The Eye Tribe, Danish startup that develops eye tracking technology for consumer electronics, has announced about its pre-order campaign of USB 3.0 hardware accessory for Windows devices priced at $99, reports TechCrunch. This is the first very important step towards fulfilling The Eye Tribe’s goal of making eye tracking technology available for everyone.
The initial Eye Tribe Tracker pre-orded batch is targeted towards developers. It comes with a Software Development Kit which helps to integrate eye control into existing applications and games with just a few lines of code.
“We want all the best developers around the world to get The Eye Tribe Tracker and start developing games and applications with eye control. We expect to see whole new interaction concepts, when developers get their hands on our technology,” says Sune Alstrup Johansen, CEO and co-founder of The Eye Tribe in the company’s press-release.
Initially offered for Windows devices only (see more), The Eye Tribe is working on the Android version of its product as well . The company expects that the price of the device will decrease in the future as the sales volume goes up. The plan is to make money on licencing rather than on hardware sales. In the long run, the goal is also to ship to consumers. This is something that the company would want to accomplish together with an OEM.
“Finding a strong hardware partner that will bring this to market with us is the optimal way. However, we can and will do it ourselves, if we do not find the right partner in proper time,” says Sune Alstrup Johansen.
The new eye tracking technology is definitely going to be getting increasing attention in the upcoming future. By making its technology affordable and easily available for developers in building apps and games, The Eye Tribe makes a smart move of building a demand for its product once it gets integrated in consumer devices.
