Hands On With Tobii's Eye-Tracking Laptop

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BY LANCE ULANOFF

Forget waving at the screen, I want my computer to look into my eyes and know what I want to do.

That is, after all, the experience of using a Tobii Gaze eye-tracking technology-equipped laptop. Over the past two years, Tobii has inched inexorably closer to commercial availability. When I tried out the tech at CES almost two years ago, the infrared technology was hastily affixed to a standard laptop and felt more like an experiment than a real consumer solution. Even so, the experience ofshooting asteroids with my eyes was compelling and I’ve watched Tobii’s development with growing anticipation.

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Now, as I and many of my tech peers experiment with Leap Motion and use gestures to control Macs and Windows PCs, I can’t help but compare what it feels like to run a Windows 8 computer with little more than my eyes and an occasional tap on the keyboard or touchpad.

Tobii arrived in my office last week with one of its first Windows 8 laptop prototypes with integrated Tobii technology. The company has a Chinese firm retrofitting Samsung Ultrabooks with the Tobii reader and the result is surprisingly seamless.

Based in Virginia (though the headquarters are in Sweden), Tobii is, like Leap Motion, also working on its own standalone module. It’s called REX and can be added to any laptop or desktop. Introduced at CES 2013, REX plugs into any standard USB port and adds gaze control capabilities to any Windows-based PC. While Tobii promised that REX will eventually offer Mac support, it has yet to announce any plans for integrated Tobii support on Apple’s Macs and MacBooks.

Getting Started

Unlike Leap Motion, which can pick out your hands and fingers almost immediately, Tobii still requires some calibration. I sat down in a normal position in front of the Tobii-fitted Samsung laptop and stared at the screen (Tobii’s infrared readers sit almost hidden in the bezel just below the screen).

On the display was a roughly one-inch orange dot with a tiny black dot in the center of it. I was instructed to look at the dot as it moved about the screen. It started it one corner, dashed to the opposite one, then diagonally to the lower left one, and so on until it had hit roughly nine spots on the screen.

With that done, Tobii finished building a 3D model of my eyes and could watch and see where I was looking on screen. 

Even if I turned away and turned back, Tobii instantly picked up my gaze

Even if I turned away and turned back, Tobii instantly picked up my gaze.

Tobii’s software adds some off-screen controls, essentially extra screen real-estate that allow you to glance just to the left or right of the screen to access mail, music, documents and more. This worked well, though it was slightly unintuitive to look off-screen.

On the prototype, Tobii setup a few keyboard controls that work in concert with the gaze control: One was for stopping and starting auto-scroll. Normally, when you’re looking down on, say, a website, Tobii will automatically start scrolling the screen — it scrolls up when you look up, too. A tap of this key paused that action. Another other key let me see where on screen I was actually looking (at least according to Tobii, which was always right). Tobii helpfully labeled these keys so I could find them more easily.

The laptop also came equipped with the latest Synaptics touchpad. When Tobii-equipped laptops do ship, the company expects that people will use the touchpad and not the keyboard.

In an email to Mashable, a company representatives explained, “What is profound about this combination… is that it provides ‘touchscreen’ capabilities without actually having to reach up and touch the screen. Instead, your eyes are in reality touching the screen and selections and actions are completed with effortless taps and swipes on the touchpad.” Leaving aside the slightly unfortunate mental image of your eyes touching anything, this does sound like a new form of human/computer interface.

Made for Each Other

Windows 8’s modern design interface seems particularly well suited to gaze control. The screen scrolls from left to right and is comprised of a number of large app squares. I would simply stare at square and then hit enter to activate the app. Tobii never missed my gaze. Whatever I was looking at, the eye-tracking tech would launch it.

The gaze-tracking technology is not only hard-wired into the laptop, but Tobii officials told me it’s “hard-wired” into Internet Explorer as well. Perhaps this is why gaze control worked so smoothly with IE10 (in the modern environment).

NavigatingMashable’s website with my eyes was easy and satisfying

Navigating Mashable’s website with my eyes was easy and satisfying. First I would look up and down on the screen and Tobii auto-scrolled with my gaze and then would pause on a story when I held my eyes on it. If I hit enter or tapped the touchpad, the correct story always launched.

Look Versus Wave

I like Leap Motion and am excited by the possibility of Minority Report-style computer control, but let’s face it: Holding your hands up in the air like that for a while can get tiring. At least with your eyeballs, you’re pretty much doing exactly what you’d be doing anyway: looking at what you want to engage with or control.

Admittedly, when I first tried using Tobii, I did feel like I was straining my eyes, looking almost too intently at everything on screen. But with this latest iteration and the more I used Tobii, the less taxing it became. I could truly imagine controlling a computer with my eyes.

Tobii has no plans to deliver its own commercial laptops. Instead, it’s working with OEMs on integration. The company promises that the pass-along costs to consumers will be negligible. The good news is that a REX add-on could arrive this year (developers can already buy it for a hefty $995). The bad news is that Tobii is only making 5,000 of these limited-edition devices available this fall. (You can sign up for it here.)

As with the laptop, Tobii’s ultimate plan is not to deliver its own commercial REX. Instead it’ll work with other manufacturers to create affordable eye-tracking peripherals.

In case you’re wondering, Tobii is also working on eye-tracking control for tablets. Company reps promised to come back soon and let me try out one of those as well.

Are you ready to control your computer with your eyes, or will your hold to your mouse and keyboard for as long as humanly possible? Let us know in the comments.

Image: Mashable