A French researcher has built a device allowing disabled people to write or draw on a computer screen using only their eyes, a report said on July 26. With head-mounted cameras monitoring their eye movements, test subjects were able to write and draw on a blank computer screen in the latest breakthrough for people trapped in immobility by disease or accident.
"For persons deprived of limb movement, this offers a fast, creative and personal means of linguistic and emotional expression," said the report by Jean Lorenceau of France's CNRS research institute.
Lorenceau's system, still just a prototype, compensates for saccadic, or jumpy, eye movements to allow a smooth writing style.
After four half-hour training sessions, his subjects were able to write at a rate of about 25 letters per minute.
Similar systems exist, but none that allow a person to trace their own letters with this level of precision. In July, engineers said they had built a device using mass-produced video gaming equipment that lets disabled people control a computer cursor with just their eyes - with a price tag of under $30 (25 euros).
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