The Division Will Support Eye Tracking Technology
By Evan Hopkins 26 February 2016
Ubisoft announces a team-up with tech company Tobii to make upcoming shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division compatible with eye-tracking technology, allowing PC gamers to use their eyes to play.
When Tom Clancy’s The Division was first unveiled at E3 2013, the gritty, realistic trailer promised fans a unique game that would immerse players in a living, Ubisoft-supported world. While The Division’s focus on shooting-centric open world MMO-esque action drew comparisons to Bungie’s Destiny, Ubisoft promised that The Division would be unlike anything gamers have ever seen before. Turns out, that promise was quite literal, as Ubisoft has announced that The Division will feature revolutionary eye tracking functionality that will allow PC gamers to use their eyes to control aspects of the game.
While The Division notoriously suffered from a long development period, Ubisoft is showing that the work being put into the title is allowing the company to explore unique features such as eye tracking. Working in conjunction with tech company Tobii, Ubisoft has revealed that The Division is being tailored to work with Tobii’s EyeX sensor.
In a video announcing the partnership, Tobii and Ubisoft showed how the unique eye-tracking peripheral will work with the PC version of the highly anticipated shooter. The EyeX sensor keeps track of subtle eye movements, which translates into a variety of actions in game. In the video, the eye tracking feature highlights movement from cover-to-cover, with the player just pointing their eyes at where they want to go, causing the on-screen character to move accordingly.
While players looking to immerse themselves in The Division’s war-torn New York, the EyeX can be used to aim, theoretically improving accuracy, and to tag enemies. In keeping with the immersion, EyeX also allows players to view in-game HUD elements at a glance, wiping out distracting elements such as the mini-map and health bar, allowing gamers to play with a clean, unobstructed UI.
With Sony and Microsoft looking to bring virtual reality to consoles, the possibility exists that eye-tracking features for The Division will one day make it to PS4 and Xbox One. But for now, Ubisoft says that eye-tracking is a PC exclusive feature.
With shooters such as The Division requiring constant eye movement, it remains to be seen if the implementation of Tobii’s EyeX will prove to be immersive and interesting or distracting and obnoxious. Whatever the case, PC players will get to find out when The Division releases on March 8th.
Tom Clancy’s The Division releases March 8, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Gamespot
