• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, November 8, 2011

Let’s all agree that the touch interface is a staggeringly effective way to engage users in media. I think all of us are surprised at just how significant a move it has been from the abstraction of controllers (mouse, directional keys, scroll wheels) to direct kinetic interaction. But why stop there? After all, there are some clear weaknesses to touch interfaces, especially on smartphones. The fat finger syndrome spells untold numbers of mistaken taps on all kinds of zones. And as we get accustomed to deeper reads on mobile devices, the relentless scrolling can be tedious.

But for me the touch interface is most limiting in the one place where it is also most engaging and liberating: games. While Angry Birds and Cut the Rope have successfully turned the elegant swipe or drag into absorbing game play mechanics, more complex genres that should have a place on these devices just aren’t are responsive to touch. Personally, I find many arcade games hampered by having to dedicate so much screen real estate to the controller interface. Not only do my thumbs obscure the screen in racing games and even RPGs, but their presence on the screen interrupts the immersiveness.

A new game-controlling technology from the eye-gaze specialist at Tobii has me intrigued as a longer-term alternative interface for mobile. The company traditionally has made computer interfaces that track and translate eye movements for the PC. These technologies have been immeasurably helpful to disabled computer users over the years. More recently, the technology has been used for digital usage analysis: it has been refined to the point where it can use almost anyone’s Web cam to track minute pupil movements and generate heat maps of how people view a screen.

Similar technology is now being used by Tobii to control games. In its first release, EyeAsteroids is an arcade game in a standalone classic arcade box that uses glances to control a familiar Asteroids-style 2D shooter. Tobbi is touring with the game now.

Basically, the eye-tracking technique lets your eyes aim at the approaching asteroids to shoot them down. According to players, the responsiveness of the eye to an object is considerably greater than hand controller or touch. One player says about the controller technique that it is conducive to “very laid-back casual gaming,” that “the time gap between decision and action is virtually nonexistent.”

My guess is that current eye-tracking software requires some serious horsepower to get these kinds of low latencies and tracking. Tobii has a limited run of EyeAsteroids: 50 units selling for $15,000 each.

Still, given the processing growth curve of mobile devices in just the last few years, we know that it is only a matter of time before a mobile device can handle eye-tracking interfaces. And, of course, with a user-facing camera in close proximity, this is the perfect device for glance control. But beyond gaming, imagine if scrolling were controlled by gaze, so a page would advance as it detects your eyes moving down a page? Or consider the utility of gaze detection in two screen experiences. One screen would be able to know when the user is looking at the other screen. Imagine the synchronization possibilities there. 

Clearly touch is only the start. Gestures, gaze, voice all will be bringing the user closer to the device, enhancing intimacy, furthering the sense that devices have become companions of an increasingly animate sort.

Someday Siri may turn the tables on us and initiate the question. “Why are you looking at me that way?”