[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j2kw5MJK24]
The folks at Waterloo Labs have delivered a quite amusing project where they built a system to control Mario with eye movements. Unlike the other eye movement systems we’ve seen that use imaging to detect where you are looking, this one is using electrodes on muscles in your face. Not only do they supply a fairly amusing video, they also have a pretty good amount of detail on the project site. Be sure to click on the links in the “additional resources” section at the bottom if you want hardware and software details on the build. The last time we saw these folks, they were using real guns to control video games.
[via Procrastineering]
Am I the only one who notices that the whole Waterloo Labs thing is some sort of NI marketing stunt?
Does it matter? It’s a cool project. :)
@chango
No, you’re not. It says it on NI’s website.
They do these sorts of things to raise awareness of their products with students. Researchers and companies aren’t the ones who are going to be playing Mario with their eyes (there are more serious marketing campaigns targeted towards them) and most hobbyists can’t afford NI products or can make their own, more affordable, but lower quality versions. It’s the students who have access to labs on campus that can push for these products to be purchased by their university.
Not anything new. I can do this with my OCZ NIA controller, too.
As if just watching TV wasn’t bad enough for your eyes!
Cool project, though. I look forward to the time when it could take very slight movements into account so you aren’t looking away from the screen at any point.
@japkin true, but why not just invert the axis so that you could just move your head while keeping your eyes on the screen?
Cool concept though.
They forgot to make it shock you when Mario dies.
He loads SMB2 but then plays the first Super Mario Bros. WTF?
The other thing I found weird is that when I went to NI Week 2008, Xilinx had a demo set up where they implemented some early Mario game on one of NI’s FPGA-based boards. I wonder why they wouldn’t want to show that off in this video as well. Maybe Xilinx wouldn’t let them use the demo.
If the Eye controller was very good at tracking and making it move better you could use this to change your display around an environment in an FPS(just not as technical as using it for controls but easier on the eyes I would imagine). I like the fact that it’s easy to monitor our body like this.
We are steps closer to the ultimate video game system lol.
That chick is waaaaaay too excited. Take a chill pill woman!
this way you have to stand your head still and move your eyes (out of the screen) .. so it’s not practical…
maybe if you put the censors on opposite sides (leftright & updown) the controlling will be easier by moving the head and looking on the screen all the time.
1. I’m the only one who thinks it is a bit strange to use eye movements to control something which requires to focus your eyes (to the TV)
Guess a BCI would be better in that case
2. Guess the NI hardware with FPGA is placed there for advertisement only since the would measurement task could be performed with much less effort. As soon as the signal got shaped by the self made board I would bet a Arduinno would be sufficient to send the values to the PC. Everything else could be performed in software at the PC.
However I have to admit that nice video is really nice. I had a good laugh at the end about the “kids don’t try that at home and don’t toast yourself “. Fits nicely to the design of the homemade board with two 9V blocks to power the OPamps.
would it not be more efficient to invert all the axes and make it so it would be run by slight head movements whilst keeping the eyes on the screen? looking away from the screen is a lot to ask for when playing a video game.
Reversing the axis would be more user friendly, however this way it would be harder to understand for some people (“why, he is not moving the eyes, only his head”) and would not create a discussion about it :) You are all hooked!
LMAO…
guy goes through this whole process of explaining this very complex set of components and electronics put together to make this work….then he has to blow into the game to make it work…. I always just kept a few q tips taped to the top of my Nintendo