Tobii adds eye-control to Lenovo laptop

Swedish firm Tobii Technology has been showing off prototype eye-control system which moves a computer's cursor to where the viewer is looking.

The system works by shining infra-red lights at the user and tracking the reflections from the eyeballs on twin cameras, which predict where the eye is looking. The company has teamed up with Lenovo to build the technology into laptops for CeBIT 2011 and said the final product is reachable in two years.

The lights and cameras are built into an inch-wide strip across the inside bottom of the laptop and the processing unit is housed on the outer lid, roughly doubling the width of the computer's base. Tobii said that the technology was so far advanced that the user could even be wearing glasses and still have full cursor control.

"The prototype we are creating is like a concept car, not the product that comes to market," Sara Hyléen, head of PR at Tobii Technology told Frontline.

"Cost factors are one of the things we need to bring down but that's achievable. Form factor is also important, no-one wants a system that's bulky - but final product is reachable in two years."

The company currently uses eye-control technology in systems for researchers and the disabled and the cost of the equipment is around $12,000 at present. However, the costs are already falling rapidly and the technology needed is getting smaller and more powerful, so a valid price point and build was in sight.

01 Mar 2011