Free alternative to Tobii eye tracker for ALS — how Voxetu works on any phone

A Tobii Dynavox eye tracker costs between £2,500 and £4,000. In India that is ₹2.5–4 lakh. In the United States, $3,500 to $6,000. For most families caring for someone with ALS, that price is simply not possible — especially when ALS already brings enormous costs in caregiving, medication, and home adaptation.

Voxetu does the same job using the front camera of any phone or tablet. No additional hardware. No calibration appointments. No waiting list for NHS funding or insurance approval. Open a browser, allow camera access, and it works.

What a Tobii eye tracker actually does

A dedicated eye tracker like the Tobii Dynavox I-Series tracks where your eyes are pointing and translates that gaze direction into a cursor position on screen. You look at a letter on a keyboard, dwell on it for a set time, and the letter is typed. The device uses infrared cameras and specialised hardware to do this with high precision.

This is powerful technology — but the precision comes at a steep price, and the hardware is fragile, requires professional setup, and can only be used with specific mounting systems.

How Voxetu's gaze keyboard works without the hardware

Voxetu uses your existing phone or tablet camera with an AI face model running entirely in the browser. The model tracks your iris position in real time — 30 times per second — and maps it to a position on the keyboard displayed on screen. Look at a letter and hold your gaze there for 1.5 seconds, and the letter types automatically.

The accuracy is not as precise as a dedicated £3,000 Tobii device. But for most ALS communication needs — spelling words, asking for water, saying yes or no — it is more than sufficient. And it costs nothing.

Blink mode — for when gaze becomes unreliable

As ALS progresses, some patients lose reliable eye movement control. For these users, Voxetu offers blink mode — a completely separate communication method that requires only the ability to blink voluntarily.

One blink = YES. Two blinks = NO. A long held blink = HELP or SOS. The caregiver asks a question, the patient blinks the answer. It is slow, but it works at the very latest stages of ALS when nothing else can.

Breath mode — for when blinking is also unreliable

In rare late-stage cases, even voluntary blinking becomes inconsistent. Voxetu's breath mode detects breath patterns through the phone microphone. A short puff means YES. A long blow means NO. As long as the patient can exhale in a controlled way, communication is still possible.

How does it compare to Tobii in practice?

Who should use a Tobii, and who should use Voxetu?

If funding is available and the patient needs maximum precision for extended daily use, a dedicated eye tracker remains the gold standard. A speech-language therapist can guide that evaluation and funding application.

Voxetu is the right choice when a Tobii is not funded, not yet arrived, or when you need something working today — not in six months. It is also the right choice for families in countries where Tobii is not readily available or is unaffordable. And it is the right backup when a Tobii device breaks or goes in for service.