Eyeball-To-Machine Interface Is Now Videogame Reality

THE EYES HAVE IT:An eye-tracking version of Asteroids, demonstrated three years ago, failed to capture the fancy of coin-op audiences. The technology is now being integrated into home videogames.

"This is only the beginning of eye-tracking in gaming," said Oscar Werner, president of Tobii Tech, the company's consumer division. "It is an important step in Tobii's long term vision to create a strong ecosystem of games and apps that use eye tracking to create even more immersive experiences."

How it works is simple. A camera-like device mounted near the screen picks up on a player's eye movements and integrates them into the gameplay. In other words, the onscreen protagonist of the Assassin's Creed action video, Shay Patrick Cormac, will follow the eye movements of the player. If the player looks to the left of the screen, Cormac will look to the left with the onscreen view changing to see what he sees.

According Tobii, the experience is intuitive for players, though they can return to the more traditional "mouse control" by touching it.

This is not Tobii's first foray into videogames. In 2012, the company demonstrated its Tobii EyeAsteroids. Previewed at Dave & Buster's in New York City, the technology failed to gain traction in the coin-op marketplace.