Looking to the future

Eye gaze technology has been around in various forms since the 1960s and has already come a long way since its origins in marketing and human-computer interaction. Eye gaze as an access method - in other words as a way of controlling the computer mouse - has been a more recent innovation and one that has 'hit the headlines' of assistive technology. Eye gaze adds another option to the armoury of access methods that include switches, keyboards, mice and a whole host of off-the-shelf and adaptive equipment. At the moment, eye gaze is typically used when someone is unable to use any other access method, or when other access methods are so slow or inaccurate as to be of little benefit. Eye gaze might also be used as part of a combination of access methods. In the same way that you probably use a mouse and a keyboard, eye gaze does not have to be someone's only access method. This is particularly important, as eye gaze technology still has a number of issues that prevent it being used all the time.