The world’s first camera-free eye tracking system
AdHawk Microsystems has raised US$4.6 million as it brings the world’s first camera-free eye tracking system to market – a major advance that paves the way for a new generation of virtual reality/augmented reality devices capable of more immersive experiences in gaming, healthcare, training and beyond.
Current VR/AR headsets equipped with eye tracking systems rely on cameras to keep track of where the user is looking, and it takes immense computing power to process the hundreds of images per second the cameras capture. As a result, these headsets need to be tethered to a power supply and a high-end computer.
AdHawk’s eye tracker replaces the cameras with ultra-compact micro-electromechanical systems – known as MEMS – that are so small they can’t be seen by the naked eye. These MEMS eliminate power-hungry image processing altogether, resulting in order-of-magnitude improvements in the speed, form factor and energy efficiency of the VR/AR units that carry them, while delivering resolution on par with expensive, research-grade systems.
The AdHawk system is so fast that it can accurately predict where the user will look next, up to 50 milliseconds (50 one-thousandths of a second) in advance. This capability will enable designers to enhance the element of surprise for gamers, help optimize the placement of ads in VR/AR media, render portions of scenes in advance and provide negative latency to make human-computer interaction seamless.
A fundamental enabling technology of virtual and augmented reality
Eye tracking promises to reduce processing overhead by rendering only the highest acuity region in the eye’s field of view in full resolution, while reducing resolution (and increasing contrast) in the periphery. This approach, known as foveated rendering, is expected to greatly reduce power consumption and latency to make today’s tethered VR experiences obsolete and to mitigate discomfort.
Replacing cameras with AdHawk’s tiny, low-power devices – which can operate for a full day on a coin-cell battery – will enable headset manufacturers to provide eye tracking without the need for tethering.
“We have discovered that when we take thousands of eye position measurements per second to capture the dynamics of eye movements within saccades, we get valuable insight into the state of the user – are they tired, interested, confused, anxious? Where exactly will they look next? This information can be fed back into the VR/AR experience to greatly enhance immersion”, said AdHawk CEO and co-founder Dr. Neil Sarkar.
AdHawk’s device is currently available for purchase as an eye tracking evaluation kit.
| Source: Adhawk