Product Overview

Talking Eyes is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tool designed for iPad, created for individuals with severe motor limitations and speech difficulties. By integrating expansive four-quadrant targets, gaze dwell selection, touch input, personalized content, and system speech synthesis, it empowers users to express their needs step by step.

Target Audience

• Individuals with Motor and Speech Impairments: Alert users who retain voluntary control of eye movement, but are unable to speak or operate small screen controls due to conditions such as ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), or spinal cord injury.
• Family Caregivers & Nursing Staff: Caregivers seeking to understand immediate daily needs accurately and pre-configure frequently used phrases.
• Healthcare & Rehabilitation Professionals: Clinicians, speech therapists, and nursing home staff facilitating fundamental bedside communication.

Core Features of Current Version

• Gaze Dwell & Direct Touch: Estimates gaze position entirely on-device using the iPad front TrueDepth camera and ARKit. Dwell selection duration is configurable between 2 and 10 seconds, and direct touchscreen tapping is supported at any time.
• Four-Quadrant Hierarchical Navigation: The main screen presents four prominent quadrants: "Categorized Expressions", "Frequent Phrases", "Pinyin", and "AI Suggestions". Selecting a category smoothly magnifies it to full screen, presenting the next level of four quadrants.
• Editable Expression Libraries: Caregivers can edit up to 64 categorized expressions and 16 frequent phrases, including names, icons, and content in both libraries.
• Pinyin & AI Candidates: Pinyin input filters hierarchically by initials and finals. When AI is enabled, two quick predictions appear at the bottom, and four contextual suggestions are preloaded in the fourth quadrant.
• Speech Synthesis & Caregiver Call: Selected phrases are displayed across the top bar and vocalized via a large central button. Features include auto-speech upon selection, configurable repeat counts, auto-clearing after speaking, and a dedicated caregiver call button when the screen is empty.
• Caregiver Configuration & Device Status: Caregivers can configure medical and dietary restrictions, primary caregivers, daily environments, and custom keywords. The Device Status page provides live health checks for camera, microphone, location, network, weather, volume, and battery level.

Optional AI Suggestions

AI suggestions are disabled by default. The app will only issue AI requests after a family member or caregiver reviews the data sharing disclosures and taps "Agree and Enable". When AI is disabled or daily quota is exhausted, the fourth quadrant automatically reverts to on-device "Recents", ensuring all core communication features remain fully operational.

Important Disclaimer

WARNING

Talking Eyes is an assistive communication tool. It does not provide medical diagnosis, treatment recommendations, or emergency call services, and cannot substitute for professional AAC clinical assessments, nursing observation, or emergency alarm hardware. Critical requests must always be verified by caregivers.

Privacy Summary

• Camera feeds, TrueDepth data, facial mesh, and gaze coordinates are processed strictly in volatile device memory—never saved to disk or uploaded.
• Caregiver voice transcription and ambient sound detection are off by default. When enabled, processing occurs on-device, and raw audio recordings are never stored or uploaded.
• When AI is enabled, contextual text summaries required for phrase generation are transmitted via a developer proxy to Volcano Engine (Volcengine Ark). A 7-day AI privacy history can be audited within the app at any time.

For full details, see the Privacy Policy.