Eyeware’s mission is to enable everyone to engage with their devices in a more natural and intuitive way.

‘Eyeware develops head and eye tracking software for webcams and 3D sensors, enabling remote head pose and gaze tracking for consumer device integrations. Our innovative eye tracking software allows real-world interactions, capturing user attention, intention, and interest.’

The company describes its technology as ‘hardware agnostic’ as it works with any hardware straight out of the box. You may well already have the necessary hardware in your pocket; the beta gaming application is already available for use on iPhones.

Driver safety

Eyeware can be used to track driver habits, improving safety and making monitoring fleets of drivers easier than ever. Eyeware can ‘monitor drowsiness and fatigue with head pose, eye gaze and blink detection to help prevent accidents.’ This can also be used to monitor how distracted drivers are by passengers and tracking how often they check their speedometers.

‘The NCAP safety organizations are mandating driver monitoring systems (DMS) to detect driver fatigue. Time-of-flight (ToF) …cameras are able to map a driver’s hands position, head position and upper body position in 3D, so that it can be ascertained if the driver is facing the road ahead and if their hands are placed on the wheel.’

Logging driver behaviour will be useful if accidents do occur as there will be a precise log of events and whether the driver was paying attention and in control of the vehicle at the time of the crash. This could even potentially be used to enhance driving tests – no more arguing with your instructor over whether you did or didn’t look in your wing mirror, the answer is right there thanks to Eyeware.

Gaming

Eyeware has also turned its attention to the gaming world with the Eyeware Beam, allowing gamers to track where they focus on the screen to hone their skills and improve their performance:

‘Sharpen your skills and gain a different perspective. Replay your moves with the eye tracking overlay to discover hidden behavior. Record, analyze, learn and repeat.’

Eyeware Beam is available for over 190 head tracking enabled games, including Flight Simulator, F1 2021, and Earth Analog. Streamers using the technology have proven the impressive capabilities of the tech. With Eyeware Beam, gamers get the VR experience without the cumbersome headsets and large setup costs. The beta app is currently free on the Apple app store and the Android release is eagerly awaited.

Being able to interact with your devices through enhanced eye-tracking also has great potential for improving accessibility – charities such as AbleGamers work to make games accessible to everyone and could undoubtedly make great use of this technology.

Shopper insights

Eyeware’s shopper insights let retailers truly see their store through their customer’s eyes. Gone are the days of asking for feedback on what works and what doesn’t in your advertising, now retailers can gather genuine and unbiased feedback.

With Eyeware’s retail software, GazeSense, store owners can track exactly what catches the attention of passersby in their window displays, helping them build better marketing going forward. Eyeware’s solution is affordable, headgear free, anonymous, and continuous, providing authentic insights into consumer attention.

‘GazeSense surpasses the limitations of traditional eye tracking, allowing you to observe what your customers are naturally drawn to at the shelf. Determine their unconscious interests, learn their path to purchase, what they see and what they miss.’

From a marketing perspective, this is an incredible development. Consumers, however, may not be comfortable with the tracking as it is not something they would have the ability to opt out of. Despite this wariness, GazeSense is actually less intrusive than the ad tracking on our personal devices – the data Eyeware gathers is completely anonymous and does not collect any data on individuals. GazeSense retains no personal information on shoppers, simply information about their gaze.

Future potential

As the only company able to detect and analyse attention to objects in open 3D environments without additional costly hardware, Eyeware has huge scope for expansion into other markets and territories.

The sky really is the limit for Eyeware, especially because their technology can be used on so many different existing user devices. This low barrier to entry means their applications can be easily rolled out to drivers, retailers, and consumers across the globe with ease.