Eye Tracking Software

Eye trackers combine a camera with an infra-red light source that illuminates the eye with bursts of invisible infra-red light. Some of this infra-red light disappears into the pupil (the dark opening in the centre of the iris), and some of it bounces back off the iris (the coloured part of the eye), the cornea (the clear part at the front of the eye), the eyelid or the surrounding skin. All these different areas reflect different amounts of infra-red light, which is picked up by the camera. By analyzing the reflections using a lot of math it is then possible to work out where the eye is pointing. Using computer software the eye acts as a mouse for your computer.

 Lenovo, a Chinese PC-maker, has made 20 prototype laptops with Tobii eye trackers built into a bulge in the top of the lid. The Eye Tribe, a start-up based in Copenhagen, has modified a tablet computer so that it can be controlled using eye movements.

Another use is in e-readers. Researchers at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence and the University of Kaiserslautern have created a program called Text 2.0 that uses eye tracking to analyse how a displayed text is being read. If the reader lingers on a foreign word, Text 2.0 can display its translation. Lingering on a word and then sweeping one’s gaze to the right margin calls up a definition. If the reader starts to skim, the software dims common words. The program could be used by authors to see which passages caused readers to stumble or skip ahead.

Pioneered by Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, it sounds a warning if an eyelid sags, blinking speed slows, the shifting of the driver’s gaze becomes sluggish or his head tips forward. This may be able to stop almost all accidents due to the driver falling asleep. 

Inevitably, eye tracking has military applications too. American flight instructors are using eye-tracking gear provided by Polhemus, a firm based in Vermont, to monitor the eye movements of pilots in flight simulators. The equipment can reveal whether trainees are scanning gauges in the right sequence, or skipping one altogether.

The ability to use eye tracking to control a computer has obvious advantages for disabled people, but fans of the technology believe it could become a widely used input technology for the able-bodied, too. Moving an on-screen cursor with a glance is much faster than using a mouse, for example. Tobii is also working with console-makers and video-game publishers to develop new markets for its technology.

Eye tracking can be used by marketing sectors of many large companies, they can use this eye tracking software to find which product label (soda, websites, magazines, electronics, books, etc.) attracts a consumer's attention the most. They can even judge what kind of writing attracts a consumer's attention the most. They can then look at all this information and judge which design they should use which will attract a consumer's attention the most. Refer to the pictures on the right, the RED indicates a lot of concentration on the particular spot while GREEN indicates less.

Please refer to the following link for a video on Eye Tracking Software:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEtmwwRMJwY

1. Eye tracking software may have a huge effect on the future of technology. Eye tracking may become a huge influence on how all companies market their products. They can do online tests to see which designs and/or colours attract peoples attention and then use those to create their product designs.
2. Technologies may also develop to use our laptop webcams to track our eye movements and we may even be able to use our eyes as a computer mouse and blink to click on a certain spot. Eye tracking may prove to be very useful for technology and, if it works well, it will make our lives much easier. 
3. Eye tracking software can be used for safety purposes to. It can be used to determine if a driver is felling asleep while driving and can alert them if they are.
4. Although there are many, many uses for eye tracking, another one may be for police officers. “Eyes can tell you so much—it’s pretty amazing,” says the firm’s founder, William Torch from Eye-Com Corporation based in Nevada. Police may be able to use this software to determine if an individual is under the influence of certain substances judging by their eyes (and pupils).
5. Eye tracking may also have uses in real aircraft. In particular, it could be used to aim weapons just by looking at a target. At the moment a pilot aims by turning and tilting his head, the orientation of which is determined using helmet-mounted sensors. But pilots cannot always control their head movements during high-G manoeuvres so looking at targets may become a very effective way to aim at targets.

Eye tracking technologies have many benefits which have been mentioned in the previous sections but here are some:

1. Disabled People who have lost the function of their hands can still use a computer such as Stephen Hawking who controls his computer and can even write with his eyes and his computer (with eye tracking technology). Stephen Hawking is an amazing man who has even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom despite having a disease related to ALS. He is almost entirely paralyzed and uses a speech generating device to talk. Although faced with this enormous obstacle, Stephen Hawking continues to amaze so many people with all of his accomplishments.  For more on Stephen Hawking, please click HERE. 
2. Eye tracking may become a huge influence on how all companies market their products. 
3. Technologies may also develop to use our laptop webcams to track our eye movements and we may even be able to use our eyes as a computer mouse and blink to click on a certain spot. 
4. Please visit any of the following links for even more benefits to eye tracking technology

There are not many problems whatsoever associated with eye tracking technologies however, if eye tracking becomes too widely used for commercial purposes, we will be exposed to many different new types of advertising which will all compete for our attention. This may become overwhelming and annoying.

Also, if we start to use eye tracking too much, we may become very lazy. If we use eye tracking to control our televisions, computers and even home robots (maybe in the future) we will no longer need to accomplish tasks by getting up off the couch and doing things on our own.

Also, eye tracking can interfere with the naturalness of a test session. The ideal eye tracking system is completely unobtrusive to participants. Eye tracking systems have evolved from very intrusive systems that involved participants’ wearing headgear and having their heads immobilized to almost completely unobtrusive systems that look like a regular computer monitor. 

Fourthly, Although the cost of eye tracking hardware and software has come down, it is still somewhat expensive. The cost of a new eye tracking system is $40,000 to $60,000. Rental prices can be up to $3000 per day.