MouseVision

MOVE THE CURSOR HANDS-FREE!!!
Just turn your head and the cursor will follow it!!! No gear on your head!!!
Our software translates user's head motion into the motion of the cursor on
the screen, by processing the image from a USB video camera. This is what
VisualMouse does as a pointing device.  

GIVE COMMANDS HANDS-FREE!!! 
VisualMouse can also function as a gesture recognition device. For example,
the user can define 4 commands, and then use head gestures to give the
commands, freeing the hands for other things. The gestures are the turns of
the head: left-and-back,right-and-back, up-and-back, down-and-back. Game
players - take notice! 

ONE MORE POINTER IN THE GAME!!!
VisualMouse can control either the same cursor as the regular mouse does, or
an additional one. Game developers take notice - use one more pointing device
in your upcoming games! (For example, one for aiming/shooting, controlled by
a manual mouse or joystick, and the other for hiding/ducking, controlled by
head motion.) 

VisualMouse can be used with any USB video-conference camera (including the
cheap ones) and Windows 98/ME/2000. We intend to give VisualMouse free to
handicapped people, with no time limit. 

You can download a free beta version of VisualMouse Version .96 software
from: http://www.geocities.com/lev_lv/downloads/VMSetup_0_96.zip 

http://www.geocities.com/lev_lv/

Contributed by Bruce Fleming

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Comments:

Hello:

Well you know, being in the head tracking business I just had to go out and
get a Logitech USB camera to try out the software. 

I have installed it on a Win2K machine with an Athlon 800 and 512MB RAM. The
program takes about 15% of the system resources at low resolution and about
50% at high resolution. The concept of the program is good and there is much
promise in this area of technology (using a simple USB camera and software).
I have to say that the cursor motion is quite lacking for a person with
disabilities, as it tends to require uneven head movement and a lot of it.
The motion appears to be controlled by a windowing box that is attracted to
the area of the image that has the most motion. This works well for
discriminating what "subject" to track. This window is then analyzed with a
motion tracking algorithm, probably optical flow, and the cursor position is
determined. The optical flow makes for uneven movement from side to side or
faster going right than left.  

Overall, I will be downloading new versions to check the progress, but it
really can't be compared to any type of head tracker we are all familiar
with. Get or borrow a web cam and give it a try, it is fun. 

Jim Richardson
NaturalPoint
President
Eye Control Technologies Inc
541.753.6645
541.753.6689 fax
jim@eyecontrol.com
http://www.naturalpoint.com

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I think some folks have already worked out the bugs on this approach. I saw
it at Closing the Gap. Of course, it utilized a high-end Sony digital camera
and a high-end video capture card. Cost was only $2,300 for a device that
worked about as well as the $300 option. Lots to pay for no dots on the
forehead. Interesting business, this. And surprising to see how brutal the
competition has gotten in this particular segment of AT. 

Ray Grott