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New Software Replaces Computer Keyboards with Eyes--Source:Nature;Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK;
Imagine being able to create and send an email message without ever taking your eyes off the road you're driving on. Consider those born without the physical ability to write, because of a muscle disorder or lack of coordination or ability. What if there was a technology that could help all those people use the keyboard more efficiently? Imagine no longer.
The software has been named "Dasher", and it claims to "exploit our eyes' natural ability to navigate and identify familiar patterns. It is the result of work done by a team at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK. An eye-tracking device allows users to select letters from the screen.
Dasher calculates the probability of one letter following another and presents the user with a series of choices until the correct word is identified. New software could allow computer users with disabilities or busy hands to write nearly twice as fast, more accurately and more comfortably than before.The software could also speed up writing on palm-tops and typing in Japanese and Chinese, its developers say. The package, called Dasher, "exploits our eyes' natural ability to navigate and spot familiar patterns", says one of its inventors, computer scientist David MacKay of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK.
An eye-tracking device lets users select letters from a screen. Dasher calculates the probability of one letter coming after another. It then presents the letters required as if contained on infinitely expanding bookshelves. Pick, 'h' for hello, for example, and Dasher will display the most likely pairs - such as he, hi and ha - most prominently on the screen.
The user chooses the correct pair, and Dasher suggests triplets of letters, or guesses what the word might be. "Users have the feeling that whole syllables, whole words, even whole phrases, are simply leaping towards them," says MacKay. He and his colleague David Ward taught Dasher English using passages from Jane Austen's Emma, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and other classic texts.
"It has huge potential to speed up people who at the moment have to write quite laboriously," says John Willis, a lawyer in Papworth, UK, who has used Dasher. Devices that use cameras to follow eye movement have already been combined with on-screen keyboards. But typing this way is slow and exhausting. The top speed is about 15 words per minute, and users have to be careful where they look to avoid inadvertently selecting and typing things.
Dasher's predictive abilities are "hugely advantageous", says Willis, who was born without hands. Not only does Dasher learn the language - providing a 'u' if a 'q' is selected, for example - it learns each user's favorite words. Users can soon reach a typing speed of 25 words per minute.
"They've certainly broken the world record for gaze-operated typing," says John Paulin Hansen, who works on technology for the disabled at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dasher also provides unparalleled comfort and accuracy, Hansen adds. He foresees it entering general use: "We could be sending [mobile phone] text messages without taking our hands off the steering wheel."
The system is far from perfect-eye-tracking devices are still problematic. "They need re-calibrating each time you look away from the computer," says Willis. He controls Dasher using a trackball pointer. More sophisticated and robust eye trackers are under development, says Hansen The Cambridge team aim to release Dasher as 'open source' software in about six months. They hope it will find applications in palmtop computers, which are too small to have proper keyboards.
Japan and China could also be a huge market, MacKay says. These languages, with thousands of characters, are poorly suited to keyboards. Dasher, which can draw upon an unlimited pool of characters but also spot common sequences, could be ideal. His team is testing a prototype that uses hiragana, a Japanese character set.
Imagine being able to create and send an email message without ever taking your eyes off the road you're driving on. Consider those born without the physical ability to write, because of a muscle disorder or lack of coordination or ability. What if there was a technology that could help all those people use the keyboard more efficiently? Imagine no longer.
The software has been named "Dasher", and it claims to "exploit our eyes' natural ability to navigate and identify familiar patterns. It is the result of work done by a team at Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK. An eye-tracking device allows users to select letters from the screen.
Dasher calculates the probability of one letter following another and presents the user with a series of choices until the correct word is identified. New software could allow computer users with disabilities or busy hands to write nearly twice as fast, more accurately and more comfortably than before.The software could also speed up writing on palm-tops and typing in Japanese and Chinese, its developers say. The package, called Dasher, "exploits our eyes' natural ability to navigate and spot familiar patterns", says one of its inventors, computer scientist David MacKay of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK.
An eye-tracking device lets users select letters from a screen. Dasher calculates the probability of one letter coming after another. It then presents the letters required as if contained on infinitely expanding bookshelves. Pick, 'h' for hello, for example, and Dasher will display the most likely pairs - such as he, hi and ha - most prominently on the screen.
The user chooses the correct pair, and Dasher suggests triplets of letters, or guesses what the word might be. "Users have the feeling that whole syllables, whole words, even whole phrases, are simply leaping towards them," says MacKay. He and his colleague David Ward taught Dasher English using passages from Jane Austen's Emma, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and other classic texts.
"It has huge potential to speed up people who at the moment have to write quite laboriously," says John Willis, a lawyer in Papworth, UK, who has used Dasher. Devices that use cameras to follow eye movement have already been combined with on-screen keyboards. But typing this way is slow and exhausting. The top speed is about 15 words per minute, and users have to be careful where they look to avoid inadvertently selecting and typing things.
Dasher's predictive abilities are "hugely advantageous", says Willis, who was born without hands. Not only does Dasher learn the language - providing a 'u' if a 'q' is selected, for example - it learns each user's favorite words. Users can soon reach a typing speed of 25 words per minute.
"They've certainly broken the world record for gaze-operated typing," says John Paulin Hansen, who works on technology for the disabled at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dasher also provides unparalleled comfort and accuracy, Hansen adds. He foresees it entering general use: "We could be sending [mobile phone] text messages without taking our hands off the steering wheel."
The system is far from perfect-eye-tracking devices are still problematic. "They need re-calibrating each time you look away from the computer," says Willis. He controls Dasher using a trackball pointer. More sophisticated and robust eye trackers are under development, says Hansen The Cambridge team aim to release Dasher as 'open source' software in about six months. They hope it will find applications in palmtop computers, which are too small to have proper keyboards.
Japan and China could also be a huge market, MacKay says. These languages, with thousands of characters, are poorly suited to keyboards. Dasher, which can draw upon an unlimited pool of characters but also spot common sequences, could be ideal. His team is testing a prototype that uses hiragana, a Japanese character set.
