Eye-tracking technology is making advances and an Israeli company called uMoove, which has been developing for more than three years, is close to offering a software tool kit to help get the technology into iPhone and Android devices.
There have been reports that the technology would be offered only in the iPhone, but Apple has not announced plans to offer it.
Reports say that Samsung will introduce eye-tracking features in the Galaxy S4 that will launch later this week. Eye-tracking uses eye and head gestures to operate a smartphone, allowing for a head tilt or nod to scroll or click. Eye movements could also draw on the smartphone screen.
Moti Krispil, uMoove's founder and chief executive, told the New York TImes' Bits blog that the technology needs the support of thousands of software developers to create a real impact on the way people interact with devices. The uMoove tool kit will work with Apple's iOS and Google's Android software systems, he said.
"We made a very important decision that the technology is so diverse that we cannot just allow it to be confined," Krispil said, adding that the tool kit would be available in a few months. On Tuesday, uMoove started allowing people to register for its software tool kit on its website.
Eye-tracking has been in development in gaming, but it may still be too expensive for the mainstream and is not fully developed, Time says. Germany-based 4tiitoo recently introduced NUIA EyeCharm, a $60 eye-tracking attachment for Microsoft's Kinect motion controller. The company was looking to raise $100,000 in funding from Kickstarter.
