Web Browsing without a Mouse
Eye-tracking user interface could provide an alternative
From: Technology Review - May/June 2007 - page 102

Source: "EyePoint: Practical Pointing and Selection Using Gaze and Keyboard"
Manu Kumar et al.
CHI 2007, April 28-May 3, 2007, San Jose, CA

Results: Stanford University PhD student Manu Kumar has developed an
easy-to-use alternative to the computer mouse: a system that allows a person
to point, click, and perform everyday mouse actions by looking at a
computer's monitor and tapping a key on its keyboard.  

Why it matters: User interfaces that use eye-tracking technology have been
around for many years and are sometimes used by disabled people. But so far,
they haven't been easy enough to use to displace existing technologies.  

Methods: The technology uses standard eye-tracking hardware: embedded in the
bezel of a computer monitor are infrared light sources and a camera that
captures both the movement of the user's pupil and the reflection of the
infrared light off his or her cornea. The user looks at, say, a Web link and
then depresses a "hot key" on the keyboard. The area of the screen that's
being looked at becomes magnified. Then the user narrows his or her focus
within the magnified region and releases the hot key, effectively clicking
through to the link. 

Next step: In studies in which participants were asked to type using the
keyboard but move the cursor using the eye-tracking system, Kumar recorded an
error rate close to 20 percent. He says many errors occur when users think
they are focusing on a target that's actually in their peripheral vision, and
the eye-tracking technology instead picks up the area they're really looking
at. Kumar has developed algorithms to compensate for these errors. 

From: http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=18254&ch=infotech

Links:
Using EyePoint
http://hci.stanford.edu/research/GUIDe/usingEyePoint.html

EyePoint software improves vision-based input
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/05/eyepoint-software-improves-vision-based-input/

How Useful is EyePoint?
http://martinkennethbayne.typepad.com/acoustic_enhancement/2007/03/how_useful_is_e.html

Point And Click, With Your Eyes
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5155136

An Alternative to the Computer Mouse
http://armoks.com/2007/03/04/an-alternative-to-the-computer-mouse-a-user-interface-that-tracks-eye-movement-may-provide-an-alternate-way-to-use-a-computer/

Manu Kumar
http://hci.stanford.edu/research/GUIDe/people.html

Stanford University's EyePoint: Web Surfing with Eye Gaze
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_and_wireless&articleId=297900&taxonomyId=15&intsrc=kc_feat