With the release of several high-end VR headsets, hardware manufacturers are starting to look for the «next big thing» in VR. While wireless virtual reality and improved visual fidelity require significant investment, various new technologies are emerging that promise to create a more immersive experience. Advanced tracking is one area of interest in an attempt to further close the gap between your physical body and the virtual world.
Eye tracking looks to be one of the more interesting technologies, potentially offering a huge leap in immersion and performance. With companies like «FOVE» taking orders for a VR headset with full eye tracking, we’re already starting to see smaller companies pushing for technology. But what if you could use eye tracking on your existing VR hardware?
Updated June 7, 2017. We’ve updated this guide with details on Tobii’s eye tracking, which promises a similar but integrated solution for the HTC Vive.
Enter aGlass
With FOVE still a few months away from the release of the first version of the headset, a new Chinese startup, 7invensun, has begun to draw attention to eye tracking again. With its new product ‘aGlass’, the company is gearing up to offer a third-party eye tracking module for all existing HTC Vive headsets.
AGlass consists of two external lenses that sit above the existing HTC Vive lenses. These plastic overlays are equipped with many infrared lamps and sensors that are designed to track the movement of the eyes and eyelids. This makes it a modular plug and play solution that connects directly to the headset via a USB port.
While we have yet to get our hands on the product, 7invensun promises both accurate eye tracking and low latency from aGlass. As stated on the company’s website, the trackers offer less than 0.5 degrees accuracy and less than 5ms latency. If a product meets these requirements, it should show a 1:1 translation of your eye movements in most scenarios.
To overcome the problem of glasses interference, customized aGlass lenses will also be available upon request. The company already offers 200, 400, and 600-degree myopic lenses to developers at no additional cost. These lenses can be switched on the fly, which prevents the tracker from being tied to a specific person.
Tobii eye tracking
Tobii is a Swedish company already entrenched in eye tracking, with existing solutions for assistive technology, research and board games. More recently, the firm has expanded into the VR space and is already taking orders for development kits that are laying the groundwork for the effort.
Unlike the simple plug and play technology developed by aGlass, the Eye Tracking VR Kit is an all-in-one solution built into the HTC Vive Business Edition. With the Tobii EyeChip SoC (system on a chip) built directly into the headset, eye tracking technology is controlled independently from the headset with additional processing capabilities.
When it comes to tracking, Tobii’s solution uses infrared sensors arrayed around the lens. While the technology isn’t too different from what aGlass provides, it’s a built-in solution designed specifically for the HTC Vive headset.
While Tobii doesn’t currently offer a consumer-facing solution, its established eye tracking technologies make this a forward-thinking solution. Even if «7invensun» currently guarantees a much more affordable solution, it remains to be proven how aGlass works.
What to Expect from Eye Tracking
While we are yet to see many examples of games that support eye tracking, manufacturers have already explored various ways to use them. However, we can expect further innovation once the product gets into the hands of more developers.
First of all, eye tracking can have a huge impact on performance through a technique known as «render rendering». By tracking the location of your eyes, games can be displayed based on your line of sight. This allows your computer to render only certain parts of the image in full detail, while objects in peripheral vision are displayed at a lower resolution.
