«Active Eye Tracker» at the Expo 2000

The «Active Eye Tracker» presented publicly for the first time at the Expo 2000 in Hanover in the Daimler Chrysler Pavilion is a system completely navigated by the eyes. It has been conceived to let a wide audience experience their own sight. And connected with this experience is the awareness of employing machines by means of using ones eyes, ie.in this case a computer. The spectator sits down on a stool, leans the head onto a forehead rest and looks into a monitor, where all operations are displayed. The head needs to stay absolutely still, only the eyes move. All explanations and instructions are given verbally, all decisions are made by looking at the appropriate command for two seconds. It all starts with a verbal selection, then the eye is calibrated, afterwards the eye of the beholder appears live, looking at itself. Hereafter the spectator is requested to sweep the screen by moving his/her eyes, until the layer beneath with the menue displaying the four options becomes visible. Navigation: To navigate through a space with the eyes. Drawing: To draw a circle by using the eyes. Writing: To operate a keyboard by using the eyes. Looking: To look at the videoportrait of a woman, who in turn is looking at the spectator. On leaving the device, the spectator is able to get a print out of his personal eye movements. The idea for the «Active Eye Tracker» is based on the Eye-Drawings (Augenzeichnungen) done by Jochem Hendricks in the early `90s. In this body of works the drawings were done solely by using the eyes and without any additional help of the hands at all. The organ of perception turned into the organ of expression. Even then, the works were based on the eye tracking technique. The new interactive «Active Eye Tracker» was developed in association with the physicist Dr. Herbert Helmle, a specialist for the development of optoelectronic devices. During their collaboration Hendricks and Helmle founded the company artrax, its first product being the «Active Eye Tracker».