The laptop you can control with your eyes

The Gadget Show  Wednesday 02 March 2011

Now there's an eye-opener...

Genuinely exciting new tech doesn’t come around that often, but here’s something that certainly fits the bill: a laptop that you can control simply by moving your eyes.

Developed jointly by Lenovo and Swedish firm Tobii Technology, the prototype is currently wowing exhibitors at the CeBIT computing expo in Hanover. By directing two infrared lights at your peepers, the laptop is able to detect eye movement, and convert it into typical mouse commands.

Looking at the bottom of the screen, for example, makes the Taskbar appear, while gazing at a specific word in a text document for a length of time will launch a definition. More basic features such as scrolling and selecting are also covered, and the screen can even be set to dim if you don’t look at it for a certain time.

“The Tobii laptop prototype is proof that our eye tracking technology is mature enough to be used in standard computer interfaces,” Tobii boss Henrik Eskilsson says.

For now there are just 20 of these prototype machines in existence, but Eskilsson says the attention being cast on the technology through demonstrations at trade shows like CeBIT should help speed along eye-control tech’s development.

“To reach a state where the technology is part of the average computer, we need to make it smaller and cheaper,” he said. “We believe that this can be realised in a couple of years by partnering with the right manufacturer.”