GT3D Device Lets You E-mail And Control Computer With Your Eyes

Imagine a low-cost device that allows you to be able to interact with your computer with just the movement of your eyes. That is just what researchers at the Imperial College of London have come up with, with what they are calling the GT3D.

The Huffington Post reports researchers at the Imperial College of London created the GT3D using made from off-the-shelf materials that only cost around $60.

The GT3D device’s design attaches to glasses and is composed of two video game console cameras. The cameras continually take pictures of the eye making special note of the location of the pupil, and tracking its movement to show where the person is looking on the screen.

Phys.org also notes researchers are capable of using more detailed calibrations to the GT3D’s software to make out the 3D gaze (how far into the distance the user was looking), to allow for the control of an electronic wheelchair by just looking where the user wants to go or even a prosthetic arm.

Dr Aldo Faisal, Lecturer in Neurotechnology at Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Computing, explains that:

“Crucially, we have achieved two things: we have built a 3D eye tracking system hundreds of times cheaper than commercial systems and used it to build a real-time brain machine interface that allows patients to interact more smoothly and more quickly than existing invasive technologies that are tens of thousands of times more expensive. This is frugal innovation; developing smarter software and piggy-backing existing hardware to create devices that can help people worldwide independent of their healthcare circumstances.”

GT3D is able to send data wirelessly or through USB to any Windows or Linux computer, adds HLN News.

Researchers were able to prove the effectiveness of their new device by having subjects play a game of pong using only their eyes. They hope to one day use the technology to help people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries.

Take a look at the video below courtesy of HLN showing subjects as they test the device while playing pong:

[iframe src=”http://www.hlntv.com/embed/34765? width=”416? height=”384?]