The Mind Power Times

What if you could control a tablet or desktop computer just by looking at its screen? That’s the promise of Tobii Gaze, an experimental interface that uses what its maker calls the “most advanced and compact eye tracker in the world.” The eye tracker replaces the actions of a finger or mouse pointer with a simple stare at a link or screen segment.

In the video above, you can see the Gaze interface at work with Windows 8. When using Windows 8 with computer and touchpad, the makers of Gaze demonstrate how it’s more efficient to look at one of the tiles on the start screen and then tap a touchpad to launch it.

The company demonstrated a tablet interface as well, where the precision eye tracker gives users hands-free control over the tablet’s functions. It’s a simple matter of momentarily focusing your gaze at an object or link on the screen, and then it’s launched, working the same way as tapping.

We tried an earlier version of Tobii’s eye tracking at CES 2012 last January, and found it to be already good enough to play a hands-free game of Asteroids:

This updated interface goes beyond that demo, with controls for Windows 8 and a tablet interface, as well as additional games. Now, Tobii has teamed up with DoCoMo and Fujitsu to create a prototype tablet and is also demonstrating the interface with an all-in-one PC. The company is showing off these prototypes at the CEATEC exhibition in Japan this week, and will show more of the tech at CES 2013 in January.

When will Gaze hit the market? Tobii says its Gaze prototype is still in the proof-of-concept stage and didn’t announce when it would be marketed in real-world products.

Do you think there’s a market for a hands-free interface like this? Tell us your opinion in the comments.

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/04/tobii-gaze-interface/