Mice? Touchscreens? Hand gestures? Psh, too oldschool. The Swedish company Tobii Technology allows users to control their computers without even having to touch anything; just think and look, and the computer obeys your commands. This is by far the coolest thing CES has produced so far this year, although we are only in day one, I don't see anything that could surpass the awesomeness of this technology.
The technology comes from a 2001 research project conducted at Stocholm University first by Tobii's founders. However, with its debut at CES, "gaze interaction" could soon go mainstream, showing up in all sorts of tech products, from computers to tablets.
In their own booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Tobii Technology showed off their revolutionary technology. The software was hooked up to Microsoft's Windows 8 OS, and people could sit down and just by looking, could swipe through Windows screens, "thumb" through photos, and even press the smallest of buttons.
I hear you; what if your gaze or mind wanders? Tobii has a solution for that. For instance, when choosing what screen you want to go to, you can press the Windows key, which brings up the tiles you have (this is Windows 8 remember), and then just look at the tile you want to open and when you release the key, the tile will open. This prevents any eye-wandering to interfere with your workflow. Since just looking at something to open is a lot quicker than having to move your mouse over it, this gaze technology has a bright future. For pretty much everything, you have to release a button before it actually does the action.
What about the gamers? On one of the demo computers was running the classic arcade game Asteroid, but instead of using a joystick or even a mouse, you could simply stare at the asteroid you wanted to blow up and a few seconds later, kabham, it's gone.
So how does this technology work? It works by shooting near-infrared lights at your eyes, and uses two IR cameras to capture "the reflective point of retina plus the glint off the cornea" according to a CNET report.
While this technology is very cool, one can't help but wonder how expensive this will cost. Tobii requires hardware that current PCs don't have, and the demo at CES is a custom-built laptop.
The people in Princeton are amazed by this revolutionary technology. Forgetting the price tag, most people were amazed by how this technology has the potential to increase work speed by an unestimable amount.
What do you think of this technology? Once it becomes mainstream, will it change the way we interact with our computers forever? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
To the left, you can watch a short video about Tobii from Wired.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Digg!
Stay informed about the latest technology news by subscribing to my newsletter, Twitter, and (or) RSS updates at the bottom of the page!
Like this article? Don’t forget to share!
Comments