I Spy...Eye-Controlled Mobile Devices

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The iPhone has met its competition: the eyePhone.
 
Technology has progressed from trackballs to eyeballs. At the Mobile World Congress this year in Barcelona, NTT DoCoMo released a new gadget that allows users to make calls, play music and control the phone’s settings by simply moving their eyes. The Japanese mobile phone operator says the system is only a prototype, but it provides an insight into the way we may be using our phones in years to come.
 
The Telegraph explains how the eye-controlled phone and MP3 player works:
 
“Special electrodes, attached to a set of earphones, are able to pick up the movement of the eye. Eyes have ‘electrical potential’ – positive at the cornea and negative at the retina - and this electrical potential changes depending on the movement of the eyeball. The system works even when a person's eyes are closed. The earphone electrodes are able to read these changing currents – known as an electrooculogram – and the mobile phone is pre-programmed to translate that information in to a command. So a user can make or receive a call, simply by moving their eyes to the right, then to the left, then back to the right again." 
 
Techies, be keenly aware of sudden eye movements. Shifting your eyes to the right will play a song; moving your eyes to the right twice in succession will skip a song. Moving your eyes up, to the right, then down and to the left increases the volume – so think twice before rolling your eyes.
 
Find out more in the video demo below:
 

 
Photo source: tuija / Google Images