May 5, 2008

Eye-Gaze Tracking in MMORPGS: Cool

John Biggs

12 comments »

We tested some eye-tracking software like this at CeBIT this year but this takes the concept to a whole other level. It’s basically a system for tracking your gaze that has been retrofitted to work with WoW. Why? I guess it could let the handicapped or, sadly, the catastrophically lazy, play the game without having to touch a keyboard. My money is on the former and I’m actually kind of glad they’ll get a chance to play social games like these thanks to technology.

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  1. I No Longer Need My Hands to Play World Of Warcraft
  2. wow gold blog » Blog Archive » Hands-free WoW

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  1. Farb Nivi

    Sweet!

  2. david saintloth

    What would be cool is a hybrid haptics system that combines eye tracking with verbal cues to entirely get rid of the mouse. If they could get the tracking accuracy up (it will necessarily vary with the position of the observers head with respect to the sensor) I could see it being more useful than just for playing games. Natural language software seems to have basically gone stale as far as software applications are concerned due to its still limited accuracy in being able to accurately render individual speech , but combining it with eye tracking could enhance the usefulness of some applications. You could keep your eyes on the keyboard while speaking occasional commands and using your eyes to track the mouse , essentially you turn your eyes into the navigational component of a mouse (traditionally the ball or laser over a surface) and your mouth replaces the buttons (for initiating selecting and deselection events) this focuses the need for accuracy only on the small set of words people use to define these events. “click” , “select”, “unclick”, “deselect” ..etc.

    Anyone know if any such hybrid systems are in the works?

  3. Aaron Forgue

    At some point, I think eye-tracking technology will be used to enhance the 3D effects of games. When our eyes focus on something, everything else becomes blurry. In game, the developers have to decide what it is we are focusing on, so the blur effect is not exactly right.

    With eye tracking software, the developers will be able to blur all elements in-game that are not being gazed at, making the 3D effects much more immersive.

    It’s a fun time to be alive!

  4. Greg

    This would be sweet for aiming in a first-person shooter type game.

  5. Azhar

    Maybe next all we have to do is think and we could play the game. We might not even have to move our eyes.

  6. Rich

    And if you actually do want to use your arms (or god forbid stand up) you have this method - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFsxev-2sk

  7. kg

    - is it dangerous to eyes ?
    - why cant the device be like a spectacle that you just wear it and play. It will be sooper cool. Also it might be able to eliminate the necessity of keeping the head in still position. The relative position of spectacle to the eye will always remain the same

  8. noel

    It would be great if the in-game character simply looked at whatever the player looked at. It could certainly help with the social aspect of games, especially if a players voice travelled in the direction they faced. Although it’s probably not worth a whole extra piece of hardware for that.

  9. Shai Berger

    Video not working. Alternate link?

  10. Shai Berger

    Never mind… link works now.

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