EyeWriter Is The Fruit Of The KanEye Project

The EyeWriter is an open source eye tracking initiative. This is the mature version of the KanEye project we covered in April. Collaboratively developed by Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, and the Graffiti Research Lab, they seek to aid a friend of theirs who suffers from the degenerative muscle disease ALS.

They’ve come a long way since we last looked in on the progress. The hardware used is pretty much the same: a set of sunglasses sans lenses with the CCD from a Sony PlayStation 3 Eye mounted in front of one eye. IR LEDs surround the CCD and point at the eye to increase the contrast between pupil and the rest of the eye. The major improvement comes with the software. Eye tracking appears to be extremely precise and they’ve written a custom drawing program to take advantage of their interface. Check in on their developer page for source code and a video walk-through of the software.

After the break you can see video of [Tempt1] using the system to create some tags. We’re thankful for the success this project has seen as this guy can do a lot better with his eye than we can with our hands.

[vimeo=6376466]

[Thanks Jessee]

17 thoughts on “EyeWriter Is The Fruit Of The KanEye Project

  1. @Roofus- that’s actually a decent question. Many have pointed that out in the past with other eyetracking setups (whatever happened to the OpenEyes project?), but others have made a good point- the IR from the sun while outside is far more than these put on the eye.

    The best solution I’ve seen to settle the issue is have a momentary switch control IR on/off to only trigger ON when people want it on. This could be done with the tongue for the disabled.

    All in all, great hack! I’m still waiting for an actual article linking eye tracking to controlling a servo- I have visions of controlling a tilt-pan servo pod turret for airsoft this way.

  2. The song is Man On The Moon by Kid Cudi. I’m pretty sure the sound bite at the end of the song is from an interview with P.O.S.

    Great video and great to see people out there having such a strong affect on people’s lives.

  3. That’s a great article. I think really this eye writer will helps the people who is suffering from ALS . I have heard about his before, Its a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.

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