EyeControl: Eye-Controlled Machines

EyeControl aims to create a whole new way of human-machine interaction in complex manufacturing settings, by introducing eye-gaze as a modality of implicit and explicit interaction with industrial machines and processes performed by them. The EyeControl project picks up on eye tracking techniques developed within the research team of the proposer, and will develop a framework for gaze-only machine controls. A methodological apparatus of universal, general purpose, reusable control components will be developed, and validated within cyberphysical industrial systems scenarios (Industrie 4.0) with world leading Austrian and European industries: voestalpine Stahl and voestalpine Polynorm. EyeControl is supposed to tackle pressing problems in heavy-duty industry worker-machine interactions, among them being (i) the optimization of product quality based on human visual inspections, and (ii) the optimization of cognitive load sensitive, guided interactions in complex assembly tasks. On top of these, the anticipated EyeControl research results are considered to lay foundational ground for a new generation of Man-Machine interaction modalities, with potential of application also in domains like medical engineering, maintenance and construction, operations management and the like.