Is Eye Pilot The World’s First Optically Controlled Video Game?

When it comes to the future of video game controllers, it seems the way forward lies in motion control. At least if recent activity from the big three consoles is any indication, every new game seems to be built on the same principal—move your body and the virtual characters will move theirs too. It might not be an ideal situation for the lazy amongst us, but the added interactivity makes up for having to swing your arms around or, God forbid, stand up. But for those who would prefer a more restful approach, the new game Eye Pilot may be just the ticket.

Eye Pilot is like the gaming version of the EyeWriter. It’s a collaboration between Damian Sommer, Drawing with Frames (who worked on the EyeWriter and built the Eye Pilot peripheral with similar technology), and Superbrothers, who designed the graphics. The premise is simple: you control a glider using your eye.

Wearing a specially built device that attaches to your head, a webcam tracks the movement of your eye with the glider moving wherever you look as you try to get as far as you can before eventually falling to the ground. And that’s it. They kept it simple because, obviously, gaming with your eyeball is amazing enough. The project was built as part of the Peripherals Initiative for the TiffNexus Locative Media Day.

We’ve seem some optic video game controllers in the past, but nothing quite as advanced and refined as this. To our knowlege, Eye Pilot is the first game to be developed expressly for the purpose of being played with your eyes. Below is some in-game footage:

And this is the presentation they gave at the event, the footage was recorded by Mr Ghosty: