The Eyes Have It ERICA FORESEES THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION by C. Dave Ready "I woke up in the hospital paralyzed. The only thing I could do was move my eyes." Professor Thomas Hutchinson leans into his high-backed office chair and crosses his legs. The story of his brush with paralysis on the high school football field over 40 years ago is told with such a casual frankness that you forget to consider the peculiarity of a stocky, five-and-a-half-foot quarterback. Going back to throw a pass, Hutch (as his students affectionately call him) was hit on both sides by two locomotive linebackers. Letting go of the pass was the last thing he remembered before waking up nine days later with an injury to his C-2, the second vertebrae in his neck. "I do a lot of crazy things, like flying planes," says Hutch, "but nothing has frightened me nearly as much as being paralyzed." Hutchinson soon fully recovered from his spinal trauma, but many do not. Those in severe diving or riding accidents, such as Christopher Reeve, often lose everything but partial use of their faces. And as Hutch found himself in 1953, they may find themselves unable to communicate -- until now. Hutchinson's firsthand experience with this waking nightmare inspired him to create a revolutionary piece of technology which lets people's eyes say what their mouths or hands cannot. Developed over the last 12 years by students and faculty right here at U.Va., ERICA, the Eye-gaze Response Interface Computer Aid, is empowering the handicapped, deciphering some of the mysteries of human emotion, and possibly changing the way we use computers. The ERICA system is beautifully simple. An infrared video camera films the computer-user's eyeball, telling the computer exactly where the person is looking on the screen. "The eyes are primarily input devices," Hutch explains. "They suck in information just like your ears. Your mouth is an output device. Your hands are output and input devices through touch and feel. I found that if you could harness the output energy of the eye, it makes a wonderful pointer." Wild Inspiration In 1984, while watching a National Geographic show on elephants, Hutchinson made an interesting observation about the infrared lights used to take photographs in darkened caves: "When the beam of light turned toward the elephants, the brightest things in the field of view were their eyes." What Hutch saw in those elephants was their pupils, illuminated by the infrared reflection from the back of their eyes. Hutch realized that if he took a similar picture of a person's pupil, he could determine where the person was looking. Sending the image to the PC, the ERICA software tells the computer in what direction the pupil is pointing, using a reference point called the "glint." This starry dot of white light is reflected off of the cornea, the shiny front of the eyeball. That this reference point is actually on the eye is an innovation which has made ERICA the most user-friendly system of its kind. While other gaze-controlled systems often use external reference points, requiring bulky headgear or restrictive bite-plates, an ERICA user needs only to sit up straight and look at the screen. Hutchinson's other innovation is ERICA's cutting edge software. "Other systems are out there, but they're so far behind in terms of technology," he says. "They're still in DOS ... we're on Windows 95, and we just announced moving to Windows NT." Thus, ERICA can run any program that a normal personal computer can. Not only will ERICA "listen" to the eye's commands, but it will also keep a record of exactly where someone looks on the computer screen and the size of the pupil at each moment. "Pupil diameter is indicative of the emotional state you're in," says Hutchinson. "When you feel happy or pleased, your pupils open up; they close down when you're feeling displeased." Hutch describes the potential for a non-invasive lie detector, using the pupils as an accurate emotional gauge. Stroking his white beard, the professor grins with obvious pride: "A very large, unnamed government agency in northern Virginia is most interested in this." Apparently, the CIA knows, too, that eyes never lie. ERICA Inc. Quickly realizing ERICA's lucrative potential, Hutch formed ERICA Incorporated (http://www.ericainc.com), with some students and fellow systems engineering professors. A non-profit entity, ERICA directs all its revenue into philanthropy and more research and development. Hutch isn't in this for the money: "The sponsors and I haven't seen a dime in return," says Hutch, "but we don't expect to for quite a while." For about $30,000, you can join the list of ERICA clients, whether you're interested in pupil analysis or control. Advertising firms, for example, can use ERICA to determine how people feel when they view certain images and how long they stare at them. This could prove to be information so valuable that Big Brother can't help but get involved. In the future, your reactions to everything from websites to TV shows could be monitored by a secret ERICA-like camera inside your computer. "This has the potential for a lot of evil and also a lot of good," Hutch admits, "but you can't put the genie back in the bottle." Companies that handle hazardous materials may also find ERICA useful. Scientists can measure or manipulate material with their gloved hands, while inputting data on a screen with their eyes. But for now, the sweetest plum may be the video game market. This week Hutch and his ERICA students are in Atlanta showing off their latest software advance. Their student-designed jet-fighter simulator lets you control your flight with your hands and your gun target with your eyes. "It's pretty obvious," Hutchinson says, "that the possibilities are limitless." The Core Clientele These large corporations may ensure the financial livelihood of ERICA Incorporated, but what keeps the ERICA team coming to work every day are individual clients like six-year-old New Englander Molly Wen and former U.Va. Medical School professor Manny Maimone. Unable to walk, talk, or use her hands, Molly is a victim of severe cerebral palsy. The disease has caged her body in a wheelchair and her mind inside a disabled body. Communication with Molly is difficult. To indicate "yes" she looks at her father and for "no," at her mother. She is believed to have the mental capacity of a normal six-year-old, but since she can't use her mouth or hands, conventional teaching methods fall considerably short. "With ERICA," Hutch says, "she has finally been able to learn." Students on the ERICA team have designed a comprehensive software curriculum to bring her up to speed with her peers. When she looks at particular icons on the screen, a computer voice will say, "I'm hungry" or "I want to watch Sesame Street." Eventually, says Hutch, Molly will be able to type her own commands using the "Visual Keyboard." Perhaps ERICA's most functional program, the "Visual Keyboard" is already helping ALS victims like Manny Maimone to communicate. Over the past several years, ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, has slowly debilitated Maimone to the point of paralysis. By looking at the various letters and words displayed on his personal ERICA screen, he can read and write with the only body part under his own control -- his eyes. "Tom and his students offer hope to me and the many others who for whatever reason are paralyzed and without speech," Manny writes. "The quality of my life is woven by ERICA." "Robin Hood" Some of the disabled can afford to pay for ERICA themselves, but for most of those in need of the system, $30,000 can be too hefty a price tag. But Hutch has a solution to that problem. The revenue that doesn't go to paying research costs, he says, "we use to buy systems for handicapped people who can't afford them. So ERICA is kind of like a beneficent Robin Hood. The companies [who buy ERICA systems] get what they pay for, but they are also paying for systems for the handicapped." ERICA also benefits the University of Virginia by giving students access to rare equipment. "We've got a Pentium 255 machine ... even the computer science department doesn't have a 255. The fastest, most powerful computers in the Engineering School were all bought as a result of activities of ERICA Incorporated." Since the system runs on university equipment and student sweat, U.Va. has full patents on ERICA. Running a business inside the university is "no different than getting a grant from the National Science Foundation -- it's just easier," Hutch says. The Other Pupils How does he choose the elite group of U.Va. students to work with him on ERICA? Hutch rolls his eyes with a chuckle. "Carefully! It's like breeding porcupines. It comes down to not just the best and the brightest, but the very best and the very brightest." Hutch has taken students majoring in electrical and systems engineering, computer science, biomedicine, and even English. But to those who don't have a genuine desire to help the handicapped, Hutch is blunt: "I don't care how bright you are, I don't want to see you." Hutch's own devotion to the handicapped is surpassed only by his devotion to these students. As he glances toward the assorted student photographs on his bulletin board, he proudly says that his current student project-head achieved a 4.0 GPA while working 40 hours a week at the ERICA lab. And last year's head received 23 job offers from just as many interviews. "Companies know that ERICA kids are the brightest ... They have a business savvy that puts them two or three years ahead of other students." Hutch modestly claims that he provides only the "ambience" -- that the students are doing the real work themselves. But he won't deny the importance of active student-faculty relationships. "Senior professors should be more involved with students at the undergraduate level," Hutchinson urges. "If you fail the students, you're failing yourself." Although Hutchinson may admit that he was lucky to escape permanent paralysis in high school, he attributes most of his success to hard work: "I get bored easily." A self-described "physicist without a field," Hutchinson has studied theoretical physics, chemical engineering, space science, and medicine and has taught them all at universities throughout the world. Without depending on established avenues, he has uniquely synthesized academic research, business, and philanthropy under the name ERICA. Most folks would be satisfied with any piece of these accomplishments, but Hutch is just getting warm: "I haven't reached the peak of my career and I'm 61 years old. I don't expect to reach the peak for quite a while."

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