Charity’s Free Software Means You Can Play Minecraft Using Just Your Eyes

SpecialEffect has just announced an update to its eye-tracking software for Minecraft, a set of tools that enhances the building block game’s accessibility [via PCGamer]. It’s now easer than ever to play Minecraft using just your eyes.

eyemine minecraft
Credit: Special Effect

The software, known as “EyeMine” is entirely free and allows players to use their eyes to control games like Minecraft. The original version of the software has enhanced the gaming experience of many. It provides much-needed accessibility options to a whole host of players who couldn’t play the game before. With version 2 of the software now on the way, the project is about to see some significant improvements. 

Version 2 of EyeMine promises to support a greater number of eye trackers. The likes of Tobii Dynavox systems, gaming trackers, and the Irisbond Duo are now being supported by the software. This support stretches to any eye-tracking device that can fully control an on-screen mouse cursor. Essentially this means a greater number of users can utilise the software. 

As well as having better device support, the software will also have a new feature which allows users to “dwell” on an area of the screen. This makes the process of mining and building much faster than before.

Developer Kirsty McNaught made the following statement about the new features in a recent blog post, commenting the following:

Dwell control lets a user place (or remove) lots of blocks quickly with free eye control of the crosshair. As well as speeding things up, it also prevents mistakes where users would steer the crosshair to their chosen location and then have to look down at the EyeMine keyboard, accidentally nudging the camera on the way.

One of our users, Becky, sent us a video of a pet emporium she built in about three hours the first time she tried out this new dwell method—she said this would previously have taken her two days to build.

Check out a video about the software below!

YouTube video

From the sounds of it, the EyeMine’s latest software update has really made a difference to the overall experience. First launching in 2018, the software has been developed alongside a group of test users, contributing to what the software has become today.

SpecialEffect has insisted that EyeMine is and always will be free. The charity does tremendous work within the realm of video game accessibility and truly changes the lives of many gamers with tools like this.

You can donate to SpecialEffect via the official website right here. You can also download EyeMine for yourself through SpecialEffect’s Github page here.

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Featured Image Credit: SpecialEffect