Google Gets Eye-Tracking Unlock System Patent for Glass-Like Specs

If there was any doubt that Google is determined to make awkward, inadvertent eye contact the new version of mistakenly conversing with someone who’s actually on a call using a Bluetooth unit, that can be laid to rest with the awarding of Google’s latest patent: an eye-tracking system to unlock a computer screen--specifically, the screen mounted to a pair of Google Glass spectacles (or other “head-mounted display”).

The patent states the following (and reminds us through its tedious text why we never wanted to go into patent law):

The computing system may generate a display of a moving object on the display screen of the computing system. An eye tracking system may be coupled to the computing system. The eye tracking system may track eye movement of the user. The computing system may determine that a path associated with the eye movement of the user substantially matches a path associated with the moving object on the display and switch to be in an unlocked mode of operation including unlocking the screen.

Basically, when a user wants to wake up his Google Glasses, the system will produce a randomly-generated moving “object” on the display, and adequate tracking by the user’s eyeballs will unlock the device.

We’re glad to see that Sergey Brin and the Glass team are making progress on this thing, because we’re dying to give Project Glass a spin.