Man develops headset with eye-tracking control

The device, a patented prototype, was first built as a thesis project when Christopher was a student. It features a forward-facing 3D depth-mapping camera on the top, along with dual eye-tracking devices pointing in at the wearer's eyes.

This technology allows users of electric wheelchairs to navigate without their hands. The technology would also allow users to communicate to a robotic platform when they would like to use an object, such as a glass of water.

The headset is connected to a software on a linked computer that creates a 3D map of the environment in front of the user, based on the camera's output. By combining this data with the output of the eye-trackers, the direction of the user's gaze can be deduced, allowing the software to determine what they're looking at within the 3D map. This allows the technology to perform daily tasks to help the user, such as activating the controls of an electric wheelchair, or instructing a robotic arm to grab an object such as a bottle of water – all the user would have to do is look at those things.

"My interest in this technology grew out of seeing how my mother-in-law struggled with eye-tracking devices as an ALS patient. The latest version of our device can be worn as a pair of ski goggles with cameras on top and eye-trackers embedded in the lenses, making it very easy for patients to use it over long periods of time as it moves with them”, the inventor explained.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2Zidry8
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