Tag Archives: Tony Quan

Drawing pictures with your eyes at FutureEverything digital celebration

The title is meant literally, i.e., drawing pictures using your eyes only. What makes the feat even more extraordinary is that the designers hacked a Playstation 3 webcam to create the Eyewriter and (from the BBC article by Zoe Kleinman) “You could put it together at home without a soldering iron for about £30.”

The project won first prize at the FutureEverything festival in Manchester, England. From the BBC article,

Artists, musicians, engineers and hackers from around the world recently descended on Manchester for a three day celebration of digital culture.

Now in its 15th year, FutureEverything (previously called Futuresonic) has quietly established itself as an annual gathering for the technology avant garde.

With a £10,000 prize up for grabs for the best innovation, the stakes were high for the exhibitors at a local pop-up art gallery called The Hive.

The first prize went to Eyewriter, a team who developed a pair of glasses designed to track and record eye movement, enabling people to draw pictures using their eyes.

It was designed for Californian graffiti artist Tony Quan, who has ALS, a form of motor neurone disease. His eyes are the only part of his body that he can move.

Kleinman’s article features details about other projects that were shown at the festival as well as a video which features the artist, Tony Quan, putting the Eyewriter to the test, and an interview with the festival founder and organizer.

Something like the Eyewriter points to exciting possibilities for leveling the playground so everyone (no matter what physical limitations they may have) can participate. It also points to the benefits of hacking.