back to article Now you can control ANY Win 8 kit with your EYEBALLS

It's all gestures and eyeball-tracking at CES this year, with Tobii releasing a USB peripheral that adds control-by-sight to any Windows PC and Lenovo upgrading its Yoga to finger-watching. Tobii demonstrated its eyeball-tracking technology at CES last year, but this time it is announcing a 5,000 unit production run of a USB …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    dont take my eyeballs

    i need them

  2. Pooka
    Trollface

    Eyeball tracking?!?!?

    .... But I'll have my eyes squeeze tightly shut so I don't have my brain melted by the bad UI!

  3. Lusty

    pointless

    Why create a hands free tech like eye tracking if you then force people to hold a button down while they do so? If you have to touch it, use a touch screen or mouse. THIS is why Apple is winning, because other companies don't put sense between the geek and the factory!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: pointless

      If they were really clever they'd track one eyeball and take a wink of the other eye as a click. Or a poke of the tongue or ...

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: pointless

        I was thinking winking too. I'm sure it's possible but maybe it's not very user-friendly... try deliberately winking every time you click the mouse for a bit and see what you think. Additionally, some people can't wink!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @JDX - Re: pointless

          Agreed, tricky - but I think that with practice it's do-able. The tongue-poke will be for those who can't wink, or just hate Win8 anyway.

      2. Shagbag

        Audible Gestures

        Why limit it to a wink? How about spoken commands from the user or better still.. a fart to reboot.

    2. Lusty

      Re: pointless

      WTF was the downvote for? Was it because I mentioned Apple, or because someone disagrees that technology for the sake of technology tends to end up useless? Come on kids, if you're going to downvote on perfectly reasonable posts then at least join the conversation. By all means downvote my unreasonable rants without comment...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: pointless

        Technology for the sake of technology is why we progress. It's not always great, but even the lowliest of new technologies tends to end up being useful at some point, even if it's to show where not to go.

        1. Lusty

          Re: pointless

          "Technology for the sake of technology is why we progress"

          No it isn't, throughout history technology has been used to answer problems and dreams. I think you're thinking of science for the sake of science which often leads to advances in technology to answer more dreams and problems, but technology for the sake of technology never succeeds, it just excites some geeks. As I said above, Apple succeed because they start with the problem and bring technology in to solve it. A good example of this is NFC - it's being added to phones but there is no reason to do so and there is no current problem it solves. You could argue (and probably will...) that it will take off when there is sufficient device support, but still nobody has identified a problem that it solves. This eyeball control isn't trying to solve a problem that actually exists and so will be a commercial failure. I agree it's kind of cool for a minute, no disputing that, but it's not a product unless they do something smart like aiming it at disabled people who need eyeball input. Unfortunately, as I said, the addition of the button rules out those people as customers so it would still fail in its current form.

        2. Lusty

          Re: pointless

          But having said that, thanks for explaining the downvote. At least I know where you're coming from.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: pointless

            Actually, I hadn't downvoted you... (Not that I recall, at least, it is Monday after all)

  4. Silverburn
    Windows

    ...will they detect my eyes rolling, head shaking and audible tutting and sighing?

    1. JDX Gold badge

      It says one system detects finger motions rather than eyes so presumably you'll have to be careful when you swear at the PC in case it turns itself off.

    2. tirk
      Windows

      Re ...will they detect my eyes rolling...

      Sure.

      Clippy pops up and says "It looks like you were hoping to do some work!" Then laughs manically.

  5. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    But I always glare at my windows box

    Doesn't achieve much, I must say.

    1. Daniel von Asmuth
      Joke

      The men who glare at stoats

      Staring might cause your Window to unexpectedly shut down.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Winking

    Yeah as others have mentioned above they should take winking as a click.

    A right wink = Right click

    A left wink = Left click

    A blink = CTRL+ALT+DELETE X2

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Winking

      Actually now I think more isn't winking/blinking already used for special disabled interfaces, along the same lines as Prof. Hawking?

      Voice control is already built into Windows (7 anyway) for simple commands.

  7. Newt_Othis

    String

    A while back I mused over a simple/cheap way to convert traditional non-touchscreen monitors to something able to control Win 8.

    My system involved a series of spring-loaded pulleys (attached on the edge of the screen) and lengths of string looped around your finger. Moving the finger would result in movement in the pulleys which, in turn, transmit the data to the PC.

    Obviously, clicking is an issue, so a third string is attached to the thumb to facilitate this. Additional strings can be added for advanced functions (zooming, scrolling etc).

  8. Prof Denzil Dexter
    FAIL

    long live the mouse

    'cos all of this spaff is a stupid show off gimmick.

    mind you, i'd love to see a "take your kinect to work" day. :D

  9. Gary F

    Good news if you have aching wrists

    I have RSI and possibly CTS too, so something like this is a positive step forwards as I've been wearing out my wrists for the last 25 years - by using a mouse, which is not a pet name for anything else. There are lots of people like me who are in constant pain when using a mouse.

    Once I tried a head tracking device to control the mouse (works a bit like the PS3 Move except you just put a silver sticker on your forehead!) but I developed neck pain as a result from constant, tiny head movements!

  10. Crisp

    For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials

    Now this means that you have to sit infuriatingly still if you want to keep listening to the same programme.

  11. big_Jim

    Tiles?

    I've stopped glaring at them already as I've found a hidden feature called "desktop"

  12. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    FAIL

    What

    Happens when the office hunk/beauty(delete as for your sexual taste) walks past your cubicle and your eyes wander off to follow them instead of the $200 000 000 CAD project you are suppossed to be designing.......

  13. MrT

    Google Glance (TM)...

    ... Google pioneering ad revenue from a swift look.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder if....

    It tracks your eyes, while you go, "OH Noooooooooooooooooo" and bang your head on the keyboard several times.

    I wonder how the UI programmers got recognising that gesture in.

  15. Adam 1

    so

    If you roll your eyes, can you get the start menu back?

  16. Clyde

    eyes staring

    would be perfect for my dog - she stares and stares when she wants something - takes sideways glances to show me what she's thinking about

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