Microsoft is developing a gaze-controlled computer platform allowing users to type and navigate the web with their eyes. A patent published on March 5 reveals the Redmond-based company's accessibility-focused "eye-gaze" system. Though it's just an idea for now, the technology could help people with physical disabilities use their computers with unprecedented ease.
While eye-gaze typing and navigation platforms exist today, they're a bit clunky. Users—often people with motor disabilities that make conventional computer use difficult or impossible—must allow their gaze to "dwell" on a particular key before the platform will process an input. This stilted operation limits users' typing speeds to 23 words per minute (wpm), with most users hovering within the 7 to 20 wpm range.
Spotted by Windows Report this week, Microsoft's patent introduces two strategies to make the user experience faster and more fluid. The first is "dwell-free" eye-tracking, which withdraws the user's need to linger their gaze on individual keys. Instead, the user can glance from one key to the next. (Think of it as a visual version of swipe typing.)
As one might imagine, dwell-free gazes might introduce more noise and errors to the typing process than conventional eye-gaze typing. That's where machine learning comes in. Microsoft's patent describes a natural language processor that predicts the user's next word and accounts for common visual typos. Somewhat like the predictive text and autocorrect features you see on your smartphone, these features would theoretically reduce the user's error rate while allowing them to type faster than ever before.
The user can also leverage key components of their computer's interface by gazing at things like volume buttons, brightness sliders, and more. The same principle would apply to web browsing, where the user could open links, use buttons, and more simply by looking at individual site features.
While this technology's most apparent uses revolve around accessibility, Microsoft might also be interested in eye-gaze typing for virtual, augmented, or mixed-reality settings. If the technology proves effective, its storied HoloLens headsets could incorporate virtual keyboards.
We say this so frequently that we might sound like a broken record, but it's worth mentioning: Just because something is patented doesn't mean it will become a real product. Companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Apple patent fascinating technologies all the time, not because they have plans to manufacture those technologies at scale, but so they can legally defend what they've invented. As helpful as a dwell-free, eye-operated device like this one would be, there's no guarantee that it'll ever make its way into people's homes.
