Researchers develop low-cost system for eye-tracking computer control

While most eye-tracking software is pretty cool, it's usually out of the price range of the average person or those who could benefit the most, such as those with spinal cord injuries.

Researchers at Imperial College London took it as a personal challenge to make something more accessible to everyone. They have built eye-tracking software that lets you play Pong and write email, all for about $60 in parts.

"This is frugal innovation," said Dr. Aldo Faisal, lecturer in Neurotechnology at Imperial's Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Computing and author on the paper. "Developing smarter software and piggy-backing existing hardware to create devices that can help people worldwide independent of their healthcare and circumstances."

Called the 'GT3D' system, Phys.org says that the system was built using two fast video game console cameras attached to a pair of glasses just outside the line of vision. The cameras snap pictures of the eye, figure out where the pupil is pointing, and when calibrated correctly can figure out where a person is looking on the screen. Using more refined calibrations, researchers are able to determine the three-dimensional gaze of the test subject, which the researchers hope could allow people in wheelchairs to operate it by looking where they want to go.

The system uses one watt of power, and can connect to Windows or Linux-based computers via Wi-Fi or USB.

You can see the system in action in this video of a subject playing Pong:

Engadget reports that test subjects were able to score within 20 per cent of what an able-bodied person could when playing Pong using the tracking software after 10 minutes of training. For other operations on the computer, users can 'click' the mouse by winking or blinking.