How will you control your tablet in the future? Will it be by touch, talk or just a look?
With a new eye-tracking technology, founders of the Eye Tribe hope it will be your ‘eyes’ that take control of your tablet very soon.
Eye Tribe is a spin-off company from the GazeGroup at the IT University of Copenhagen. It’s preparing to release an eye-tracking technology that allows users to give instructions to their mobile devices with eye movements.
The GazeGroup is an active research team in developing eye-tracking and eye-controlled computer technologies. After spending nearly 20 years working on developing high-tech expensive systems to aid those with disabilities, a group of GazeGroup researchers have established the Eye Tribe and turned themselves into a business with a mass market approach.
Their technology works by projecting an infrared LED light from the computing device toward the user's face. The infrared light reflects in the user’s pupil. The image of the pupil is then captured by the front-facing camera of the smartphone or tablet and analyzed using computer-vision algorithms. After calibrating with the user's eye movements, the technology is then able to determine the location of the eyes and estimate where the user is looking on the screen.
In this video demonstration you can watch an implementation of the technology called the "EyeDock". It is an add-on that uses an inexpensive webcam and an infrared LED attached to a tablet. The system has been designed to work with simple, inexpensive hardware components that should work with most mobile devices.
The EyeTribe is now establishing connections and partnerships with mobile manufacturers and carriers to bring this technology to the market. They expect their first device to hit the market in 2013.