Industry Insight from Eye-Com’s Eye Tracking Experts…An interview with Eliot Drake

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What does the future hold for Eye-Com Corporation and the eye tracking industry? This series of articles reveals details from Eye-Com’s eye tracking experts regarding the latest achievements in Eye-Com technology and their outlook on what’s in store for the industry.

The Wizard Behind Eye-Com’s Unique Frame Design

A graduate from MIT, Eliot Drake is a Mechanical Engineer at Eye-Com Corporation. Among the “various sorts of wizardry” he conducts with regard to hardware design, Drake is the visionary behind the new Eye-Com EC7T eye frames which integrate the device’s video, electronics and circuitry components within the light-weight glasses.

The focus for the latest design iteration is a transition from a developmental prototype that may not be very flattering or comfortable to one that is a suitable mass-market platform. In regard to the new design, Drake says, “They have to be stylish, they have to be comfortable, and above all, they have to have perfect operation from an optical standpoint.” The focus on aesthetics and ergonomics presents a challenge, as the frames have to fit a wide variety of face shapes and sizes.

Drake is most excited about being in a position to use rapid prototyping as a developmental tool. It may be more costly compared to other production techniques, but it allows for the hardware team’s ideas to come to fruition on a much shorter time scale. For Drake, this method is very rewarding.

So, what’s in the works for future Eye-Com technology? Drake says gaze tracking is one of the major challenges the Eye-Com team is tackling. A combination of eye tracking and head tracking, this feature will enable the system to pinpoint exactly where the user is looking by determining where their head is pointed and overlaying that data with the direction their eyes are pointing. This will improve the accuracy of the system by leaps and bounds.

Drake is in awe of the progress he’s seen since he began at Eye-Com almost a year ago: “The technology at Eye-Com is extremely innovative. The potential for what it can do and how it can revolutionize how we interact with our environment is extraordinary.”

Read about Drake’s predictions for the future of eye tracking in the next article. He is very optimistic about the influence of the technology on the augmented reality, transportation, and military training industries and how the integration of biometrics will transform the way users interact with their environment.