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Positional tracking and eye tracking are the two major features that VR headset companies are trying to introduce in their headset. These features give the user a better idea about his/her surrounding environment thereby making their virtual reality experience more interactive and intuitive.
The latest news that comes from the tech industry show that Oculus has recently acquired a new eye-tracking startup named ‘The Eye Tribe’. Bringing eye-tracking to VR means that users would be able to their VR headsets by the position and direction of their eyes.
Image Credit: TechCrunch
Oculus though has confirmed the official deal, but refrained from commenting the price of buyout or exactly which members of The Eye Tribe will be joining Oculus’s team ahead. The startup was formed in 2009 based out of research from the IT University of Copenhagen. The creation of ITU Gaze Trakcer, the company’s open source eye tracking software helped the company come in the lime-light after which in 2013 it grew as a full-fledged startup by introducing its technology in an Android tablet device.
The Eye Tribe Tracker is a $99 device purported for eye-tracking and available in the form of developer kits for computers. The software for the device is capable of getting gaze-based interfaces to smart devices like smartphones and tablets and even to virtual reality headset.
The startup has also developed a foveated rendering technology that would allow the VR systems to save considerable amount of energy by focusing and generating necessary graphics only at the point of view as shown in the image at the top. This would thereby create a focal point which moves with your eyes.
Moreover, with eye-tracking being incorporated in your VR headsets, users can easily teleport around a location. The eye-tracking feature can have a potential use at places of auto-scrolling of text and content while reading e-notes and e-pages. Moreover users will even be able to control media players buttons like pause and play just with their eyes when their both hands are occupied. With more automobile giants shifting towards autonomous cars, car interfaces can also make a very potential use of this technology. Take a look at the below video in order to understand how the The Eye Tribe Tracker works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q9DarPET0o
However, Oculus has put no word out as how it is going to make use of this technology in the VR business it caters to. There can be several application fields like security verification, navigation with eyes, immersive games and much more.
oculus had been my favourite HMD and this news is wonderful if they are integrating some new tech to their existing headsets… but i think this would come with new models