Virtual instruments let you play music using only your eyes

Software that turns eye movement into musical notes lets you compose music or play a tune on a virtual instrument with just your eyes. Called Eye Conductor, it was developed by Andreas Refsgaard at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design in Denmark and his colleagues to provide a musical outlet for people with physical disabilities. Caring for a boy with muscular dystrophy, Refsgaard found that it was hard to help him express himself creatively. "I wanted to create a solution that still requires practice, like a traditional instrument," he says. The system uses an off-the-shelf eye tracker with a webcam to follow a person's gaze.