Tobii, a technology company from Sweden, has revealed a laptop under the brand of Lenovo, which is operated with an innovative technology, thereby allowing the users to operate the whole laptop and all its functions through different movements of the eyeballs.
A demonstration of the robust technology was given at the CeBIT’s annual technology event in Hanover by the Stockholm based company Tobii. A prototype eye-operated system was presented whereby the cursor on the screen moved in sync with the movement of the eyeball (in line of sight).
The technology behind this breakthrough improvement in controlling computers and laptops is that infrared rays are pointed to the eyes or face of the user and any movements of the eyeballs are processed by a camera. These movements of the eyeballs are interpreted by computer software and then, accordingly, lead to the movement of the cursor on the screen.
The above mentioned infrared lights and camera reside on a small strip at the bottom of the LCD screen of the computer or laptop.
Tobii states that the operation of the computer or laptop is as if the computer system understands your visual actions; you glance at a desktop shortcut and a program gets launched. Users can even zoom into the maps or pictures and centre them on their working screen area with their visual movements.
Interestingly, the computer knows when you are not looking at the computer and thus automatically dims the computer screen to increase the battery timing.
The manufacturer states that this kind of eye-controlled maneuvering of computer systems can prove very quick as compared to the movements by hands. One can speedily switch between different open windows as well as browse the documents and emails by using intuitive ways.
The whole idea of controlling computers through visual movements was put forward in a research project which was undertaken by the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology and thus in 2001 Tobii was founded for this purpose.