World's first eye-controlled arcade game playable now in London

By Robert Purchese Published 1 February, 2012

The tip of the eyes-berg?

There exists a futuristic arcade game that you can control with your eyes. Its name, EyeAsteroids, its location, London's Trocadero (until 17th February).

Simply look at an asteroid to zap it with a laser beam. There's a video below. And how strange it is.

There's an explanation of how it all works on the Tobii Technologies website. Lots of eye-scanning, in a nutshell.

Maker Tobii Technologies has assembled 50 of these EyeAsteroids cabinets, and priced them $15,000 apiece.

But these arcade machines are a mere morsel of the bigger picture, designed, no doubt, for their eye-catching appeal. Oh puns, how much cornea you've become!

"Eye control adds an intuitive, almost magical dimension to computer games. It takes immersion and game intensity to a new level."

Tobii Technologies, mastermind, EyeAsteroids

Tobii Technologies has already stuffed eye control technology within tablets, monitors and glasses, and believes it could be used in serious places like hospitals and opticians, and by serious institutions like the police.

And by video games, to which Tobii Technologies believes eye control could add "an intuitive, almost magical dimension".

Examples of eye control in gaming (lifted from Tobii Technologies' website):

  • Control your character with a joystick, but aim with your eyes
  • Aim with a wireless controller and turn around by looking to the side of the display
  • Establish genuine eye contact with characters in a game
  • Look a bot straight in the eyes and give a command using your keyboard or voice
  • Create an emotional intensity that makes characters act as real humans responding to your gaze
  • Adapt the game action to your attention and mental state.

If eye control catches on, it's tempting to believe that Microsoft would court it for use in Kinect. Remember that Kinect 2 is said to be so accurate it can lip read.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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