An Affordable Future for Eye Tracking in Sight
From: IST Results - 04/03/2006

The IST-funded COGAIN project is exploring current eye-tracking technologies
in an attempt to standardize the available products and bring costs down,
ultimately delivering more independence to people with disabilities. "It's a
big project and it's novel in that it brings together all the interested
parties," said project coordinator Kari-Jouko Raiha, a computer science
professor at the Finnish University of Tampere. The project could help people
who have lost all capacity for motion except in their eyes, which become
their only means of communication. The project could also improve the quality
of life for those stricken with Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, or
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Existing equipment at the cutting edge
operates with impressive spatial and temporal resolution, though the camera,
computer, and software to integrate the two are very expensive, says Raiha.
By partnering with manufacturers, COGAIN expects to bring down the cost of
equipment and standardize control of the proprietary software so that anyone
can develop applications. COGAIN could also develop its own applications,
such as a new method of text entry, like the system being developed at the
University of Cambridge, a project partner, that enables users to select
letters as they move across the screen by fixing their gaze on them. Other
researchers are exploring software to manipulate environmental controls and
steer a wheelchair by tracking eye movements. While the project's immediate
aim is to improve the quality of life for the disabled, the project could
have an impact on commercial applications beyond health care, such the
rapidly growing video-game industry, or in cars to alert drivers when they
become drowsy. "Though we wouldn't be pursuing these specialized
applications," Raiha said, "we are more interested in potential mainstream
applications."  

Read the entire article at:
http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/81171

Links:
Kari-Jouko Räihä
http://www.cs.uta.fi/~kjr/eng/

COGAIN Project
http://www.cogain.org/

About COGAIN
http://www.cogain.org/about_cogain