Swedish company Tobii Technology has been working to bring laptops integrating its eye tracking and gaze interaction technology to market for a few years now, first demonstrating such a device at CeBIT in 2011. The most recent example is a new prototype laptop that combines Tobii’s eye-tracking technology and a Synaptics ForcePad touchpad in an Ultrabook form factor.
Tobii already offers its PCEye system for Windows desktop PCs and at CES in January unveiled its REX Developer Edition peripheral, also aimed at Windows desktop users, that boasted its Gaze interface.
Both pieces of hardware were too bulky to cram in a laptop, and even the prototype laptop unveiled in 2011 that was developed in partnership with Lenovo had bulges in unfamiliar places. But the company has now managed to get the required hardware down to a size that fits almost imperceptibly into a slim Ultrabook form factor.
The integrated eye-tracking technology allows users to point, navigate and scroll through documents on the laptop through Tobii’s Gaze user interface. This combines eye-tracking with mouse, keyboard and touch controls, while the inclusion of a ForcePad touchpad from Synaptics adds pressure inputs to the mix.
Tobii will be showcasing the prototype laptop in the coming months in the US, Europe and Asia to demonstrate the potential of its technology to media and OEMs in the hope they will integrate it into future products.
Source: Tobii Technology
