The first scientific steps towards gaze tracking were taken in the 19th century. The scientist would anaesthetize the test subject’s eyes with cocaine and place a metal disc directly on the eye. The disc was connected to a wire with a pen that would draw the movements of the eye on a piece of paper. Today, the technology of gaze tracking has made amazing progress, and it can have a revolutionary impact on several aspects of human life.

Simply put, a gaze tracker is a device for measuring the position and the movements of an eye. There are several types of gaze trackers on the market. Some models are still placed directly on the eye as an electronic contact lens (so-called ”search coils”), but most modern gaze trackers are based on video recordings of the eye. Gaze trackers are used in many different scientific fields such as psychology, medicine and cognitive linguistics. Different industries also use gaze trackers in their work: Advertising agencies use them for measuring which ads best attract the attention of the costumers, hospitals use them for diagnosing schizophrenia and Volvo has installed gaze trackers in their trucks for monitoring whether the driver is falling asleep.

The IT University has achieved a leading position within research on gaze tracking. Gaze trackers are usually very expensive machines, and that creates limitations to the dissemination of the technology. But if the researchers in the “Gaze group” of the IT University have it their way, gaze tracking will be brought to the mainstream. One of the means for achieving this is to use cheap electronic components as an alternative to the heavy and expensive machines. With the right software and a good interface, a cheap webcam can actually be used for gaze tracking.

Three Ph.D. students from the Gaze group have developed an ”open source”-gaze tracker and put on the internet for free distribution. Users only need to download a zip file with the program, install a webcam and calibrate the system by looking at nine different parts of the screen. Then they can operate their computer with their eyes.

For people with motor disabilities, that possibility can prove crucial.  If one cannot interact using the mouth or the hands, the eyes can indeed be an alternative. The Gaze group is a part of the European COGAIN network that tries to help the disabled communicate by developing new types of computer interaction. Researchers from the IT University have developed several programs that allow people with motor disabilities to perform the same computer activities that everyone else can.

One example is patients with the sclerosis disease ALS. When suffering from ALS, the patient gradually loses control of her body. Eventually, she is only able to move the eyes. However, using a gaze tracker and a typing program, the patient can still communicate with others. The typing- and speaking programs Gazetalk and Stargazer, both developed at the IT University, are used by many ALS patients today. 
In welfare states like Denmark, the state provides many of the disabled with commercial gaze trackers, but in the third world, this is not the case. Therefore, the free open source gaze tracker has interesting perspectives. The Gaze group hopes to collaborate with NGO’s on spreading the technology in the poorer parts of the world.

Read more on Gazetracking here:
http://www.gazegroup.org/
http://www.computerworld.dk/art/51073