Eye-Tracking Software Opens Online Worlds to People with Disabilities
From: NASA Tech Briefs Insider - 07/15/2009

Technology that allows gamers to control game functions with only their eyes
is helping to open virtual worlds to people with severe motor disabilities.
The gaming-with-gaze software is one of several applications to emerge from
COGAIN, a European Union-funded network of excellence aimed at coordinating
efforts from developers of new communications tools for people with
disabilities using gaze and eye-tracking technology. 

For people suffering from conditions such as cerebral palsy, motor neurone
disease (MND), or so-called locked-in syndromes, being able to move around
and interact in a virtual environment is a liberating experience. According
to researchers, until now, gaze-tracking technology has mainly been used for
typing with visual keyboards, for browsing the Web, and other text-based
applications. The new software uses eye movements to control an avatar in a
virtual environment, allowing people with disabilities to appear and interact. 

The software works in combination with commercially available eye trackers
that use cameras to monitor users' eye movements as they gaze at a computer
screen. A visual heat map was created in order to trigger commands depending
on where users look. Different patterns of eye movements are translated into
gaze gestures that are used to trigger movement or action commands.  

Glancing to the left or right will turn the virtual character in that
direction, for example, while staring at the center of the screen will make
the avatar run forwards. Because the software is independent of the game
itself, it can be used to play virtually any game that requires mouse and
keyboard inputs. Communicating with other players is made possible by gazing
at letters on an onscreen visual keyboard, while different combinations of
gestures can be used to perform different actions. 

Read the entire article at:
http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&BrowsingType=Features&ID=90668

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

Gaming-with-gaze software download
http://www.cogain.org/downloads/leisure-applications/snapclutch/