Industry News
Microsoft Releases Windows 10 with Eye Control
Microsoft has released a preview version of its latest Windows 10 operating system that makes it possible to control a Windows 10 PC with your eyes.
The company states that the Eye Control makes Windows 10 more accessible by empowering people with disabilities to operate an onscreen mouse, keyboard, and text-to-speech experience using only their eyes. The experience requires a compatible eye tracker, like the Tobii 4C, which unlocks access to the Windows operating system to be able to do the tasks one could previously accomplish with a physical mouse and keyboard.
For two Microsoft employees, the passion to empower people drove them to help make Eye Control a reality.
Jon Campbell is a Senior Research Software Development Engineer and was a member of the original Ability Eye Gaze hackathon team. “There was this great vibe at One Week, it was like summer camp for innovative ideas rather than work. It was exciting to be challenged to follow our passions and think creatively with so many talented people from across the company,” said Campbell. “While not all ideas are winners, the thing that makes the hackathon great is that other ideas we kicked around had real potential – like eye tracking technology to help people with ALS and how Windows can bring it to more people.”
Jake Cohen, Program Manager on the Windows Interaction Platform team, is one of the Program Managers responsible for designing and integrating Eye Control into Windows 10. “When I heard about the Ability Eye Gaze team and what they were creating, it was super exciting to think about the possibilities of what could be done next,” said Cohen. “And it really made a dramatic difference to me when we started meeting with people living with ALS. I began to understand all the challenges they live with every single day. We’ve done a lot of great work across our teams, and we have a lot more to do, but we’re at a point where it has the potential to really start changing lives.”
Eye Control is still in beta. It can be previewed by installing the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16257 for PC.
