When asked to describe the new eye-tracking technology developed at his company, Umoove CEO and CTO Yitzi Kempinski described his latest innovation as-
“It’s sort of like adding another sensor into the phone.”
What they have developed is this new technology that will turn the front-facing camera of your phone into a device that tracks your head and eyeball movement and can take game-playing experience to the next level. They have introduced this technology into a little game for the time being.
It is a simple game that they have introduced, nothing majorly fancy- with one level only. It has not been developed to climb the iTunes charts, but to prove a point- what’s possible with this sort of tracking technology, in the hope of spurring its usage.
It’s also not something available for all to use, oh no sir. Prospective developers must apply to get access to the SDK, and Kempinski said that the company has turned away many previous applicants for their lackluster ideas. Kempinski claims that people ‘don’t get it yet’ and wants them to realize all that this technology can achieve.
Though it could be argued that this technology could be used with malign intentions- if your head and eye movements are being tracked by the software to play a game, what is to say that it could not be used to prowl on unsuspecting victims? For that, all Kempinski says is- First, by noting that any capturing of a person’s face or behavior does not leave the phone or tablet by default, and that tracking data sent later would be anonymized.
“We’re not interested in doing this behind the scenes,” he said. “We’re not planning on turning on someone’s camera without anyone knowing. … It’s statistics. You don’t need everyone.”
Finally, he left the door ajar for this sort of tracking to become opt-in for non-advertising related apps, via a permissions box presented to users. And he said he expects tracking to become normalized over time.
“It’s something we’re extremely aware of, is the privacy issue,” Kempinski said. “But we got used to sending location data. The same thing is happening here.”
So LOOK OUT, you could be next to be blown by this technology!