Kill You With The Blink of an Eye

Amy Nelson, Associate Writer

March 29, 2010

Just sit back. Relax. Close your eyes and go to your happy place--a truly wondrous time in the future where you can be so lazy that you can sit on your butt and play video games without moving anything but your eyes. Now open your eyes--that time is here! Well, almost. Technically, eye control gaming is not available for the mass market yet, but gamers around the world are testing it right now. Just think, they are on their lazy butts as we speak, moving nothing but their eyes and the hand that holds the Cheetos, valiantly leading us into the cutting edge of future gaming. Thank you, gaze-control testers, for bravely escorting us to the new frontier.

So, what challenges are these brave souls taking on to bring gaze control to their fellow lazy gamers? No true test of gaming prowess would be complete without World of Warcraft, of course. Testers simply moved their gaze to various buttons on a floating translucent game panel to direct gameplay. Sweet--no orange Cheeto residue on their keyboards. A team of 12 experienced WoW gamers in Leicester, UK recently released results showing that gamers actually pick up the new gaze controls very easily.

What about shooters, you ask? Of course, most true hard-core gamers are fans of the FPS. Well, the Centre For Intelligent Machines (eek, the robots are coming!) in Montreal, Canada has got your back. In their shooting game, enemies appeared based upon where the gamer was looking on the screen. Close up enemies were easier to hit, while distant enemies were a challenge. I know what you're thinking, though. "Amy, how the heck am I gonna bust a cap in this mutha if I don't have no buttons to mash?" First off, watch your language, pal, this is a family site. Second, those wacky scientists have got that covered too. In one version of gaze control, the gamer simply looks at the enemy to aim, and frowns to shoot. "I am very disappointed in you, enemy soldier." BAM! Of course, this version requires the player to wear a bit of handsome facial gear to track forehead motion. So all you cool gamers (Ha! See how I made a joke there!) who don't want to wear headgear might want to try out the blink control option. "I'm sorry, Grandma! I didn't mean to kill you! My eyes were dry."

Of course, all you veteran button-mashers out there are probably a bit worried about performance. Hey! What we need is some kind of test, where gamers using gaze control, a mouse, a joystick, and a touchscreen face off to see who is the fastest gun in the West. Oh, wait--the scientists did that too. Ooooh, Snap! Turns out gaze control is the fastest of the bunch, beating out the closest competitor (the mouse) by about 50 milliseconds. That might not seem like much to you, but believe me, 50 milliseconds can seem like an eternity when you're being stalked in the jungle by enemy soldiers who can kill in the blink of an eye. (See, there! Another one! I slay me!)

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