Eye-tracking technology created by Swedish firm Tobii now allows users to control a laptop screen with nothing but eye contact.

The system, using Tobii technology on a Lenovo laptop, will be unveiled at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover. Previous demonstrations have seen the computer react to a user's gaze and scoll down a page of text when the subject has finished reading.

The laptop tracks eye movement by directing two infrared lights into the user's eyes (each laptop is tailored to its user). The reflections in the retinas are then picked up by two built-in cameras and used to detect their direction. The laptop is about twice as thick as a normal one to accommodate the cameras, but Tobii manager Barbara Barclay says thinner versions will be available after about two years of production.

Users will be able to make the cursor appear, pull up the taskbar when gaze falls to the bottom of the screen, have a word explained when their gaze lingers on it, switch between windows and make videogame characters maintain eye contact. The screen will even dim to save power after not sensing gaze for a period of time.

However, it's not being sold as a solution to mouse-free, keyboard-free computing, says Barclay. Instead, the company is marketing it as an added extra that aids everyday computer use.

Tobii's eye-tracking technology has been in use for the past ten years, but due to the high cost -- tens of thousands of pounds -- it's been reserved only for lab researchers and to help the disabled.

"To reach a state where the technology is part of the average computer, we need to make it smaller and cheaper," admitted Tobii CEO Henrik Eskilsson. "We believe that this can be realised in a couple of years by partnering with the right manufacturer."

Hans-Peter Kurz, product manager at Tobii, believes this is just the beginning. "Eye-tracking will change the future," he said. "Imagine in ten or twenty years there might be an eye-tracker in every car, in every laptop and sooner or later, eye-tracking will enter your home."


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