Using an Irisbond Hiru with EasyClick Beginner | www.eyegazegames.com

The Eye Gaze Games website has been created to work with a wide range of eye gaze cameras, when both the camera and website have been set up correctly to work together.

The website works with your eye gaze camera, when you are using it to control the mouse cursor position and a left click. 

 In this video, we will look at how to play on the site using the Irisbond Hiru eye gaze camera and its EasyClick ‘Beginner’ software on Windows. We have a separate video on using its ‘Pro’ software on the site.

With the Irisbond Hiru camera’s EasyClick ‘Beginner’ software, you have constant control of the mouse cursor position, which means you have a few options for how you can choose to play the games. 

When using the EasyClick software in ‘Beginner’ mode, you move your eyes to move the mouse cursor around the screen and the windows mouse cursor icon will follow your gaze. You can look at the buttons onscreen to hover the mouse cursor over them and then use the EasyClick software to left-click and select these using a dwell, blink or switch, depending on which option you have chosen to use in the EasyClick options.  

For instance, here, we are using the Easy Click ‘Beginner’ software’s dwell option, and we can look at the buttons onscreen to hover the mouse cursor over them and dwell for a set amount of time to left-click and select them. 

When using EasyClick’s ‘Beginner’ mode, you can also choose to use the Eye Gaze Games website’s own in-built dwell, which has the advantage of being centralised on the onscreen buttons. Some may find that this can help keep their eyes on a target, whilst dwelling. You can find this option in the eye gaze settings in the Controls Menu on the site or during the Setup Wizard.  

If using this feature, just turn off the dwell click option in the EasyClick software whilst using the website, so you are just using EasyClick to control the mouse cursor and not the clicks. If using the in-built dwell, you can also change settings related to this on the site, such as dwell time and also whether you can make repeat selections whilst dwelling on a button or whether you need to look away and back between each selection.  

Intro Classic & Precise

There are two control schemes built into the website that you can choose between. The first option is ‘Classic’, which uses large onscreen buttons to control actions in both the 2D games, such as the board games,… and the 3D games, such as Open Drive or Gazey Golf.

The second option is ‘Precise’, which is more direct and often uses either smaller onscreen targets in the 2D games,… or uses the mouse cursor position to steer or aim in the 3D games. You can change between these two options in the Eye Gaze settings in the Controls Menu on the Eye Gaze Games site, or in the top left corner of some games.

 With the EasyClick ‘Beginner’ software, you can interact with the website and all of the  games using either the ‘Classic’ or ‘Precise’ control schemes. Here we are using the ‘Classic’ controls scheme in some of the 2D games. We are also using and the in-built dwell, but you can also use the left-click option in the EasyClick Beginner options. We use combinations of the buttons on the left and right to navigate and select pieces and where to place them. For instance, in Chess we select a button to choose a piece,… another button to choose where it moves to,… and a third button to make the move.

Here we are now using the ‘Precise’ mode in some of the 2D games and again using the in-built dwell. We can directly select the piece and then select where to place them. 

Here we are using ‘Classic’ in the 3D games and also using the in-built dwell. In open drive we use the onscreen arrow buttons to steer and in Gazey Golf we use them to aim.

For the 3D games, such as Open Drive and Gazey Golf, the ‘Precise’ control scheme will change the style of gameplay quite considerably and let you control steering and aiming more directly.

When using the ‘Precise’ mode in Open Drive, the vehicle will follow your gaze as you move the mouse cursor around the environment. You steer left by looking to the left of the vehicle. You steer right by looking to the right…and you go forwards by looking ahead of the vehicle. To brake and then reverse you look below the vehicle. If playing in ‘Classic’ mode, you will instead have onscreen buttons to select to steer the vehicle. You will first steer and choose which direction to face using the arrow buttons… and then choose to drive by selecting the button at the bottom of the screen in the centre. You will then select a button in the same location to stop the vehicle, before changing direction again.

If using ‘Precise’ controls, you may find that adjusting the ‘smoothing’ in the settings in the Easy Click ‘Beginner’ software, helps to make steering feel more responsive and so easier to control. Choosing ‘very low’ is the most responsive when you move your gaze, making the vehicle feel like it is turning quicker.

In Gazey Golf, using the ‘Precise’ controls means that your aim will follow your gaze as you move your mouse cursor. Whilst in ‘Classic’ you will use onscreen buttons to direct your aim.

You may also find it useful to explore the Options within the different games to see what settings can be changed for controls and gameplay, too.

We hope that this guide has helped with setting up the Eye Gaze Games website to use with your Irisbond Hiru and its EasyClick ‘Beginner’ software.

To try the games yourself and play for free, visit www.eyegazegames.com