A Bradford University student has developed a wireless robot which is controlled simply by using the human eye.

It uses sophisticated eye-tracking technology and could change the lives of thousands of disabled people.

Suraj Verma, a master’s of science student at the university’s School of Engineering, Design and Technology, created the robot, under the supervision of lecturer Dr Prashant Pillai. Dr Pillai said: “The advanced eye-tracking technology used in this project has several practical future applications in the research area of assisted living, especially for the disabled.

“The technology used in this project could be extended to control an electronic wheelchair by just looking in the direction in which you want it to go, and this is what we would like to explore next.”

The project, named Intelligent Recognition for Interactive Systems (IRIS), has been developed to employ eye-tracking technology in the field of robotic navigation, home automation and media and marketing research.

A head-mounted eye-tracker has been developed which detects the movement of the human eye and accordingly controls the navigation of the robot via Bluetooth.

The system can also turn lights on and off, as well as other electrical appliances in the room, using the X10 wireless protocol – an open standard for wireless control of household electronic devices using bursts of radio frequency signals.

The main aim of the project was to help disabled people to communicate and control various household appliances.

Systems using sound and touch to control a computer are available to help disabled people, but IRIS communications system uses eye-tracking to control the computer and other household appliances.

The system can also be used to determine the amount of attention users give to media, such as advertisement posters, magazine articles and websites.

According to the university, the system can be easily extended to control the computer mouse, browse the internet, replace game controls and operate a mobile phone via computer.