Windows 10 will soon have built in eye tracking. This will help users with neuro-muscular diseases like ALS to use the PC easily with their eyes, without the need of a keyboard and mouse.
The new feature will let users launch apps by gazing at the icons and they will also be able to type by launching an on-screen keyboard and gazing at the keys. How cool is that?
Also read: Windows 10 is no longer supported on Intel Atom PCs
This new eye tracking feature, called Eye Control, is inspired by a Microsoft hackathon project. The Hackathon held back in 2014 when Steve Gleason, a former NFL player, and an ALS patient, wrote a letter to Microsoft to develop a technology for people with the diseases which limit their mobility. Some people at the hackathon also developed a wheelchair which allows anyone to control the chair with just the gaze of their eye.
Here’s what Steve said in the letter:
“I realized pretty quickly after my diagnosis that technology would have to become an extension of myself. Until there is a medical cure for ALS, technology will be that cure”.
Microsoft will partner with Tobii, a company focused on making eye-tracking products, to develop the Eye Control and for their hardware support. The feature will require certain hardware to work on PCs. The feature is available in the beta version of Windows and will soon come with stable builds.
You can sign up for the Windows Insider program if you want to test the feature right now.
Image — TechCrunch
