The Eye Tribe and the Facebook
The eye tribe is the technology to direct tablets, smartphones or computers with the instructions of user’s eye. A sleek appearance and portable structure are focused by the eye tribe.
The Eye Tribe: Technology
The eye tribe has been known as the first and the smallest device which has used eye tracking system. It can be used through a 3.0 USB connection to run on devices and hence separate power sources are not required to turn it on. A high resolution infrared LED and a camera is the main components which are used by the eye tribe devices to track the user’s eye motion. With the help of a camera, the device captures the images of users’ eye movement and run them on computer vision algorithms which follow on screen gaze, coordinates and instruct the software to find the target on the screen where the user is staring. To improve the users’ experiences, the camera also works with light, sensor, and hardware. Originally the eye tribe device works better for indoor usage. A calibration is required for the device to locate users’ pupils and unique eye characteristics are identified with the help of calibration, which is used to improve the tracking on one’s stare. This eye tracker has a normal precision of almost 0.5 degrees of the visual angle. Movement of an eye can be identified and followed with a precision of sub millimeter which is almost the size of a fingertip.
The Eye Tribe: Uses
The eye tribe device is developed with the hope that their device will be used in computers, tablets, and smartphones in the near future. Their aim is to make eye tribe device as a household item and a regular feature on the majority of devices. It is cleared from demos that eye tribe wants to make their technology more versatile and multipurpose i.e. from browsing to security and working to games etc. Fruit Ninja is used mostly in eye tribe demo, which is a video game being played on smartphones (Androids or iPhones). Usually, touch screens are used to cut the fruit but in the eye tribe, the player has to just stare at the screen to play the game. The eye tribe contributed their technology in other games by working with other application developers to enjoy more pleasure.
The eye tribe has shown habitually, through demos, the working procedures of their software i.e. just stare at the screen of the device to scroll down the page. It has been shown as the user friendly device whenever needed, by making it simple and fast to read, write and for browsing the internet. For example; during the watching movie you can rewind, pause or forward with the help of your eyes as without using your hands.
Another fantastic feature of eye tribe is safety. Users can lock their device through gaze operated passwords and similarly, these devices can be unlocked by simply looking at certain fractions of the screen.
The Eye Tribe: Closing down
Customers of the eye tribe received an email as on December 12, 2016, in which they were communicated about the closure of the eye tribe device services and developments in the future.
Recently, Facebook has announced the purchase of eye tribe technology for their Oculus VR. Facebook acquired the eye tribe with a view to lead and improve social communications in Oculus VR. People’s eye expressions are helpful to understand and communicate, through eye tribe, with other people in the VR world.
As the eye tribe company mention the procedures of working their software, acquisition also helpful to judge the expressions of users about ads. The feedback about this could be more spectacular for the designing team and advertisers.
