Technology is being developed to allow people with severe motor disabilities to play 3D computer games like World of Warcraft using only their eyes.

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.

Codenamed ‘Newton’ Microsoft is developing a wireless handheld remote for the XBox 360. Modelled on the Wiimote, the ‘Newton’ device features a planned software development API that will be of ultimate interest to people developing assistive technology for the disabled. Expect offbook usage of this device to exceed offbook usage of the Wiimote almost directly out of the gate.

You may have noticed that some of our articles are often focusing on ‘toys’ and ‘games’ lately. Particulary the inventive uses for the Wiimote which are being discovered daily. Let me propose something radical: The biggest advances for mobility challenged individuals won’t be coming from the medical community or the research community. They are going to come from computer gamers.

Let me relate a short story to you.

This past New Years, while sitting over a bottle of wine in a lovely French restaurant on 21st St, a friend of mine who happens to be a corporate attorney specializing in securing venture capital told me about a new product in development. She (rather casually I might add) mentioned a headset which could control computers solely by thought. She told me how the developers of this technology were having great trouble actually securing capital because it was a gaming device.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, I was dumbfounded, excited, and realized I was standing on the brink of the biggest developmental paradox of the future. Right there, over a nice fromage and fruit plate.

‘A gaming device???!’ I thought to myself? No. It’s a revolution. A revolution in a lousy $300 box. I couldn’t understand why the obvious usage, control of environment and restoration of independence for people with limited mobility wasn’t the target market. I was absolutely astonished. Gaming? No funding? These people are sitting on a not only a goldmine of profit but also a gift to society of epic proportion! Why are they saddling themselves with the stigma of ‘computer gaming’? No technology investor will touch anything these days without a very very solid business case — too many people got burned in the bubble. Why not go for medical research money? Why not approach engineering think tanks for assistive device technology?

After thinking about it for about 3.4 seconds, I realized the problem was the medical regulatory committees of the world. The studies and funding and research would be red taped to death and all too often the product wouldn’t ever see the light of day — after all the developers are two guys in a basement. And even with funding, the process can take decades to get something to market. We live, on average 72 years as human beings. Wasting 20 years of that seems a crime. Gaming. It makes sense. Off-book usage of gaming devices…they can’t be regulated. Or stopped.

Since the day the Borg appeared on a Star Trek screen, I think everyone knew that resistance really WAS futile. The melding of technology to the human body has been happening for years in prosthetics and other medical devices; it will only continue to become more sophisticated. The holodeck, and the continued striving for it within the gaming community, is another technology that will eventually happen. Rudimentary versions are already available. I often wonder though, do people really realize what these things will mean to the people who are often overlooked by society?

Regardless of their humble, and often scorned, origins, these things aren’t just for gaming. They aren’t just toys. We will undoubtedly find that they will have a world changing impact on humanity…on the day to day lives of both the enabled and disabled. The pioneers of the technologies that will change the lives of billions are likely to be swigging beer, eating pizza, and thinking about the best way to beat the other guy playing Halo. Perhaps that isn’t so radical (lookin’ at you Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs), but it is always kind of…shocking to really acknowledge.

Imagine a world where someone who is completely incapable of any movement at all, can simply think about moving letters on a computer screen…or making a TDD telephone call from an enabled iPhone…full two way communication with the world is restored. Imagine a world where a person in a coma can communicate with the outside world, if it’s only doctors able to spy on the thoughts and activities of their brains. Are they hurting? Can they hear us? Is there really anything going on in there at all? Imagine being able to control a small robot to carry books and food and the small luxuries of life, like the remote control from the couch to your bedside, with just a thought.

It truly is inevitable. Hopefully the medical research committees, and the thinktanks at the big boys shops will come around — developing technologies for ‘gaming’ rather than medicine. A simple reclassification could change the lives of millions within a year or two, rather than decades from now. Dr. X, Primary Gaming Device Researcher. Heh.

Who knew it would all come down to a simple question: Would you like to play a game?

Unexpected uses for the Wiimote benefit disabled, soldiers, and well, the people who just don’t want to push a vacuum.

Wii hackers worldwide are developing truly revolutionary, non-gaming, uses for Wiimotes including bomb disarming(!), robot control, and more. You can even vacuum your house!

What can you do with your Wiimote?