As the Galaxy S IV release date gets closer and closer, a crop of rumors regarding the Galaxy S IV have appeared on the internet. One rumor leaked all the hardware specifications of the Galaxy S IV, which includes an 8-core processor. Now we have a rumor regarding the software side of the S IV. Anyone up for eye scrolling?

Quoting an unnamed Samsung employee who has supposedly played with the Galaxy S IV, New York Times is reporting the smartphone has eye tracking technology that automatically scrolls a page when your eyes reach the bottom. In other words, you will no longer need your hands to scroll a page when you are reading.

It is unclear if this scrolling works only with vertical scrolls or supports horizontal scrolls, too.

As sci-fi and unbelievable as this sounds, the technology to scroll by tracking eyeballs is not that farfetched. Galaxy S III already has face tracking technology which it uses to ensure the phone’s screen is not turned off while you are using it and is turned off when you aren’t using it. Plus, as New York Times points out, Samsung has already applied for trademarks of “Eye Scroll” and “Samsung Eye Scroll” in Europe and United States, respectively.

So while this is indeed, at best, a rumor, it may turn out to be true.

Interestingly enough, the above-quoted employee says the main attraction to the Galaxy S IV will be software rather than hardware. In other words, Samsung has introduced new software features that surpass the new hardware Galaxy S IV will have. However, Kevin Packingham, Samsung’s chief product officer, refutes this proclaiming the hardware will not be insignificant when compared to the software and, overall, “it’s an amazing phone”.

Personally speaking, I’d have to agree with the unnamed employee that hardware on smartphones has reached a saturation point where it really isn’t as significant as software. However, if Galaxy S IV does indeed have an 8-core processor, then the inner geek of Ashraf may awaken.

[via New York Times, image via liewcf]