Tablet speculation: Apple’s 2009 eye-control tech acquisition?
11:21 am, January 19th, 2010, John Brownlee
In nine days, Steve Jobs will walk on stage, shout “Bam!” and unveil the Apple Tablet. That much we pretty much know. But with rumors that the Tablet will require a steep learning curve, evidence is mounting that the Tablet won’t interface with us like a mere tablet PC or an iPhone, but instead set an entirely new paradigm.
One interesting bit of speculation on what kind of new interface we might expect comes way of Roger Åberg, who points out an interesting new interface technology Apple has been pursuing over the last couple of years, eye control, which could allow Tablet users to do everything from scroll, navigate, launch apps and even type through blinks, motion and long dwelling gazes.
It’s not just idle fancy. Apple actually bought eye-control technology from Swedish company Tobil in March of last year. Tobil’s technology combines software and hardware solutions to “sense” when a user is looking at a screen.
According to Tobil’s website, the tech has a lot of cool possibilities. For example, a mouse could be moved simply by looking around the screen, with clicking triggered by “dwelling,” or using a long unblinking stare.
There’s other possibilities. Tobil has demonstrated the technology’s e-reader possibilities by showing that eye movement could be used to flip and scroll pages easily. Another way the technology could be used is for simple power management: look away from the device for a period of time and the screen dims.
The big problem with Tobil’s solution from a Tablet perspective is that it requires a web cam to track eye movement. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has said that his sources tell him there’s no camera on the Tablet, which would obviously sink eye control.
My personal guess is that eye control is still too fidgety and Philip-K-Dickish for Apple to embrace, and that Apple snapped up Tobil for possible use in their MacBook line down the road. Given the Magic Mouse, a touch-capacitive back casing still seems to me like the most plausible interface extension.
Still, we won’t know for certain until Steve Jobs walks onto stage. For all we know right now, he might prove us all comically wrong by shouting “Bam!” and then interfaces to the Tablet directly through an “easy-to-install” USB port trephined into the side of his head. Nine days will tell.
Posted by John Brownlee in Apple Tablet, Top stories | Comment on this article
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Clicking *could* be triggered by multi-touch on the back of the tablet, which is held with both hands. Coupling these two technologies makes perfect sense. Look at what you want, and make a quick gesture on the back to select/click it.
Derek Martin, on January 19th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
I agree, eye-control is probably not as advanced as Apple would like it to be right now, therefore it wont be in the iSlate.
Apple has been incorporating touch technology into pretty much all of their product line over the last few years, so im guessing the tablet will be primarily controlled by touch and gestures.
Andrew Macdonald, on January 19th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
No. A steep learning curve is exactly the thing Apple doesn’t want. So that won’t be the case.
As you may have noticed Apple sometimes introduces relatively new technology and then builds on it by adding features. The iPad is a logical and incremental step from the iPhone/iPod touch and uses ‘touch’ all around.
So eye control isn’t happening, it will be ‘touch’ touch’ ‘touch’ (and of course no add-on keyboard).
J
J, on January 20th, 2010 at 6:02 am
“eye control, which could allow Tablet users to do everything from scroll, navigate, launch apps and even type through blinks, motion and long dwelling gazes.”
I can’t wait to see the self-conscious hipsters in Starbucks sitting in front of their iPads grimacing and winking and shaking their heads in an exaggerated manner. Maybe Justin Long will demonstrate on a TV commercial while tired old uncool PC tries to say that a keyboard works better?
iGenius, on January 20th, 2010 at 8:35 am
I want a HAL.
ged, on January 20th, 2010 at 8:48 am
i see this is more of a business item. apple could have bought the tech to make money off of patents. OR perhaps to include it in imacs for kiosks and such
folks are getting way energy and cost savvy. so the notion of a system where you could wall mount an imac and set the ‘energy saver’ to sleep the machine when no one is in the zone would be awesome. especially if you could add a system where the web cam can sense when someone walks up and starts up a movie loop. this could also tie into the whole multitouch imac rumors which I don’t think would be plausible for typical use but in a business for things like those sampler systems at Barnes and Noble, or museum directories and such. it is possible.
Charli, on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:16 pm