An affordable future for eye trackin...( An ambitious five-year project will att...),Health

The Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN) project will examine current state-of-the-art technologies, develop new software standards to extend the available products and research new applications for the technology based on end-users' real needs.

"It's a big project and it's novel in that it brings together all the interested parties," says Kari-Jouko Rih, Professor of Computer Science at the Finnish University of Tampere and IST-funded COGAIN project coordinator.

It's also important. Eye tracking technologies could transform the lives of tens of thousands of people across Europe. The most extreme example of how this technology is used is its ability to give voice to people who are 'locked-in', people who can only move their eyes and only communicate with their gaze, says Rih. "But it also has applications for people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis [ALS], also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, or Cerebral Palsy, or Multiple Sclerosis [MS]."

Currently state-of-the-art eye tracking equipment is very advanced, with an extremely high spatial and temporal resolution it can detect tiny movements in millisecond intervals. "The problem is that this equipment is very expensive about 20,000 for a top-of-the-range system," says Rih. COGAIN hopes to develop new equipment in cooperation with manufacturers that can provide sufficient resolution at a reasonable cost.

The basic eye-tracking system consists of a camera, a computer and software to provide an interface between the two. In an expensive system the camera uses an internal light source to create reflections on the eye. The camera tracks these reflections and uses them to move a cursor on the screen, for example. COGAIN hopes to provide the same functionality, tho
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Contact: Jernett Karensen
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IST Results
3-Apr-2006