Apple to bring eye tracking to iPhone allowing users to control the device with their eyes

Apple iPhone

Apple has announced new accessibility features, including Eye Tracking, a way for users with physical disabilities to control iPad or iPhone with their eyes. Furthermore, Music Haptics feature will offer a new way for users who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music using the Taptic Engine in iPhone.

“We believe deeply in the transformative power of innovation to enrich lives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why for nearly 40 years, Apple has championed inclusive design by embedding accessibility at the core of our hardware and software

Other features include Vocal Shortcuts, which will allow users to perform tasks by making a custom sound. For those who suffer from motion sicknesss, there’s Vehicle Motion Cues which can help reduce motion sickness when using iPhone or iPad in a moving vehicle.

Designed for users with physical disabilities, Eye Tracking uses the front-facing camera to set up and calibrate in seconds, and with on-device machine learning, all data used to set up and control this feature is kept securely on device, and isn’t shared with Apple. Eye Tracking works across iPadOS and iOS apps, and doesn’t require additional hardware or accessories, said Apple.

With Vehicle Motion Cues, animated dots on the edges of the screen represent changes in vehicle motion to help reduce sensory conflict without interfering with the main content.

Using sensors built into iPhone and iPad, Vehicle Motion Cues recognises when a user is in a moving vehicle and responds accordingly. The feature can be set to show automatically on iPhone, or can be turned on and off in Control Center.

There are accessibility features coming to CarPlay include Voice Control, Colour Filters, and Sound Recognition. With Voice Control, users can navigate CarPlay and control apps with just their voice. With Sound Recognition, drivers or passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing can turn on alerts to be notified of car horns and sirens. For users who are colourblind, Colour Filters make the CarPlay interface visually easier to use, with additional visual accessibility features including Bold Text and Large Text.

All these features will be rolled out later this year.