eBay launches HeadGaze so you can use head movements to navigate

eBay has announced a new technological innovation coming out of its Computer Vision team that they hope will transform the way users can physically navigate through different applications. It's called HeadGaze and it uses Apple’s ARKit and the iPhone X camera to track your head motion so you can navigate your phone easily without using your hands.

Starting now, the first of its kind technology is available via open source on GitHub.com. Similar to how a mouse navigates the cursor on a desktop, this design lets you point to any location on the screen with your head and activate designated “buttons”. The technology’s design allows developers to easily integrate our features into their existing or future apps with minimum code change.

The HeadGazeLib is a pure Swift library to empower iOS app control through head gaze without a finger touch. They say any iOS developer can use it to introduce head-based control into their apps, which is ideal for accessibility and game control. The library is dependent on iPhone X, iOS 11, and Swift 4.

There is demo code also available in the GitHub repository that includes and app called HeadSwipe, which lets you swipe daily deals on eBay with nothing more than your head control.

eBay is releasing their new open source technology, which has possible implications for a number of industries, and potential health and wellness benefits as well. HeadGaze was developed by eBay’s Computer Vision innovation team, and inspired by insights and work from eBay’s Muratcan Cicek, an intern living with extensive motor impairments who has personal experience with assistive technology through his course work pursuing a PhD. eBay’s culture of open innovation fueled this advancement and will also propel it to the next level through partners helping us to make the capabilities of the technology even greater.

Below is an example of the markup use:

class MyViewController: UIHeadGazeViewController{
//.....
  private var headGazeRecognizer: UIHeadGazeRecognizer? = nil

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    setupGestureRecognizer()
  }
  private func setupGestureRecognizer() {
    // add head gaze recognizer to handle head gaze event
    self.headGazeRecognizer = UIHeadGazeRecognizer()
    super.virtualCursorView?.smoothness = 9
    super.virtualCursorView?.addGestureRecognizer(headGazeRecognizer)
    self.headGazeRecognizer?.move = { [weak self] gaze in

        self?.buttonAction(button: (self?.myButton)!, gaze: gaze)

    }
  }
  private func buttonAction(button: UIButton, gaze: UIHeadGaze){
    guard let button = button as? UIHoverableButton else { return }
    button.hover(gaze: gaze)
  }
//....
}