Kinect add-on eye tracker doing well on Kickstarter

If you've been thinking that Microsoft's Kinect should be capable of tracking your eye movements as much as your hands and feet, well you're not alone. The guys from 4tiitoo are kickstarting a piece of kit called the NUIA eyeCharm, that slots over your Kinect and adds that tracking functionality; and it's doing pretty well.

So far with 440 backers, it's generated over a third of its necessary funds, with just over three weeks to go. In total $100,000 (£66,000) is needed to complete it, but judging by the current trend, it looks likely to surpass its goal by over a third.

The eyeCharm creators have a fun way of explaining how it all works too: “By illuminating your face with invisible infrared light, analyzing the natural movements of your eyes and adding some physics and mathematics, it is then possible to calculate the area you are looking at.”

Anything that involves “physics and mathematics,” is good in my book.

Eye or head tracking technology is traditionally pretty expensive, which is why this one seems like a pretty simply way to make it work. Granted you'll need to shell out the £100 or so for the Kinect in the first place, but after that, what's another £35 for a lot more functionality?

The important part, according to the creators, is that this frees up both your hands, allowing you to play games with two hands on the keyboard – perhaps for chatting – or eating with two hands while reading and scrolling through a new story.

KitGuru Says: This sounds more in line with what the pre-release Kinect sounded like it was going to be. Now we just need finger tracking and less lag.

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