EyeMine

Look and play!

Many people with severe physical disabilities struggle to have the dexterity or movement to play Minecraft, but now there's a way for many of them to join in - simply by moving their eyes.

Our Windows-based EyeMine software is free to download for anyone with a Minecraft account and works with a number of eye-trackers, including low-cost units like the Tobii 4C.

EyeMine caters for a wide range of abilities, too. If players can reliably use eye gaze to select a square about a quarter of the height of a monitor, they should be able to walk, fly and attack. More accurate eye control enables building, selection of items from the inventory and chat.

How does EyeMine work?

Eye-trackers have inbuilt infrared cameras which track where your eyes are looking, letting you move the mouse pointer around on the screen. You can 'click' by dwelling (staring at a screen button for a certain length of time) or by using a switch that’s plugged in to the computer. You can see dwelling in action in the lower screenshot - it's the red circular timer.

Our EyeMine software harnesses this control specifically to play Minecraft, and consists of an assistive keyboard as well as a custom mod that makes makes a few small changes behind the scenes to make Minecraft more accessible.

To help you get started, there's a growing list of tutorial videos available.

Requirements

You'll need a Windows PC running at least Windows 7 with the minimum spec for Minecraft, plus an eye-tracker device and a Minecraft account.

Any of these eye-trackers will provide full functionality. Any eye tracker with its own software that allows you to control the mouse will also work, but with more limited functionality.

If you don’t have a Minecraft account, you can try EyeMine to make sure the target sizes are appropriate before purchasing one.

Our EyeMine software is not compatible with Minecraft on mobile or gaming consoles.

Not just for eye control

EyeMine isn’t limited to eye control. Anything that controls the mouse cursor can be used - a joystick or trackball, for example - or a head-controlled mouse. Here’s the fantastic Paige playing the game by moving her head instead of her eyes. If you look closely you’ll see a silver dot on her forehead that’s being tracked by the HeadMouse sensor.

"My daughter Paige has now been using Eyemine with her HeadMouse successfully for a while now,” said her mother Nikki. “She’s thoroughly enjoying being able to play Minecraft all by herself! Thank you so much for developing such an amazing programme."

Hundreds of people all over the world have downloaded EyeMine, and if you’re enjoying using it in whatever way, it would be great to hear from you!

Why SpecialEffect

We’ve been working with eye-gaze and complex disability since 2007; modifying, training, advising and adapting the technology to suit individual needs. Our founder, Dr Mick Donegan, is an acknowledged world leader in the development and application of eye-gaze technology, and has extensive experience in bridging the gap between the potential and the practical use of the technology.

With such expertise to draw on, our teams are dedicated to doing whatever we possibly can to make eye-gaze successful.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to our beneficiaries Becky (pictured here with Lewis of the Yogscast), Tiago (in the video above) and Ian for their invaluable feedback and support throughout the development and testing of EyeMine.

EyeMine would not have been possible without the brilliant work of the EyeMine team, including Kirsty McNaught.

EyeMine is a fork of the opensource OptiKey project. Many thanks to Julius Sweetland, creator of Optikey.