Ever fancied moving things with your mind; you just wish it, and it abides. Well, Microsoft wants to give you, not the ability to move things with your mind, but closer to that. Move things with your eyes.
That is right! Microsoft wants you to be able to open/close programs and files in your Windows 10 by not using the keyboard or mouse, but using only your eyes. You look at it, and it opens; perhaps you look at it, and it closes. Maybe in not such a dramatic way, but the new Eye Control outed by Microsoft on its beta channel, the Windows Insider program, enables users to manipulate their computer using just their eyes.
Microsoft first broke the news of its built-in eye tracking feature yesterday, and by today, the company had pushed it out to the Windows Insider preview program. You can check out this feature at the latest Windows Insider preview build; it includes support for beta Eye Control as it is referred.
For a rewarding experience using the Eye Control feature, it is being said you need to have a device with Tobii Eye Tracker 4C. For now, Microsoft is only supporting Windows 10 with the US English keyboard layout but plans to add more layouts with time.
There is still no official communication from the company when the Eye Control feature will be outed to the stable version of Windows 10. Microsoft’s preview blog details how the Eye Control actually works. They have broken down the new launchpad for accessing peripheral functions. Take, for instance, using the system to type faster using just your eyes and go further to turning the typed text into speech.
Microsoft has also developed another really cool feature it is calling “shape writing,” which will enable you to ‘turbo boost’ your typing speed by just looking at the first and last letter of a word and just glance at the letters in between and hint of the word will be predicted and should the prediction be incorrect; you can simply swap it with another alternative prediction.
Currently, it seems Microsoft is only supporting Tobii hardware, though there are also plans to include EyeMobile Plus, PCEye Mini, Tobii Dynavox, and I-Series. Microsoft has also expressed interest in working with other eye-tracking vendors that show interest.