How do you control your Android just by looking at it?

Some new features for Androids are just cool and convenient; the major advances, that are an indication of where technology across the board is headed, are more rare. This software, showcased by The Eye Tribe at CES 2013, might just be the latter.

The software is a new way to control your smartphone, using your eyes instead of your fingers. Imagery provided by the phone's front-facing camera is analyzed using computer-vision algorithms, which identify where you are looking with enough accuracy to, for example, open the app you just looked at. The software is already sophisticated enough to activate the screen when you look at your phone, scroll websites based on how fast and how far down the page your eye has moved, control games, etc.

The Eye Tribe was founded by four PhD students from the IT University of Copenhagen, whose brilliant business plans and previous experience in eye tracking research and applications have kept this start-up funded and highly awarded. A particular strength of The Eye Tribe over similar developers in recent years is The Eye Tribe's focus on low cost and previously-integrated components to operate the software. This is contributing to the smooth organization of partnerships with mobile manufacturers and carriers that is currently taking place. Devices operating this software are expected to hit the market this year.

Learn more about The Eye Tribe's work from the official website, TheEyeTribe.com.

How do you remotely control battery-operated devices with an Android?

I found it: it's called a harvesting strategy. I had to look that up. Asking Google the name I'd forgotten for market penetration in the decline phase didn't turn out to be as simple as I'd hoped, but eventually Joe Schmo came through for me. The disposable battery industry seems to be riding out the waves of its maturity phase, and even entering the decline phase, meaning Tethercell, entering at this phase, is engaging in a harvesting strategy. Since this scenario sounds like an example in a college marketing textbook, I had to remember the name; and since I "remembered" the name, I decided to share it, despite only vague connections with Android.

The second of three CES products that we'll be discussing is called Tethercell; like Parrot's Flower Power, it simplifies life.

Tethercell includes an app as well as a physical device. The device is this super cool thingy of which I do not understand a circuit, but whose designers (Trey Madhyastha and Kellan O'Connor) I hold in high regard -- I mean, look at it. (Which reminds me: if you sell the motherboard and screen from your old laptop, you just might practically pay for the new.) To use Tethercell, replace one AA battery, from the device you'd like to monitor, with a Tethercell (which is powered by a AAA battery). Then the app end of the program can turn the device on and off remotely, alert you when the battery level is low, set schedules and timers to run the device, and even locate the device if it has proximity function.

TIME Magazine, cnet, The Verge, TechCrunch, Mashable, and others have given Tethercell the thumbs up. Looks like a nice little harvesting strategy, don't you think? You can pre-order Tethercell, with delivery scheduled for June, from indiegogo.

How do you automate tasks on an Android phone?

You walk out to your car, and your Android begins playing Pandora radio and switches to car mode. You walk into the office, and Pandora exits, as your phone  moves into standby mode where pictures from your gallery float around the screen. As the meeting in your schedule approaches, your Android reminds you and then opens the camera in front-facing mode, for a quick appearance-check before you go impress the boss.

All of this can be automated, using an app like Tasker. It's a fascinating system of prompts... if this, then that scenarios, rather like an Excel formula. For example, as you leave your house, you can't pick up home's Wi-Fi, which becomes a prompt to open Pandora and switch to car mode. Picking up the office network could be the prompt as you arrive. A couple other simple prompts would be an incoming notification, or opening an app.

Location or activity-based automations aren't the only option with Tasker; you can also set up shortcuts, in which one touch will go through a whole process. For example, you can write a command that will put an icon on your screen which, when touched, will take a picture and email it to a specific email address in your Gmail account. If your phone can do it, Tasker can automate it. The potential with this sort of program is limitless, helping you to keep up with life, never forget important events, and do everything you currently do with your phone, without all the steps in between that seem to take up most of the time we spend with our eyes on our Android screens.

Get the app from the Google Play Store here.
Get the free trial here.