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Comment by canuckintime | Hacker News Reader

Eye tracking is very impressive technology, and foveated rendering is an excellent application, but eye control is poor UX. Yes, I'm saying the emperor has no clothes.

Imagine having a jittery cursor in the center of your vision at all times? If I had a mouse/trackpad working like that it would immediately be replaced but that's Apple's eye control. Imagine scrolling a page and every where you glance there's a spotlighted/popup control or ad? That's Apple eye control utilizing dwell and snap to item.

It's telling that the 'best window' apps/use cases for Vision Pro are video watching and Mac virtual display which has low reliance on eye control during usage. Trying to browse the web with Apple's eye control is a clear regression compared to touch/keyboard/mouse/trackpad only useful as an accessibility feature

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> eye control is poor UX... a jittery cursor in the center of your vision

For a lot of folks with tremors or other mobility issues, their eyes may be much more stable than their fingers. It might be helpful to weigh the tradeoffs you're presenting with alternatives including a jittery inaccurate finger in the center of their vision, or even just not being able to use the UI at all.

> only useful as an accessibility feature

For the above reasons, that's exactly how they're marketing it

> For a lot of folks with tremors or other mobility issues, their eyes may be much more stable than their fingers. It might be helpful to weigh the tradeoffs you're presenting with alternatives including a jittery inaccurate finger in the center of their vision, or even just not being able to use the UI at all.

I did not suggest otherwise

> For the above reasons, that's exactly how they're marketing it

That's not how it's being received (see other HN users in this very topic) nor how Apple is marketing it for Vision Pro

> That's not how it's being received

If you don't need the feature, and don't like the feature, and you have to dig through accessibility settings to enable it, then it's a strong indication that the feature probably wasn't built for you

If you're curious about who this was built for, look up iPhone Switch Control [1] and you'll see how people with mobility issues otherwise use a touchscreen

[1](https://youtu.be/HBo2BZ-Zzwg?t=119)

Again, I understand the accessibility benefits of the feature and I'm not critiquing that. I responding to a hacker news audience mostly who want to hack this feature and I'm telling them not to bother

You said ‘the emperor has no clothes’, without caveats. For the intended audience, the emperor is indeed very snug

I literally started and ended with caveats:

> Eye tracking is very impressive technology, and foveated rendering is an excellent application...

> useful as an accessibility feature

Vision Pro is different. It has a finger gesture to "tap".

The iPhone eye tracking mode relies on dwelling with your eyes, making it much slower than tapping, therefore not a good option for people without disabilities. Unsurprisingly, the setting to enable it is under Accessibility.

> Vision Pro is different. It has a finger gesture to "tap".

That doesn't rescue it from being a poor control scheme.

Eye tracking in an HMD and eye tracking through a selfie camera are not on par.

It’s not the quality of the the tracking I’m referring to. The eye tracking on Vision Pro is great for foveated rending for example. But as UI control it really doesn’t matter how good the tracking is; eye tracking is just a poor UX

> eye tracking is just a poor UX

You’re literally just arguing your personal opinion by continually restating your personal opinion. Some people love this UX. By definition that makes it an excellent UX for some people.

It’s not a poor UX, it’s just a poor UX for the type of user you are.

I gave reasons why it's poor UI:

> Imagine having a jittery cursor in the center of your vision at all times? If I had a mouse/trackpad working like that it would immediately be replaced but that's Apple's eye control. Imagine scrolling a page and every where you glance there's a spotlighted/popup control or ad? That's Apple eye control utilizing dwell and snap to item.

Nobody has responded to those but instead keep saying I'm attacking accessibility.

I don't think the cursor is an issue

Yeah, disability can be frustrating. But good on Apple for giving people some options here.

Hey I did not say otherwise. It's a good accessibility feature. It becomes frustrating when Apple makes it the main control as for the Vision Pro

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