GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Inexpensive Eye-Tracking System Offers Hands-Free Computer Control

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 04-25-11 | Comments

While eye-tracking systems to control computers do exist, such systems are too expensive for most disabled persons to afford. Now a team of students has created an inexpensive version built into a tablet computer, on which users can access anything from solitaire to Skype without the use of their hands.

Disabled persons who do not have use of their hands or fingers have difficulties functionally using computers and cell phones. Eye-tracking systems do exist, but are usually too expensive for most to afford, particularly in remote areas of the world. Now, a team of students has designed an inexpensive eye-tracking system to enable disabled people to control tablet computers.

As the culminating project for a yearlong engineering course, students at Brigham Young University (BYU) created the eye-tracking system for EyeTech Digital Systems, an Arizona-based company that designs eye-tracking hardware and software.

Last year, a previous group of BYU students worked with EyeTech to improve basic eye-tracking systems. The goal for this year was to incorporate that technology into a tablet computer.

The student-built eye-tracking system is built into a small tablet PC. (Source: BYU)

�They had a lot to learn about how to put together a PC, but the final result speaks for itself,� said Robert Chappell, the CEO of EyeTech, according to a statement. �We�ve worked with the engineering capstones two years in a row now, and I noticed the same thing both years: the teams always come up with a lot of creative, sometimes crazy ideas at the beginning, but after three or four months they know what they need to do, and they implement it very well.�

The students� final product is a touch-screen tablet PC that runs Windows 7 and has the eye-tracking system built into its design. The conveniently-sized machine is just two inches thick, ten inches wide, and 14 inches long.

The computer first calibrates the eye-tracking system to a user�s eyes. Then, it moves the mouse to wherever the user is looking, and a blink equals a click. According to the students, the system can control anything �from solitaire to Skype.�

Other eye-tracking systems with such advanced functions usually cost upwards of $14,000. But because the students used off-the-shelf, readily available parts, their system cost under $1,500.

Users can access most features of a computer without the use of their hands. They can click simply by blinking. (Source: BYU)

The captain of the student team, Jedediah Nieveent, emphasized that the project was a rewarding learning experience.

�A lot of times in school you just work problems out of books,� he said in a statement. �But this allowed us to take what we learned and apply it to something in real life, something that can help a lot of people, and that�s really helped me.�

The students suspect that their technology could be expanded to have broader applications in engineering and even gaming.

Other members of the student team included Nathan Christensen, Clint Collins, Bryan Johnson, Vicky Lee and Scott Rice. Greg Bishop, a professor of mechanical engineering at BYU, was the team's faculty coach.