Pizza Hut is working with a Swedish eye-tracking technology company Tobii to design a tablet-based menu that will track users’ eye movements to recommend perfect pizzas. The brand says it wants to “create new and innovative dining experiences” and the firm insists eye-tracking will eventually change the way consumers interact with all devices. To date, many eye-tracking applications have been in the medical field, but with the release of what Tobii calls the “the world’s first eye-tracking device for consumers” slated to come in early 2015, does that mean eye-tracking applications will soon become the next big thing in branded mobile experiences?
Anyone who has struggled to decide what to order at a restaurant is in luck. At least at Pizza Hut locations in the UK.
Eye-tracking company Tobii Technology and Pizza Hut have teamed up to create what they have dubbed the world’s first “Subconscious Menu,” which is designed to “intuitively recognize what [consumers] want, even when they don’t know themselves.”
The Subconscious Menu is a program on a Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet, which uses Tobii EX eye tracking technology and will be available in 2015, according to a Pizza Hut rep in the UK.
The menu is completely controlled by customers’ retinas and features images of the 20 ingredients most commonly found in Pizza Hut locations in the UK, such as peppers, chorizo, pepperoni, and chicken, according to a press release.
In 2.5 seconds, the Subconscious Menu knows which ingredients a consumer has been looking at longest on the tablet and the menu uses an algorithm to identify that customer’s perfect pizza from 4,896 possible ingredient combinations.
“Basically it does a quick calibration of your eyes and then tracks where you look to work out what your eyes lingered on the most,” according to a rep for Tobii.
The press release also says tests on the Subconscious Menu have been “incredibly positive with 98 percent of people recommended a pizza with ingredients they love.”
However, the release notes, if a consumer isn’t happy with the recommended pizza, he or she can start the process again by looking at the restart button.
The Subconscious Menu will roll out “nationwide to every refurbished restaurant in the UK” and will take six months to build overall, the release says. The Pizza Hut rep says it is still in the trial phase and is not yet available in restaurants, but notes the brand seeks to “create new and innovative dining experiences” and is hoping the technology will help it connect with young people and families.
The Tobii rep says the firm has a kit available for developers who want to integrate eye-tracking into their apps and games, noting this is the same technology used on the Pizza Hut tablet.
“This is a fun and innovative way of using new technology in everyday life,” the rep said. “Eye tracking will change the way we interact with any device in the future, not only when ordering pizza.” The Tobii rep also says the Pizza Hut partnership is part of the firm’s tech division, which is working on development and integration into consumer products. He notes the firm will release “the world’s first eye-tracking device for consumers” in early 2015 along with its partner, gaming gear manufacturer SteelSeries.
In January, the brands announced their intent to do so, saying, “The eyes are used to signal intent and interest, guide your actions, aim, express emotions and more. This extremely powerful dimension of interaction enabled by eye tracking opens up richer and more immersive gaming scenarios with games that respond to the player in ways that until now have not been possible.”
Per Tobii, this “richer gaming experience” includes more natural interaction, as well as allowing gamers to reveal intentions, aim at gaze point and move as in real life.
“Eye tracking capabilities offer game developers a new, creative approach to game development. It becomes a truly immersive experience for players,” said SteelSeries CEO Bruce Hawver in a statement.
The Tobii rep said the firm has worked in personal computing, as well as in research, and it has enabled communication for thousands of people with special needs. That includes former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason, who the rep says is a Tobii device user and was featured in a Microsoft ad for the Super Bowl.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JObFlEvc-EgTobii has also worked with medical and industrial display provider ESINOMED to launch EyeSeeMed, an eye-tracking product that integrates with hospital PACS systems to give surgeons hands-free access to imaging and patient data in sterile surgical environments; and well as Synaptics, which develops human interface products for consumer electronics, on a new prototype laptop.