valley@stolaf.UUCP (06/30/83)
Why not a FOOT- or KNEE-controlled pointer? You will still be able to keep your hands at the 'home' position, yet move very quickly as needed. Might be good exercise, too! More useful than foot-control would be an eye/optical pointer. Not one that analyzes where you are looking, but one that works on the same principles as light pens: an optical device that detects the scan line that you are looking at , by reflection/refraction from the cornea. Bomber pilots ar rumored to have this type of aiming device now. Can it be filtered down economically? (Ans: Of COURSE it can!) P.S. I'm sick of "REAL" & "ENGLISH" on a MICRO net. Tim Valley WCAL St. Olaf College Northfield, MN References: <2537@sri-arpa.UUCP> On cursor keys, mice & men: How about a FOOT- or KNEE- controlled pointer? I envision something like a plate that rocks in four directions; the harder you push down on the side corresponding to the direction you want to go, the faster it would move (the cursor). Might also be good exercise for the chair-weary. I hope that very soon the technology that now allows bomber pilots to aim at targets by just looking at them will filter down to the mass consumer level. Mightn't this be based on the same principles as ligt pens, detecting position by detecting the crt scan lines? Perhaps a very low- power laser can scan our cornea, much as our groceries are scanned at the check-out counter, to triangulate the screen position that we are gazing at. P.S. I'm tired of REAL and ENGLISH on a MICRO net. Go somewhere else and play. T. Valley WCAL Radio St. Olaf College Northfield, MN
newman@utcsrgv.UUCP (Ken Newman) (07/01/83)
Aw c'mon is that bomber pilot aim-where-you-look stuff for real? I thought that was only in movies like Firefox and Blue Thunder. I sure wouldn't want to try and hit something like that - have you seen the experiments on rapid eye movements?
leichter@yale-com.UUCP (07/02/83)
Yes, the eye-tracking stuff is real, although I don't think it's all that widely used. The hardware involved is an infra-red laser and detector set mounted on the frame of a set of glasses or goggles; an infra-red beam is bounced off the eyeball. Here my knowledge of the details fades out; presumably, the beams aimed at the pupil aren't bounced back nearly as strongly as those aimed else- where. THe technology involved is well-understood and often used in psych labs. Yes, of course, eye movements are a problem. Eye-tracking motion is nothing like linear - it is done is continuous bursts of motion (called saccades [sp?]). At the very least, the system has to ignore eye position DURING saccades. What is actually done is to require the user to stare intently at the target for a substantial amount of time - substantial being with respect to the amount of time the gaze normally stays in one spot, which isn't very long. Just to be sure, some auxilliary input would presumably be used to actually trigger the action involved - so you don't have pilots inadvertently shooting all their rockets at the moonrise. There is a great tale about such a system that was put into fighters for a while. It triggered the emergency escape system; there was a big red cross pointed down on the floor beside the pilot - where he would not normally look. If you gazed at the cross for "a while", bingo, off into the wild blue yonder in your ejection seat. Now think about the situation: You are going to spend HOURS in the cockpit, and off there are your left is this big red cross that you MUST NOT LOOK AT.... Sure enough, no one could resist. The system was abandoned - a nice object lesson in the importance at considering the human being in your "technologically leading-edge" system. -- Jerry decvax!yale-comix!leichter leichter@yale