Gaze Gaming Tech Promises Faster Eye-Controlled Interaction

NewScientist is reporting that further research is progressing on new types of user input devices. Specifically, "gaze gaming," a technology that promises faster interaction using only your eyes. Currently technology for sight-based interaction is far too slow for practical applications in things like gaming. "Eye-gaze systems bounce infrared light from LEDs at the bottom of a computer monitor and track a person's eye movements using stereo infrared cameras. This setup can calculate where on a screen the user is looking with an accuracy of about 5 mm."

Re:Imagine turning this technology into a mouse

[ivan256]

Now they just need to get it down to .5mm resolution...

In other words, it needs at least a 10x improvement to be a mouse replacement with current UIs.

Re:Imagine turning this technology into a mouse

[StarfishOne]

Darting eyes indeed!

Why oh why do I have to think about a situation I was in a few years ago.

I was taking driving lessons together with a friend of me. I was sitting in the backseat when the driving instructor was explaining how it was very important to look ahead, but also that _you will tend to go wherever you are looking_.

And as if to emphasize the importance of this, our sometimes playful Universe introduced a few seconds later this synchronicity in the form of one of the most stunning blonde girls we have ever seen.. (oh those legs!)... my friend almost hit the sidewalk and I can still hear our driving instructor saying: "SEE!? That's what I mean! Keep your eyes on the road"

It was such a brilliant moment. :D

Re:Oh no!

[speroni]

I imagine you would have to build in a calibration feature. Everyone's facial structure and eye placement and such are all slightly different. When you install the hardware, you'd get click this X over here, and that X over there, adjust your sensitivity etc... and if done properly it could compensate for quite a bit of variation.

Re:Imagine turning this technology into a mouse

[pherthyl]

Well I work on these kinds of systems, and that 5mm is not a limitation of the system, it's a limitation of the eyes.

The fovea (dense area of rods and cones) in the retina is large enough to give you approximately a 1 deg cone of "focus". Which means depending on the distance, you can focus on an area of a given size on the screen. So even with a perfect eye tracker, you cannot pinpoint gaze location exactly just by measuring eye orientation. Accuracy depends on distance from the screen, but 5mm is in the ballpark for what you can achieve (and that is with a perfectly calibrated system, real accuracy will be worse).

Re:What about four eyes

[pherthyl]

It will definitely interfere. Depending on the glasses (reflectivity and material of the frames), the environment (ambient light, glare), and the system, you will get different results. I have some experience with a $40000 eye tracker from Tobii (they're pretty much top of the line trackers) and it still has issues with glasses.

Re:Imagine turning this technology into a mouse

[mikael]

A google search for "eye tracking hardware" will give a good range of companies.

There are actually LCD monitors which actually have built in eye tracking hardware. [tobii.com]

Re:Shifty eyes

[pz]

Have you tried? Sounds like maybe you have not.

I have. I'm a visual neuroscientist and my research involves accurate measurement of eye position. I also own a relatively high-end SLR camera that senses eye position to control focus (this is not a coincidence). Humans have exquisite control over their eyes. With a good low-latency mechanism to read gaze position, system control (camera, computer, whatever) becomes incredibly quick, efficient, and fluid. The only problem is that you do NOT want the cursor to always track your eye position, you need a switch: sometimes you want the cursor where you are looking, sometimes you want to leave the cursor in place and look around. But this switch is no more than the equivalent of a mouse button, a shift key on a keyboard, or a foot switch. All work, although I prefer the keyboard approach.