*Riven!* Place to try out eyetrackers!

[glittery]

have you ever visited the special needs fringe?

lots of software and hardware to try out, exhibitors include...

Tobii (P10, CEye),
Techcess (Tellus plus Eyetech TM3), Liberator (Ecopoint),
Dynavox (Eyemax),
QED (Erica),
Smartbox (Alea Intelligaze, LC Eyegaze Edge, CEye, P10)

and lots more, its in the Olympia Hilton in London from the 13th to the 15th of January

i went to a similar event in Glasgow and its where we tried out most of these products, it was pretty obvious what would work for ds and what wouldnt, it also lets you and dd meet the reps from the various companies who could prove helpful for trials and stuff

Also on the same days next door is the BETT Exhibition which apparently is the world?s largest educational technology event.
i noticed the Proloque iphone thing on there so it might have some useful stuff?

well there are only 29 exhibitors and a lot of people mainly go for the seminars so you can sometimes try out devices while theres a popular seminar on.
when we went to the Glasgow one i phoned a few of the exhibitors a few weeks before to make sure the devices i was interested in were going to be there and the reps told me the best time to come try them out.
they will usually squeeze you in even if they are busy as they are expecting you IYKWIM?

check out the websites of each exhibitor to see what they have then give them a call

no i'd definately take dd with you as some of them will be totally unsuitable for her and it will be obvious within 5 mins so you wont need to waste time getting a rep out also its much easier to squeeze to the front of the crowds of SALT's with a wheelchaired child "wanting a go" as its always a good practical demo for the assembled masses!

bloody hell!

make sure she tries out the ones you are most interested in first before she gets too tired/grumpy.
Head for the tobii/Liberator/smartbox stuff first and get her to try out the Eyetech TM3 attachment to see if it would be any use for her current Tellus.
taking a video camera might be a good idea too?

the one we went to was run in conjunction with the communication service up here and i met ds's SALT there and we used the info we got from the day as part of the evidence for ds's need for the Mytobii as its much more useful if you can say you tried all the other options, would you SALT go with you/be at the evant?

event!

lazy buggers!

well going alone would let you see whats on offer but its probably no better than looking at a device on a website IYKWIM?

the actual event dosnt finish till 5pm and it would probably be really quiet towards the end so maybe you stay till the end then go somewhere nice for dinner then get the later train?
it would save you having to rush about and get stressed trying to catch the earlier one?

what day were you thinking of going, the wednesday, thursday or friday?
does that make a difference to the fares? might be an idea to contact the organisers and see if they think one day might be quieter than another, you know busy the first and last days but quieter on the thursday for instance?

suppose an overnight stay in London for you both is out of the question? you could combine it with some shopping!

nah me neither, twas just a nice idea!

Riven do you have a railcard? Might be worth getting one if you don't have one to reduce the ticket price.