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SideWays eye-tracking prototype sees what you’re ogling while shopping

eye-tracking

Imagine walking down an aisle at Target and casting a glance at a big orange bag of Cheetos on the shelf. Next thing you know, an ad featuring Chester Cheetah pops up on a video monitor in the aisle. Despite the threat of cheese dust everywhere, you are unable to overcome your Cheeto lust and toss a bag in your cart, all the while wondering why the commercial appeared onscreen just as you passed the snack. A new eye-tracking device called SideWays is responsible.

Currently a prototype, SideWays can recognize several pairs of eyes. Created by Andreas Bulling of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany, along with colleagues from the UK’s Lancaster University, SideWays can be much more than just an advertising tactic.

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According to New Scientist, SideWays was unveiled this week at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris. What makes it unique among previous eye-tracking devices is its ability to track up to 14 different individuals’ eye movements. Until now, the vast majority of eye-tracking technology could only recognize one person’s eyes.

SideWays is able to track the horizontal eye movements of people of different heights, ages, and eye colors. It works by detecting the corners of your eyes and where they are in relation to your face. From here, the computer program is able to find and track your pupils. As of right now, it’s only able to track horizontal eye movement. Eventually, it will also track vertical eye movement, though it’s more difficult because the eye moves less when going up and down.

To demonstrate how SideWays works, the creators had test subjects look at a series of CD covers to engage the people and the software to recognize their eye movements. While Bulling and his colleagues believe Sideways would have immediate applications in advertising, they also believe that it could change the way people interact with displays that aren’t close enough to touch, such as a billboard in Times Square or a television.

SideWays still has a ways to go before the program is able to recognize multiple gazes at one time, but the creators are working on it. They are also working on getting the technology to properly track the eyes of people wearing glasses, which is a challenge due to the frames and the reflections that glasses can cast.

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Labor Day sales have been running since last week and the big day itself is wrapping up, but if you're fashionably late to the party, there's still a chance to score some bargains on computers, home essentials, and more. Time is of the essence here, so to give you a leg up, we've rounded up all the best last-minute Labor Day sales that you can still shop right now from big retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.

Amazon Labor Day Sale: Amazon sells just about everything under the sun, so it's no shocker that the Amazon Labor Day Sale has discounts on almost anything a shopper could want. We're all about tech deals here, though, and there are still some nice bargains to be had on 4K smart TVs, headphones, wireless earbuds, and smart home gadgets like the Echo Dot Alexa speaker. Amazon has also made it easy to select categories so you can sort through the riff-raff more quickly.
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B&H Photo Labor Day Sale: B&H Photo has always been a go-to outlet for camera gear, but its Labor Day Sale is also slashing prices on everything from desktop monitors to wearables. Some Apple stuff is also on still on sale; a few of the best last-minute Labor Day deals here include the 12.9-inch 2019 iPad Pro (with Wi-Fi + cellular connectivity), Apple AirPods, and 13-inch MacBook Pro, to highlight just a few.
Dell Labor Day Sale: Dell runs deals on its computers, monitors, and peripherals year-round and is not shy about rolling out even bigger discounts during big annual events like Labor Day. Some of the stand-out picks among these last-minute Labor Day deals are the new Dell G3 gaming laptop, the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook (one of our long-standing favorites), and the Dell G5 gaming desktop PC. Also remember to try using the codes SAVE10 and 50OFF699 at checkout, which might give you even more savings.
Home Depot Labor Day Sale: Most big sales feature a lot of tech deals, and as much as we love those, Labor Day is one of the best holidays for scoring deals on big appliances and other essentials. The Home Depot Labor Day Sale is the place for that, featuring discounts of up to 40% off of tools, appliances, furniture, fixtures, smart gadgets, and more for the home. Halloween decorations are also on sale early if you're already feeling spooky.
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Microsoft Labor Day Sale: If you've been looking to get your mitts on one of Microsoft's awesome Windows-powered Surface 2-in-1s or laptops, now's the time to do it. The Microsoft Labor Day Sale has deals on its recent Surface devices like the Surface Pro 7 (our current favorite 2-in-1) and the budget-friendly Surface Go, but there's also a ton of markdowns on smartwatches, true wireless earbuds, and Windows PCs.

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Without an education discount, the 13-inch model starts at $1,799 and ships with a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655, 8GB RAM, 256GB solid-state drive, a True Tone Retina Display, Touch Bar with Touch ID sensor, and four Thunderbolt 3 over USB-C ports. The 15-inch model starts at $2,399 and comes with a 6-core 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 processor, discrete Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB GGDR5 memory, 16GB RAM, 256GB solid-state drive, Touch Bar with integrated Touch ID, and four Thunderbolt 3 over USB-C ports. Best Buy sells all configurations at the same price as Apple, but if you sign up for the retailer's Student Deals, you'll get a coupon code that will take off $150 off the retail price.

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