The EyeHarp is a gaze-controlled music interface. It aims to allow people with physical disabilities to learn and play music. It is open source and free to download and use. It forms part of the master and PhD thesis of Zacharias Vamvakousis, researcher in the Music and Machine Learning Lab, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain. It is implemented on top of the openFrameWorks open source C++ toolkit. The EyeHarp is not an exclusive gaze-controlled interface. Any pointing device can be used to control the interface. Many users control it through head movements.

The interface allows constructing arpeggios and controlling their harmony while playing melodies on top of them. To achieve this, it consists of two layers: the step-sequencer layer and the melody layer.

                             Melody Layer                                                               Step-Sequencer Layer

An evaluation and description of the interface can be found in the following paper:

  • Vamvakousis, Zacharias, and Rafael Ramirez. "The EyeHarp: A Gaze-Controlled Digital Musical Instrument." Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016).

More information about the interface, along with a manual, performances of users and media coverage can be found at www.theeyeharp.org.