Laptop
technology has been taken to another level following the unveiling of the world’s first eye-controlled machine.
Tobii, a Swedish company that develops eye tracking and control technology, has partnered
mobile maker
Lenovo to create a prototype
laptop computer that responds to the user’s eye movements like they were mouse clicks.
The functional
laptop prototype is being demonstrated this week at the CeBit tech fair in Hannover, Germany.
Tobii claims the eye-tracking
software lets you point, select, and scroll using just your eyes. For example, you can make the cursor appear, zoom in on pictures or maps, or browse e-mails and documents by simply staring at the screen in different ways.
The software could even be tweaked to allow different commands to be executed by simply closing one’s eyes for different periods of time.
The bad news is that Tobii says its eye-tracking technology for
laptops is at least "a couple of years" away from being ready to hit the market.