Eye Hyper-Tracking is the root of what we do. Some of you may know eye tracking, but Eye Hyper-Tracking can do so much more. What exactly is it and makes it so interesting for spatial computing and smart glasses?
By the VPS editors
„The eyes, chico. They never lie.“ – Tony Montana got it right in the gangster classic Scarface. The eyes, our most important sense, reveal a lot about us. We call them the windows to the soul.
We humans have the impressive skill to easily and instantaneously detect the regions in a visual scene that are most likely to contain something of interest to us. This pre-selection process is called visual attention and it is extremely powerful.
Its two main mechanical components are gaze control and pupil dilation. The movement part consists of ballistic changes in eye position called saccades and of fixations. In other words, the gaze jumps around, then fixates on something and tracks it. This is the moment when information is extracted from the visual scene. The widening of the pupils then indicates a visceral emotional reaction to our surroundings. It mirrors the basic emotions of fear, anger, disgust, sadness, happiness and surprise.
So when you are excited, tired, confused or stressed, minuscule movements of your eyes give it away. Tiny cameras, small enough to sit inside a pair of nosepads, can detect the direction of gaze and focus as well as minute changes in pupil dilation. And while eye tracking has been around for a while, we have developed the unique and patented Eye Hyper-Tracking technology that allows us to not only see what you see and perceive, but also to see what you feel while you are seeing it.
What are the benefits of these insights? They help us to understand a person’s behavior in a given situation. For example, in the area of traffic security, we identify the insecurities of a driver by means of their gaze behavior. Traffic routing and signage can thus be optimized, which may save lives. Eye Hyper-Tracking also makes it possible to train the gaze strategy of an operational force, such as a police officer or bodyguard, and thus improve perception and concentration. These are only two of many useful areas of application.
The true magic of Eye Hyper-Tracking, however, is unleashed in combination with mixed reality and smart glasses. Imagine if you no longer had to use your hands to tell your device what you want from it – it knows just by your look. No typing on the touchpad, no mistakes and misunderstandings with voice control. By using eye gestures the wearer can interact with digital content in an intuitive and hands-free way. Menu items and digital overlays are selected through the movement of the eyes. The wearer has the hands free for work, which makes eye-gesture control highly practical in any professional application.
Sounds like science fiction? This is exactly where our Digital Iris technology comes into play. You want to read more about the key to digital immersion? Click here.
