Windows 10 Just Gained Eye Control: Here's How to Use It

We've seen eye-tracking technology make PC gaming more immersive, and now Microsoft is building it right into Windows itself, so you can navigate and type with just your eyes.

Delivered inside of build 16257 of the Windows 10 Insider Preview, Eye Control (which Microsoft emphasizes is still in the beta testing stage of development) allows users with compatible hardware to maneuver around their desktop with just their glances.

While Eye Control sounds like a fun new way to operate your laptop, Microsoft is positioning it as a more important tool. In the blog post announcing the new feature, the company stated that Eye Control will be "empowering people with disabilities to operate an on-screen mouse, keyboard, and text-to-speech experience using only their eyes."

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The Eye control launchpad will allow users to activate a keyboard, mouse and text-to-speech functions by looking at icons in its launchpad menu on the top of the screen.

As of August 3rd, support for Eye Control is limited to the Tobii Eye Tracker 4C, though Microsoft plans to add support for the the Tobii Dynavox PCEye Mini, PCEyePlus, EyeMobile Plus, and I-series trackers in the next updates.

If your machine supports Eye Control, all you need to do is download this latest Windows 10 preview build, this update from Tobii and run Windows Update to download the Tobii Eye Tracker HIDClass Driver. Once that's done, open Settings, select Ease of Access, then Other Options and scroll down and turn on Eye Control.

Since Eye Control is only in the Beta stage, Microsoft shipped it with some pre-existing issues, including that it "doesn't work well in direct sunlight." Further, the Eye Control launchpad obscures the Tobii interface during device calibration, requiring users to turn off Eye Control during the setup process.

Buy Tobii Eye Tracker 4C - PC on Amazon.com