antoinetice: Tobii PCEye brings hands-free control to any PC, can't see eye-to-eye with Macs (update)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Tobii PCEye brings hands-free control to any PC, can't see eye-to-eye with Macs (update)

Tobii PCEye brings eye control to any PC, can't see eye-to-eye with Macs

We were kind of shocked at just how well the Lenovo prototype laptop with Tobii eye tracking worked at CEBIT this year. It was, frankly, really good, and we're happy to say you no longer have to break into Lenovo HQ to try it for yourself. Tobii has released its PCEye, a USB device that uses a VESA mount to hang below LCDs sized between 15- to 20-inches. After a little calibration, it enables full eye control -- on Windows. Mac users will have to keep buying batteries for their Magic Mice because there's sadly no compatibility there. The main idea here is to help those who, due to stroke or other impairment, have lost some or all motor control, enabling them to compute just as well as anybody. However, we who are lucky enough to still have full control over all appendages can't wait to get one of these and play through every level in World of Goo without reaching for the mouse once. We will, however, have to reach for our wallets -- Tobii doesn't quote a price for the PCEye, which is rarely a good sign.

Update: We just heard back from the company, and the price of the PCEye itself is $6,900, "with packages available for software and monitors."

Gallery: Tobii PCEye