For the “Trick++” assignment, I wanted to use the computer as the magician.

Our group recently purchased a couple of Tobii eyex eyetrackers and this was a great opportunity for me to learn how to use one.

The magic worked as follows: The audience member volunteered was asked to sit in front of the computer screen, which showed an animation of shuffling deck of cards. When the volunteer is ready he/she clicks the “Magic” button and the computer shuffles the cards and open the top 5. Then, a short tune is starting to play and the user should now choose one card and concentrate on it really hard - “transmit your choice to the computer”. After 10 seconds the music is over. The deck of card is again shuffled and then all the cards in the deck are spread on the screen, all facing down but the chosen card that is facing up.

The method: The eye tracker at the bottom of the screen is tracking the user eyes while the cards are open and music is played. The chosen card is the one that the user looked on for the longest time. The code for the webpage running the magic is here. And the server I used for reading data from Tobii to javascript is from here.