Ryan Gardner / Gazette Times

Jim Richardson, owner of Eye Control Technologies, holds up one of the headsets his company makes that allows computer users to control their computer with their eyes.

That's the almost-mythic sounding formula for small high-tech firms in today's headlines. But it's not the path that Jim Richardson envisions for Eye Control Technologies of Corvallis, a four-person research and development firm that he co-founded with Birch Zimmer in 1997.

Instead, Richardson wants to retain that research and development focus with a staff numbering in the low two figures. So far, Eye Control has succeeded by contracting out tasks not central to its purpose. Rather than building infrastructure, he said, the firm's capital can be plowed into product development.

Eye Control Technologies developed a system that allows people with disabilities to control a computer cursor solely through eye and head motion. Other systems were on the market first, but at a formidable cost of $25,000. Capitalizing on the ever-changing landscape of chip and camera imaging technology and employing some new approaches to the problem, Eye Control has brought the cost down to a more affordable $2,500 for eye control and $1,000 for head control. CMOS (complementary metal oxide silicon) imagers, a newer generation of camera, not only helped with costs but also made lighter, more comfortable headsets possible.

Quadriplegics and others with degenerative neuromuscular diseases such as amyothrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease) and multiple sclerosis are often eligible for such systems through insurance or government programs. But in practice, Richardson said, it takes some serious pushing from determined advocates, including parents, caretakers and sellers of the technology.

Eye Control's latest technology includes a camera mounted to the top of a computer monitor that allows Richardson to control the cursor of his computer with simple movements of his head.

Eye Control lacks the kind of sales force Richardson thinks is needed to advocate for customers, many of whom lack any other means of communication while they wait months for access to this technology. So the company has formed a relationship with Zygo of Portland, a large distributor of technology for people with disabilities, to sell Eye Control Technologies' systems and demonstrate the product in various regions of the country.

"We don't want to grow to 200 employees. We want to remain lean and innovative," he said. "I've seen too many companies that have stifled innovation by bureaucracy and the overall size of the company."

The Corvallis firm still is selling three or four systems per month directly and provides an instructional video and a toll-free number that enable most customers to learn the skills in anywhere from 10 minutes to a few days, with some help from their caregivers.

The hardware portion of Eye Control's Ion system consists of a lightweight headset that contains two tiny cameras, a standalone image processor that receives information from the headset and a beacon that tells the headset about the position of the user.

Another piece of tracking "hardware" appears disarmingly simple to outsiders: 1/4-inch reflective dots that make connections with infrared beams and turn whatever they're stuck on - forehead, glasses or fingers -- into a pointing device.

Software that is part of both the head and eye systems allows customers to control computer mouse functions -- clicking and dragging -- through intentional blinking. The software also includes typing and sentence programs to build sentences for use in word processing and other communications programs.

Ion system users gain access to e-mail, granting them a level playing field they experience in no other aspect of life.

"The guy on the other end doesn't know that this person is disabled," Richardson said.

On a more fundamental level, Eye Control's customers regain communication with medical personnel so ailments such as ulcers are less likely to linger undetected.

The first priority for many is communicating with family. Richardson said he is moved by letters from families who are using Ion systems and write to say that the product has "totally changed their life."

He cited one from the father of a 15-year-old who lost speech ability after consuming a tainted party drink. The teen-ager now is able to communicate with his family on a daily basis.

"Just selling one system like that," Richardson said of the teen-ager's case, "is validation for all the years of work we've put into it - the years of development."

"Just one system" is in fact what propelled Richardson and Zimmer into this less-traveled technology lane. A childhood accident involving a garage door opener had left Richardson's cousin, Matthew Stern of California, without motor function or a means of talking for 14 years.

"We did eye tracking because it was the only thing he (Stern) had control over," Richardson said.

Richardson and Zimmer were in their teens when they developed the hardware and software that broke Stern's silence by allowing him to select pre-programmed sentences sounded by a voice synthesizer. Now 23 and 22, respectively, Richardson and Zimmer each have managed to squeeze in a year of college since developing that first system in 1995. Richardson attended Berkeley, and Zimmer went to Oregon State University.

With key patents in place, Eye Control has moved into a new phase where it is selling high-end eye-tracking devices for research purposes to institutions, including Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Eye tracking and other tracking technology holds interest for researchers in a branch of computer science called human computer interaction.

HCI researchers study new ways to communicate with computers, such as virtual reality devices and wearable computers.

The technology would make it possible to track movements in sports such as track and boxing, he said, and also could increase the speed of certain business tasks, such as wading through a database catalog at a phone ordering operation.

Eye Control's current goal is to bring eye, head and hand tracking to a mass market, said Richardson, noting that the technical trickle down ultimately could yield a $25 device for people with disabilities. Part of the process is simply spreading knowledge of the technology among high-tech developers.

"They don't even know that it exists," he said.

The fun aspect for Richardson of this low profile is that Eye Control's products have a "large `wow' factor" - even among otherwise technically literate people.

Rebecca Landis of Corvallis is a free-lance writer and market director for Corvallis-Albany Farmers' Markets.