ReEnabled.org has long been a proponent of hacking the Wiimote into an assistive technology device, but now Stephen Vickers, of De Montfort University, in Leicester, UK is developing the Wiimote killer - an eye tracking interface that can perform all the same functions. His team is developing the software as part of the EU-funded project Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN). The benefits of such technology will be immediately apparent, and likely available within just a few years, perhaps less. As it is being marketed as a gaming device, just like the Wiimote, there will be no scrutiny from government bodies. Read more about this development at New Scientist.
Technology is being developed to allow people with severe motor disabilities to play 3D computer games like World of Warcraft using only their eyes.
Since the 1990s, gaze technology has helped people with conditions such as motor neurone disease (MND), cerebral palsy and other “locked-in syndromes” to control 2D desktop environments and communicate using visual keyboards.
Users typically guide a cursor with their eyes, staring at objects for a time to emulate a mouse click.
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.
Vickers’ software includes the traditional point and click interface, but includes extra functions to speed up certain commands.
Glancing momentarily off-screen in a particular direction switches between different functions, for example, to a mode that rotates the avatar or viewpoint, or to call up transparent icons dragged onto game objects to perform a particular action.
A “gaze gesture” is also built in to temporarily turn off the eye-gaze functions altogether, to avoid unintentionally selecting an item while looking around the screen.
Vickers hopes to begin trials of the software with people with locked-in syndrome within the next year.
A paper on the new system was presented at the Eye Tracking Research & Applications Symposium 2008 in Savannah, US.
