eBay’s HeadGaze technology
makes mobile device applications
accessible to people who can’t
operate a traditional mouse,
keyboard, or touch screen. Its
software taps into augmented
reality features built into Apple’s
iPhone X, tracking users’ head
movements through the phone’s
camera and offering a digital
cursor for clicking, turning pages,
and scrolling. eBay came up with
the idea after joining Partnership
on AI, a consortium of tech
companies interested in finding
new ways to apply AI technolo-
gies to improve people’s lives.
The initial prototype, an overlay
for existing web pages, debuted
in September 2018 after four
months of tinkering, much of it led
by programming intern Muratcan
Cicek, who has motor-control
issues. eBay open-sourced the
software’s blueprints on GitHub
so other programmers could
build the interface into their sites.
“We didn’t want such a good
thing to wait,” says Robinson
Piramuthu, eBay’s chief scientist
for computer vision. That opens
up opportunities for companies
to target anyone whose hands
are so covered up, greasy, or pre-
occupied that they can’t use their
fingers. “The potential is huge—
not just for commerce, just in
general,” he says. —BP
Making Web
Navigation Hands-FreeHeadGazeEBAY