Eye Tracking Technology for Mobile Devices

Eye Tracking Technology for Mobile Devices

The new Galaxy S4 from Samsung was supposed to have Eye Scroll, a breakthrough eye tracking technology patented by the Korean tech giant. Instead of scrolling down a page with a finger movement, users can look up or down as they face directly at the screen of a tablet or mobile phone. The technology uses the front camera to detect the user’s face and the location of the eyes. It tracks eye movements as the user reads an eBook or a webpage through a mobile device. However, representatives of the company revealed that the technology for this additional human gesture won’t be included yet in the new S4, but it might be possible for future devices.

Applications in Medical Imaging, Security Systems and Gaming

The hardware that needs to be installed seems too wide for a small phone. The card may be inserted into a laptop, a desktop PC, or a tablet and installed with software for gaze interaction. In 2012, eye-tracking technology leader Tobii demonstrated how to use its prototype technology on a Windows PC. The Swedish company’s main products are the Tobii IS20 and Tobii IS30, which can be integrated into medical equipment, gaming devices, and security systems.

As of now, functional eye-tracking devices include a pair of glasses, a portable device that is clipped to laptops and desktop PCs for testing user interaction with websites and advertisements, and a bulky machine with a camera and a mounting plate for testing user behavior with mobile phones and tablets. Outside of research purposes, the pair of glasses seems the best accessory to use when interacting with smartphones and tablets.

What the Samsung Galaxy S4 Brings to the Table

Although eye-tracking technology for mobile phones and tablets hasn’t been fully developed yet, fans of the Galaxy Series won’t be disappointed with the new S4. It has a tilt scrolling feature, which moves the page up or down depending on the direction the phone has been tilted. Instead of tracking the user’s eye movements, the phone uses default positioning technology to identify which part of the device is raised or lowered on a horizontal plane. In addition, it also has voice control and multi-window view like the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S III.

Samsung plans to release an international version of the phone with the much-awaited Exynos 5 Octa CPU inside. In the United States, the phone will have a quad-core Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon 600 processor instead because of its integrated LTE radio. The S4 also includes a 4.99-inch full HD 1080p display for viewing movies and high-resolution images, around 2GB of RAM, wireless charging capabilities, and a 13-megapixel rear camera, which has been one of the rumored powerhouse features in the new phone.