In ancient Greek mythology, Medusa’s gaze turns onlookers to stone. Yang Shuo, a junior softwaremajorat Wuhan University, can crush fruit in the Fruit Ninja game simply by moving his eyes. The 21-year-old and his teammates recently developed a mask which operates a computer by eye movement.

The aim is to help physically challenged people and possibly to pioneer a new area in computer control technology. Their product enables users, who have weak muscles or are disabled, to operate a computer.

Their eye movement is captured by digital cameras fixed to the glasses, enabling the eyes to act like a computer mouse.

"We wanted to develop a technology that helps others and solves the toughest problems,” said Yang, leader of the team named “Xight”.

Li Jin, 21, a junior softwaremajorat the university, found a challenging problem during his visit to Chongqing Disabled Person’s Federation in an off-campus activity last year. Li noticed that disabled people wanted to communicate via the Internet, but many were unable to because of their physical condition.

"Let’s see what we can do,” said Yang.

The idea of using the eyes to control a computer came up. “Because the eye is one of the most agile parts of the human body,” said Li.

However the team discovered that eyes can be too quick to be captured by camera for an accurate positioning function.

As a result, their prototype glasses could only function in four corners of a computer screen with the head held still, which wasn’t practical.

The team reckoned that with lots of experiments and calculations, apatternof eye movement could be traced and programmed.

For 20 days they worked wearing a neck brace before they finally made a breakthrough with a head localization algorithm, which can accurately locate the target and execute commands.

"Many times when I took off the neck brace, I felt that it was hard to move my eyes and my neck was killing me,” said Yang. “But it was worth the pain.”

Xbox experts were excited to learn that Xight was even quicker than hand-waving karate moves when playing Fruit Ninja at a national competition sponsored by Microsoft. Mark Taylor, director of Development and Platform Evangelism Group, is amazed by thepotentialof Xight’s work.

"This product not only showcased technical brainpower but also a promising marketperspective,” said Taylor.

Taylor is right.

In the US, software and digital glasses with a similar function cost $8,000. But Xight’s can be much more competitive.

"Even if we refine the appearance of the glasses and the function in a more user-friendly way, it won’t cost more than 500 yuan,” said Yang.

Many investors have alreadycontacted the team trying to put the invention into commercial production. But the team refused.

"Atpresent, our focus is to improve Xight and make it an idealapplicationfor disabled people. When we achieve this we’ll consider commercializing our innovation,” said Yang, who has been busy preparing a thesis and materials for Xight’s patentapplication.

Not surprisingly, the team won the top prize in the innovation competition and will representChina at the worldwide innovation challenge to be held in Sydney, Australia, next month.

The four are racking their brains to incorporate new elements likegesturecontrol and voice control in Xight to spice up the human-machine interface concept.

"One day, when you return home, you will tell the computer to dim the light, use a handgestureto turn on the TV and glance at the air conditioner to lower the temperature,” said Yang.