MP3 Player Controlled by Eye Movement

By: Andreas Ødegård on July 22, 2008 8:07 AM

If you thought controlling your MP3 player with a Bluetooth headset was high tech, you haven't seen anything. At the Wireless Japan Expo in Tokyo, a company called NTT Docomo showed a technology called EOG (electro-oculogram) that allows the user to control electronics with their eyes, in this case an MP3 player.

In it's current incarnation the device isn't very practical, but in the future the technology might be integrated into headphones to allow for controlling your music. Seems rather odd, then again it's not without it's usefulness, at least in some circumstances.

[VG.no (Norwegian)]

Comments

Sh4ft on July 22, 2008 10:50 AM

wow, some things you cant expect to get any stupider but then again if they get itto more practical appliances or even better for the audio's then it seems like a good iides,

ps: very strange though

helpme123 on July 22, 2008 10:50 AM

You gotta respect the Japanese. They know the way... of the Samurai. - Agent Simmons from Transformers movie

StrangeBlue on July 22, 2008 2:34 PM

isn't NTT Docomo like, one of Japan's major telecom providers? Sounds really weird. . .

Jack4L on July 23, 2008 12:14 AM

I doubt this is going to be integrated into everyday users mp3 players, but what about people who are paralized from the neck down?

RedSky on July 23, 2008 8:11 AM

... and I thought I looked crazy walking around in my HD600s.

Mark Allen on July 25, 2008 3:49 AM

Jack4L,

You got it. I'm an MD and there are lots of folks without feeling from the neck down. There's also a neurological brain stem syndrome called "locked-in" where the only muscles you can move are your occular muscles.

These folks have limited opportunities for R&R and anything that could bring music, i.e. their choice of music into their world is a very cool thing indeed.

Sometimes these folks are left with a clock radio on the end table playing the given shift nurse's favorite station. I know if it were me, that would be unpleasant.

matt on July 26, 2008 7:56 PM

compared with the people using headsets for their mobile phones, this doesn't look so bad!

schnizerhowwer on August 14, 2008 2:04 PM

imagine that, turning on the TV with your eyeballs... or maybe even driving your car with your eyeballs

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