By Lori Soard on January 17, 2012 in
Eye-tracking software, Gaze, from Tobii Technology, allows computer users to navigate to a website with a glance, blow up asteroids in a game with a head nod, or scroll through photo slideshows without ever clicking a mouse.
Up until now, eye-tracking technology was cumbersome, but according to Mashable, this is all about to change with the new Tobii innovations. Debuting at CES in Las Vegas last week, the screen now tracks both head and eye movements, combining both to direct the computer to do what the user wishes. Attendees were able to test it out. A game similar to Asteroids was available and users could explode asteroids simply by staring at them and navigate the joystick with their gaze.
In a company video, the technology is shown as a simple plug-and-play design. Sitting a foot and a half from the screen, the hardware mounts under your PC and requires a simple, one-time calibration to work. With an infrared camera, it takes just about 10 seconds to reproduce a 3D model of your eyes and head that will track their position. The software, which the company affectionately dubs "Windows Control," can be used with the upcoming Windows 8 to completely control the environment with your eyes.
Ned Potter of ABC News calls gaze interaction, "an intriguing marriage of motion sensing, facial recognition and other technologies." And while it is certainly a milestone advancement in the way we control computers, there are some flaws in the system. Christina Bonnington of Wired wrote, "If you accidentally look off to the side, or at somewhere random on the page, you could navigate to somewhere you didn't intend."
It was reported by the Los Angeles Times that it will be a while before Gaze hits the mainstream consumer population, but Tobbi also aims to have the technology used in the medical field to scan X-rays or even operate machinery.