Lenovo and Tobii have announced the first eye-controlled laptop, at the Cebit event in Hannover. Tobii is a company specialising in eye tracking and eye control.

This image may look to you like just another man using a laptop; but Tobii assures us that:

In this image, Henrik Eskilsson, the CEO of Tobii Technology, uses the eye gaze to control the computer.

What is being shown at Cebit is a prototype; apparently 20 units have been produced “for development and demo purposes.” Says Tobii:

For users, eye control is thrilling and makes the computer interaction more effective. It is as if the computer understands you; just glance at an icon or gadget and more information will be presented; You can zoom pictures or maps and automatically center on the area you are looking at; The computer can auto-dim and brighten the screen when it recognizes your eyes to increase battery time. Eye control can also speed things up by enabling new and intuitive ways to switch between open windows, and browse your emails and documents.

It is a fascinating idea though one that I guess you have to try before assessing its value. It is in tune with developments like Microsoft’s Kinect, which which you use your body movements as input to a games console or computer.

Eye control is a perfect complement to traditional control interfaces, such as the mouse and keyboard, and it is anticipated to be the next step within natural user interfaces.

says Lenovo.