大學生發明神奇眼鏡用眼神“切水果”

　　你能想象戴上眼鏡，動動眼球便可以“切水果”嗎？由武漢大學大三學生團隊研發的Xight人眼視線捕捉系統將神話(mythology)變為現實。

　　In ancient Greek mythology, Medusa’s gaze turns onlookers tostone. Yang Shuo, a junior software major at Wuhan University, cancrush fruit in the Fruit Ninja game simply by moving his eyes. The21-year-old and his teammates recently developed a mask whichoperates a computer by eye movement。

　　在古希臘神話中，美杜莎可以用目光將看到她的人變成石頭。而來自武漢大學軟件專業的大三學生楊碩在玩水果忍者游戲時，卻可以通過移動視線來切水果。最近這位21歲的大學生和隊友們共同研發出了一個通過眼球運動來操控電腦的面具。

　　The aim is to help physically challenged people and possiblyto pioneer a new area in computer control technology. Their productenables users, who have weak muscles or are disabled, to operate acomputer。

　　這項發明旨在幫助殘障人士，并極有可能開創計算機操控技術的新紀元。他們的產品可以幫助那些肌無力或身患殘疾的使用者來操作電腦。

　　Their eye movement is captured by digital cameras fixed to theglasses, enabling the eyes to act like a computer mouse。

　　固定在眼鏡上的數碼像機能夠捕捉用戶的眼球運動，這樣一來雙眼就可以代替電腦鼠標的功能。

　　“We wanted to develop a technology that helps others andsolves the toughest problems,” said Yang, leader of the team named“Xight”。

　　“我們希望開發一種技術，可以幫助他人解決最棘手的難題。”“Xight”團隊隊長楊碩稱。

　　Li Jin, 21, a junior software major at the university, found achallenging problem during his visit to Chongqing Disabled Person’sFederation in an off-campus activity last year. Li noticed thatdisabled people wanted to communicate via the Internet, but manywere unable to because of their physical condition。

　　21歲的李今同樣是武大軟件專業的大三學生。他在去年參加參加重慶殘聯的校外活動期間發現了一個極具挑戰性的難題。李今注意到，盡管殘疾人士希望通過網絡與外界溝通，但很多人因為身體狀況而無法實現這一想法。

　　“Let’s see what we can do,” said Yang。

　　“讓我們來看看自己能做些什么。”楊碩說。

　　The idea of using the eyes to control a computer came up。“Because the eye is one of the most agile parts of the human body,”said Li。

　　于是，他們想到了用眼睛來控制電腦。“因為眼睛是人類身體上最靈活的部分之一。”李今說。

　　However the team discovered that eyes can be too quick to becaptured by camera for an accurate positioning function。

　　但該團隊發現眼球運動過快，相機難以捕捉其運動狀況，無法實現精確定位功能。

　　As a result, their prototype glasses could only function infour corners of a computer screen with the head held still, whichwasn’t practical。

　　因此，他們原先制作的眼鏡原型只有在保持頭部不動的情況下，控制電腦的四個角，缺乏實用性。

　　The team reckoned that with lots of experiments andcalculations, a pattern of eye movement could be traced andprogrammed。

　　他們思考后認為，通過大量的試驗和計算，可以追蹤眼球運動的方式，并編寫相關程序。

　　For 20 days they worked wearing a neck brace before theyfinally made a breakthrough with a head localization algorithm,which can accurately locate the target and execute commands。

　　他們頭戴頸托工作了20天，終于取得了突破，研究出一個可以準確定位目標、執行命令的頭部定位公式。

　　“Many times when I took off the neck brace, I felt that it washard to move my eyes and my neck was killing me,” said Yang. “Butit was worth the pain。”

　　“有好多次我摘下頸托，發現眼睛都動不了了，脖子也疼得要命。”楊碩說，“但是這些痛苦都值得。”

　　Xbox experts were excited to learn that Xight was even quickerthan hand-waving karate moves when playing Fruit Ninja at anational competition sponsored by Microsoft. Mark Taylor, directorof Development and Platform Evangelism Group, is amazed by thepotential of Xight’s work。

　　在微軟贊助的一項全國性競賽中，Xight視線追蹤系統在水果忍者游戲中的動作甚至比空手道中的揮拳動作還要迅速，Xbox專家們在得知該消息后興奮不已。微軟大中華區開發工具及平臺事業部主管馬克•泰勒對Xight的潛力感到十分震驚。

　　“This product not only showcased technical brainpower but alsoa promising market perspective,” said Taylor。

　　“該產品不僅展現出技術智能，更展示出了很好的市場前景。”泰勒說。

　　Taylor is right。

　　泰勒說的沒錯。

　　In the US, software and digital glasses with a similarfunction cost $8,000. But Xight’s can be much morecompetitive。

　　在美國，擁有類似功能的軟件和數碼眼鏡售價高達8000美元。而Xight的價格更具競爭力。

　　“Even if we refine the appearance of the glasses and thefunction in a more user-friendly way, it won’t cost more than 500yuan,” said Yang。

　　“即使我們為了提高用戶體驗度，而改善眼鏡外觀及其功能，它的成本也不會超過500元。”楊碩說。

　　Many investors have already contacted the team trying to putthe invention into commercial production. But the teamrefused。

　　許多投資商紛紛找到Xight團隊，試圖將該發明投入商業生產，但都被婉拒了。

　　“At present, our focus is to improve Xight and make it anideal application for disabled people. When we achieve this we’llconsider commercializing our innovation,” said Yang, who has beenbusy preparing a thesis and materials for Xight’s patentapplication。

　　“目前，我們的重點是改進Xight，使它成為殘疾人士的理想應用。當我們成功之后才會考慮將發明成果商業化。”楊碩說。他正在為Xight申請專利準備論文及相關材料。

　　Not surprisingly, the team won the top prize in the innovationcompetition and will represent China at the worldwide innovationchallenge to be held in Sydney, Australia, next month。

　　不出所料，Xight團隊最終贏得了該創新競賽的特等獎，并將于下個月代表中國參加在澳大利亞悉尼舉辦的全球創新挑戰賽。

　　The four are racking their brains to incorporate new elementslike gesture control and voice control in Xight to spice up thehuman-machine interface concept。

　　目前，四位成員正在絞盡腦汁為Xight配備手勢控制和聲音控制等新元素，為人機互動理念加些新料。

　　“One day, when you return home, you will tell the computer todim the light, use a hand gesture to turn on the TV and glance atthe air conditioner to lower the temperature,” said Yang。

　　“未來有一天，回家后你可以用語音指令指揮電腦調暗燈光，用手勢打開電視，看一眼空調就能調低溫度。”楊碩說。