IFA 2012: Haier Eye-Control TV Compelling, Not Ready for Primetime

By emeadows
September 4, 2012

Chinese consumer electronics company Haier demonstrated its Eye-Control TV at the IFA show.
“To use the set, you sit in front of a black rectangular sensor positioned at chest height,” reports Engadget. “There’s some calibration involved when moving from person to person, chasing a circle around the screen with your eyes. Once calibrated, you’re good to go.”
The user’s eyes move up and down and/or blink in order to change channels, adjust volume and perform other basic television controls. Eye movements are also used to access and navigate the user interface featuring pictures of videos.
“The use of pictures certainly seems the most intuitive method for navigating around videos — there’s a definite learning curve here, and it’s hard enough to select pictures — we couldn’t really imagine toggling through small text,” notes the post.
“This doesn’t feel quite ready for market — it’s a compelling concept, nonetheless,” suggests Engadget. “And using the human eye to control a display that you’re already staring at anyway does seem to have some merits.”
The post includes a 2-minute video demo of the retina-controlled system from the IFA show floor.

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