such a new and rapidly developing field, it is vitally important for people to have an independent specialist to turn to for unbiased information and advice.