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Gaze Gaming Tech Promises Faster Eye-Controlled Interaction
NewScientist is reporting that further research is progressing on new types of user input devices. Specifically, "gaze gaming," a technology that promises faster interaction using only your eyes. Currently technology for sight-based interaction is far too slow for practical applications in things like gaming. "Eye-gaze systems bounce infrared light from LEDs at the bottom of a computer monitor and track a person's eye movements using stereo infrared cameras. This setup can calculate where on a screen the user is looking with an accuracy of about 5 mm."
While your finger sits on a touch sensor (unmoving, relaxing) your eyes act as the mouse curser. You blink to click. Perfect interaction.
I always wondered if you could do more precise gaze detection by looking at a person's retina. Could you detect where they were looking on the screen precisely enough to eliminate the need for a mouse cursor (say, within one character space)? How large is the area of sharpest vision? /frank
And the worms ate into his brain.
at least for FPS.
Otherwise, mostly a Gee Whiz! tech, though I suppose it could have useful applications for the disabled. But I wonder if we won't see wrist-based Repetitive Motion problems transferred to increased eyestrain...
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It would be really useful to be able to move the cursor only by looking at the point on the sceen I want it to be. That could save my wrist from carpal tunnel syndrome and it could also incement my productivity by making the pointer go quicker to where I want it to be. I hope it will have pixel accuracy, but even if it does not, I am sure, time a few years, it could become the perfect input device.
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
I doubt RSEye (to coin a term) would be a problem, given that your eyes are constantly in use in everyday life, and very much used to moving small distances repeatedly. Chances are that your eyes are following your mouse cursor anyway, so the net increase in eye movement is zero, with the added bonus of avoiding repetitive mouse clicks.
Eyes are designed for frequent, small movements. Fingers aren't.
This means Nintendo's next generation of console will be called the sii?
There is going to have to be a very accurate system of "disabling tracking". I mean, take the FPS example. How often am I going to be spinning around when I glance down for a quick ammo count?
Or, if you look up to check your HP/MP in an MMO, will you be randomly changing targets, or worse, disengaging them to move?
Its an interesting idea, definitely useful for somethings, but it shouldn't ever take the place of a mechanical pointing device like a mouse or trackball.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
Some of us need glasses just to see up to the screen. How will this work with an additional semi-reflective layer interspersed?
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For single-player games, this device could possibly enable some sort of selective rendering technique, where the objects sitting at the focal point are rendered in much more detail than the periphery.
Now we can farther yet remove gaming from pesky physical activity. It's no longer even a matter of good hand/eye coordination: just good eye coordination.
This seems like a good idea in theory, but in reality we rarely keep our eyes fixed on any point with all that much precision. Our eyes are always shifting around to get a bigger picture of things most of the time, even when we're trying to hold a steady gaze on something. Trying to precisely control a game, or anything else, with one's eyes seems to me like much more trouble than it's worth.
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Forget "the great equalizer". With my lazy eye I'll be staring up at the heavens spinning in circles all game long ... that is all game until my head gets blown off repeatedly.
I remember the pepsi commercials back in the late 70's/early 80's.
They tracked where guys were looking and it was not at the product.
In fact, they frequently didn't remember the product.
Very popular commercial of a girl exiting the water in a little suit holding a can of pepsi.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Yes, and eventually they'll create a console that can read your intentions without any conscious effort on your part at all - all you have to do is exist.
This console will be called the Bii.
Imagine this:
When you focus on something, more info about it slowly appears.
Either it becomes more detailed then the suroundings, or details like health, stamina, or whatever.
It could be quite impressive.
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Dude, this is exactly how they almost took over the Enterprise that one time when Wesely came home from the Academy on vacation. I wouldn't trust it.
Cogito Ergo Sum
Imagine using this feature to render highly detailed 3D images only where the user is actually looking. The peripheral vision is almost useless, the actual area that does most of the seeing is in the center of the retina. The brain fills in the blanks and keeps a mental image of what you are seeing that gets updated through rpid eye movement. With a smart setup this could be translated in a huge screen that appears to have a large resolution in every direction while keeping the processing power requirements still accessible. The mouse is a great interface, I don't see any reason to replace that just yet.
... but soon, they can frag.