EYE TRACKING TABLET

  

Eye-tracking technology can make using a PC slightly more "natural," reading your eye movements to, say, scroll without needing to move a mouse. But for the disabled, it can be revelatory, allowing people with disabilities to use virtually all the abilities of a computer without ever touching it.
The Tobii EyeMobile brings complete eye control to Windows tablets. It's an oblong-shaped sensor called the PCEye Go that attaches underneath the tablet via a bracket. Once it's in place and the eye-tracking software is installed, all the user needs to do is calibrate the sensor (which takes about a minute) and it's eyeball-ready.

Users will see an eye-control nav along the side, similar to Windows 8's Charms menu. There are icons for normal PC functions — left click, right click, scroll, etc. — and the menu is fully customizable. To do something, just look at it and the icon lights up; then move your eyes to the screen and you'll see the area where you're looking zoom in for a second, so you know exactly where you're "clicking."

The big puzzle piece the EyeMobile unlocks is eye control of Windows 8 gestures. To perform them, you simply look at the "overlay" icon on the side, and a screen appears that lets you do things like call up the Charms menu (which moves the device's nav to the other side), see active apps or return to the Start screen quickly. Tobii lets you tweak the precision/delay settings for the zoom and overlay, so as users get better at using the EyeMobile, the device can keep up with them.

I got a chance to try out the EyeMobile on a Surface Pro, and was impressed beyond what I've seen with previous versions of Tobii's eye control. Like any new interface (hello, Leap Motion), it takes getting used to, but with some concentration — and accurate calibration — it's very precise. However, that could be because it was the first time I used a Tobii device without my glasses (I wore contacts).
One thing that bothered me a little: I'd prefer if the EyeMobile nav didn't mask anything on the screen — right now content you're looking at is cut off on the right side by the menu. It would be great if the screen could just shrink slightly horizontally, giving a complete (if slightly smaller) Windows 8 experience. Perhaps that'll be possible with Windows 8.1, which provides more screen flexibility.

Unfortunately, the EyeMobile isn't cheap, costing $3,900 for the sensor and $395 for the bracket (which fits tablets from 7 to about 13 inches). Worse, insurance companies tend not to cover devices like this since they don't deem them essential for a disabled person to function. But considering how important it is today for anyone to be able to interact with the digital realm, that's probably a policy that needs rethinking.

Resource : Friendship Spot