Have you ever thought of writing with not your hands, but with your eyes? A new device invented by Dr Jean Lorenceau at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris would allow you to do exactly that.

The system is already being used by Lorenceau and his patients to write and draw on a screen without moving their hands but just their eyes. Lorenceau says that this opens the door to more expressive, personal communication for people with disabilities. His research is published in Current Biology.

After brief training, participants gain volitional control over smooth pursuit eye movements and can generate digits, letters, words, or drawings at will.




Lorenceau found a way to control the eyes by accident, by using an optical illusion called reverse phi motion. That gave him the idea to create a system that would track this voluntary movement to "draw" on the screen. He claims that anyone could write at 20 characters per minute after a 90 minute training session. [Current Biology via Medical Press]