This eye-tracking camera by Royal College of Art graduate Mimi Zou is controlled by blinking and squinting – and even recognises your friends when it looks into their eyes (+ movie).

The Iris camera uses biometric technology to identify people by looking at their unique iris signatures. If the user's iris is recognised, the camera will automatically load their preferred settings – including aperture, ISO and screen display.

As the user looks through the lens, they can zoom in and out by narrowing or widening their eyelids. To take the photo, they simply hold their gaze and double blink.

Once the photo is taken, biometric technology also recognises the subject's iris and offers to tag them. Photographers and their friends have to register their biometric information to access these features, but they can also opt out of being tagged in photos.

The camera works for both stills and moving images, and it can upload files instantly through a WiFi connection or store them on an SD card inside until a connection is reached.

The images and movie above show a possible design for the camera. Zou previewed a working model of the technology at Show RCA 2012, the graduate show at London's Royal College of Art. She has just completed the college's Innovation Design Engineering course.

See more stories from Show RCA 2012 here, including a tour with Zou's course leader Miles Pennington.

In April we published a feature about how technology and design will intertwine with our daily lives in the future.