As anybody with a smartphone can tell you, gadgets are not necessarily great at figuring out what you want, when you want it. They’re getting better, but there are still plenty of subtle cues they could read. Like, for example, your eyes. Now some Danish researchers are putting together a way for your phone to do just that.
The software, developed by the Eye Tribe, uses the phone’s camera and infrared light reflected off your pupil to track where you’re looking. From there, it’s pretty simple to code certain functions into your phone, such as turning a page by looking at the lower right-hand corner of the screen, or dimming the screen when you look away.
It’ll be coming sooner than you think, partially because the Eye Tribe doesn’t want any money for it:
The company plans to release the technology at no cost to other software developers early next year, Alstrup Johansen said.
“We are releasing software developing kits to developers so they can actually start developing applications. We intend to give it away, it won’t cost anything,” he said.
“We do not intend to develop all apps ourselves, we are allowing the (software) community to develop apps,” he said.
Most phone cameras aren’t infrared sensitive enough, so the Eye Tribe is planning to make money by licensing their technology to smartphone companies.
We hope that works out for them, but in the meantime, we’ll be curious how long it takes for somebody to create an app that abuses this technology. Our money is on one that shows you scantily clad women and then calls you a pervert for looking at it too long.