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Do It Yourself Eye Tracking

Posted on Apr 20, 2010 | 0 comments

Do It Yourself Eye Tracking News about breakthroughs and newfound uses for eye tracking creates a lot of excitement and interest in the technology. Unfortunately, the eye tracking industry has not reached the point where you can just walk into your local Best Buy and purchase an eye tracker to play with. The current commercially available eye-trackers cost thousands or even tens-of-thousands of dollars, which may be feasible for a well-funded research project but not for recreational purposes. But a group of university students at Imperial College in London has developed an eye tracker using off-the-shelf hardware that falls within the “college student’s budget.”

As part of a student project, the team constructed an eye tracking device from store-bought materials including glasses, a webcam, and infrared lights, in total costing only £25. They adapted the simple open source game, Pong, so the paddle that slides up and down is controlled by eye movement. The wearable device is plugged into a laptop, and the player’s eye movements are synced to the game by a software program to move the paddle to hit a ricocheting ball as it bounces around the screen. While this prototype is nothing fancy, there is a lot of optimism about the capabilities of future versions.

According to the team’s supervisor, Dr. Aldo Faisal, the device has enormous potential:

“We hope to eventually make the technology available online so anyone can have a go at creating new applications and games with it. We could ultimately provide entertainment options for people who have very little movement. In the future, people might be able to blink to turn pages in an electronic book, or switch on their favorite song, with the roll of an eye.”

Further development of the project has already begun. The eye tracker, currently only able to track the movement of one eye, will eventually have binocular capabilities, monitoring the movement of both eyes. They would like to see their software being used to create new games and applications all over the world. Their ultimate vision, however, is to see the technology turn into something that will improve and enhance the lives of the disabled, even if it just gives them the ability to “become gamers for the first time.”

We will hopefully continue to see “do-it-yourself” eye tracking projects that will become a more reasonable alternative to overpriced ones that are currently the only option.

Playing “Pong” with the blink of an eye: low cost technology could enable people with severe physical disabilities to become ‘gamers’ for the first time

Do It Yourself Eye Tracking

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