Samsung Galaxy S4 "uses eye-tracking to scroll pages"

 

Gallery

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 5 Mar 2013 at 10:04

The Samsung Galaxy S4 will feature eye-tracking technology to make it easier to scroll through pages.

Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S4 on 14 March, and the latest rumour surrounding new features is an eye-tracking system, according to a report in the New York Times, which cites an anonymous Samsung employee who has used the smartphone.

The eye-tracking system will automatically scroll down pages when a user's eyes hit the bottom of a page, the report said. There's no word yet on the technology being used for the eye-scrolling system, but the newspaper noted Samsung has previously filed patents on the topic, and its Samsung Galaxy SIII uses the camera to know when someone is looking at the screen, in order to decide whether to keep it bright.

Similar eye-tracking systems are making their way into PCs, notably from Tobii - although it's been available for years, it hasn't seen widespread adoption yet. At CES 2013, Intel said innovative new input methods would start to become more mainstream, and has been working with Tobii to get the eye-tracking technology into Ultrabooks.

The anonymous source told the newspaper that new software was more important than hardware for the Samsung Galaxy S4.