Haier's Eye-Control TV set, we go eyeballs on (video)

Haier's Eye-Control TV set, we go eyeballs on (video)

Okay, okay, the transparent TV was neat, but will it actually change the way we watch television? Not likely -- not any time soon, at least. And while the mind-controlled set we saw last year was certainly cool, it didn't offer much in the way of accuracy. This Eye-Control TV, on the other hand, certainly takes a step in the right direction. To use the set, you sit in front of a black rectangular sensor positioned at chest height. There's some calibration involved when moving from person to person, chasing a circle around the screen with your eyes. Once calibrated, you're good to go.

You use your eyes for basic TV controls -- changing channels, adjusting the volume, things like that. Switching involves looking at an element of the screen and giving a big blink to select -- the display seems adjusted in such a way that normal blinks won't trigger it, so you're less likely to accidentally set something off. You look down to adjust the volume. A control panel will show up, and from there, you can move the slider left or right by looking at the volume up and volume down icons -- you can also select mute from here.

To change channels, look at the top left-hand corner of the screen and blink. That'll bring up a UI featuring large pictures of videos. Look at one and blink at it to select it. The system can also be used to view and toggle between still images. The use of pictures certainly seems the most intuitive method for navigating around videos -- there's a definite learning curve here, and it's hard enough to select pictures -- we couldn't really imagine toggling through small text. As with the transparent television, this doesn't feel quite ready for market -- it's a compelling concept, none the less. And using the human eye to control a display that you're already staring at anyway does seem to have some merits. Check out an eyes-on video, after the jump. Haier Eye-Control TV hands-on

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