With special training, people can control their eye movements to write letters on a computer screen – a development offering hope to paralysed people longing to better communicate.
People “locked in" by paralysing disorders such as Lou Gehrig’s disease have long relied on blinks or facial twitches to build sentences one letter at a time. But they soon might be able to take advantage of a simpler, faster mode of communication, new research suggests.
With the help of an old optical illusion, people can train their eyes to write and draw in cursive on a computer screen as quickly as they can write with a pen. In addition to providing a new medium for self-expression, the technique challenges traditional ideas about the limits of human vision.
