London Students Create New Eye Operated Video Game Controller

The world of video games just got a little more advanced. According to Geek.com, a group of students from Imperial College in London have devised a controller that works from your eye movement. While there is the technology on the market to create these controllers, these students did it for about $37 in manufacturing costs, versus the current methods of eye tracking at $37,000. This drop in cost is the big part of the breakthrough. These glasses were constructed from combining a couple common, off the shelf items that can be found just about anywhere and these glasses go way beyond the video game platform as well.

There is really no end to the uses for these glasses. With all of the electronics that we use in life, these glasses can easily be incorporated into several different devices. The most obvious one would be a replacement for the mouse. Imagine being able to soar through your files of browse the internet just by moving your eyes. Beyond the computer and video games though, these may be limited.

The biggest limitation to these glasses is the lack of buttons. It would be near impossible to add the buttons to the glasses. You would have to have a separate, handheld button or controller for any games that go beyond movement. This would still be preferable to the current set up. Considering all of your directional controls would be eye motion operated, you could move at the speed of thought. For games like racing or pong, you would not even need any buttons. It could all be handled through the glasses. Another limitation of the new idea is the bulky appearance of the glasses. This is a minor problem that can easily be alleviated. With all of the plasma screen breakthroughs that are coming about, combined with the shrinking of all technology, you can easily see that the bulky and wired look of these glasses is sure to trim down. Imagine a plasma screen that you can wear and use to control movements. This is the future of these glasses.

There are some other groups working on different types of bio-technology game controllers. From harnessing brain waves to making a skin controller, there are several different ideas floating around. Many of these are still stuck in the five or more figures cost range, though. The eye movement tracking was in this same category until this London team was able to create this method of tracking. The best part about this concept is that it will drive groups to consider more cost effective methods and ideas. If we can create more of these game controllers in this price range, the benefits would be limitless. By combining these technologies, we can create a super fast and ultra portable game system, which would pave the way for computers to follow. Just imagine a computer screen in a pair of glasses that is controlled by brain movements and a keyboard on your forearm. You could just lie back and play games or even surf the web, no matter where you are. Now if they can only figure a way to bring the pizza and potato chips directly to you on the couch, it may be a perfect world.

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