Tobii touts latest apps for using your eyes to control games and wearables

Tobii Tech is banking that 2015 will be the year of consumer eye-tracking. The company announced today it will debut new technology for using the tracking of your eye movements to control games and other devices at the 2015 International CES event in Las Vegas next week.

The technology is promising, and if it catches on in games, it could give older user interfaces like the computer mouse some real competition. Tobii announced last year that it was teaming up with gaming gear brand SteelSeries to launch eye-tracking wearables for games. The first fruits of that alliance, the SteelSeries Sentry, is shipping in January 2015.

“2015 will be the year when eye tracking makes first entry into consumer markets and consumers will have their first tangible experiences with real eye tracking products in the wild, first with gaming and then within computing, ergonomic, and medical environments,” said Oscar Werner, president of Tobii Tech, in a statement. “We are well poised to bring new products to market, not only as Tobii, but also with numerous world-class partners in these industries. We are thrilled to move from prototypes to real products, games, and apps.”

The SteelSeries Sentry is billed as the world’s first gaming eye tracker for streamers, e-sports competitors, and those seeking to enhance their game strategy. The product will be shown off at the Tobii booth at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas during CES 2015. The product is available for pre-order on Tobii’s web site.

Tobii is also showing off the Tobii Glasses 2, a second-generation product used to control devices with your eyes. The Tobii Glasses 2 are available now for researchers. A developer kit will be available in the second quarter of 2015.

Tobii will also show off a variety of apps, collectively dubbed the Tobii Arcade, for eye-tracking technology. The apps include the Tobii Game Analyzer, a tool for competitive gamers to gain completely new insights into their play styles. This app ships with the SteelSeries Sentry.

Tobii will also show EyeX Interactions, a Windows PC add-on that enables eye gaze as an additional input. And it will show off Son of Nor by developer Stillalive Studios. The game is an action-adventure title where players fight enemies by using magical abilities with their eyes: telekinesis, terraforming powers, and spell casting.

And Tobii will show off Overwolf Overlay, an application adds a rich layer of eye-tracking functionality to the Overwolf engine so that gamers can gain insights, develop better strategies and increase the level of entertainment for their streaming audience.