Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I Shot Asteroids – With My Eyes [VIDEO]

LAS VEGAS — The concept of eye-tracking has been around for more than a century, but it’s only in recent years that we’ve seen it applied to computing. Early implementations let you control, say, your cursor with your eyes, but only if you kept your head perfectly still and only moved your eyes. Tobii Technology breaks out of that boundary by making a 3D model of your eyes that allows for eye tracking and head movement. Mashable took the innovation for a test drive at CES 2012.
To start using Tobii, you sit about a foot-and–a-half from the screen and, at least initially, do have to keep your head still and stare at the screen while it calibrates. The screen shows you a series of objects that you have to look at without moving your head. Two infrared cameras shoot your eyeballs and create 3D models of your eyes than can now track their position and movement. (The whole process takes about 10 seconds.) Those cameras, by the way are art of a Tobii’s add-on eye-movement and control response system that can be used with desktops or laptops.
The technology has been programmed to work with an Asteroids-like game and even the Windows 8 Metro interface. I tried it out with the Asteroids game and found it remarkably effective — even if my asteroid-destroying skills stunk. It got so bad, I started to wish I had eight eyes instead of two..... Next

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