In the latest demo, however, SMI included a helpful benchmark graph and toggle that allowed us to see how the scene was performing with and without the foveated rendering turned on. When we previously tested SMI’s foveated rendering, we noted that it was difficult to tell if it was working while in the headset because when it is you can’t even see it (foveated rendering mimics how the eyes actually see and uses it to the developers advantage). SMI’s mobile VR integration was no different, appearing to operate just as well on the Gear VR as it did running off of a laptop. We previously had a chance to try their latest 250Hz eye tracking setup on an Oculus Rift DK2 and were impressed by both its function and cost. SMI, one of the world leaders in eye tracking technology, is the first company to showcase eye tracking working properly on a mobile VR device. With eye tracking, and more specifically foveated rendering, developers will have the chance to squeeze even more out of the platform opening the doors to some pretty amazing experiences.
#Gear eye tracking upgrade#
As big of an impact as it is going to make on the entire landscape mobile VR may be the place where its impact is felt most initially.ĭespite a nice performance upgrade with the S7, the Gear VR is limited by the fact that it is run off of a mobile device – there simply is only so much power you can pack into a phone that will fit into your pocket. Yet even as the present settles in the world of VR our eyes are tracking toward the future.Įye tracking is going to play an integral role in the future of VR with a number of important applications ranging from user interaction to foveated rendering that will prove crucial to its advancement. So while SMI is looking for collaborators and headset manufacturers to integrate their light weight hardware, we’ll be eager to see if the company becomes a part of the next big thing in 2.0 of consumer VR.VR is one of the hottest topics at Mobile World Congress this year with HTC and Valve revealing the pricing of the Vive, Samsung shipping potentially over a million Gear VRs into the wild and announcing a consumer 360 camera, and LG announcing a very disappointing headset and less disappointing camera. “We want this to be standard in the headset and we don’t offer this as a consumer add-on reference, because it’s not a snap on device… this is basically targeted to convince all the headset manufacturers to give them the real thing.” While researchers and medical professionals send off for the modification, Villwock maintains that it’s about much more than providing a send-away service for your headset. SMI initially dressed their technology as a costly aftermarket solution for headsets, but with the caveat that the price is ‘too high for consumers’. So much so that I started to notice the unconscious saccades, or rapid movements your eyes make to help you build a mental 3D map of your environment. And just like the title says, it’s accurate. These sorts of things may not seem important now, gimmicky even, but as mobile processors take advantage of the savings in processing costs promised by foveated rendering, and use eye tracking to transmit social cues in shared VR spaces like AltspaceVR, the more we’ll see mobile headsets of today as fundamentally lacking. See Also: Hands On: SMI Proves that Foveated Rendering is Here and it Really Works Quest 2 Anniversary Sale Offers Big Discounts on Top Games Black plastic rims with IR diode assemblies replace the original ones at no appreciable change. No wires were sticking out, nothing unfinished in the slightest, as the wires are fed into the microUSB connection on the Gear VR, and the chip-shown to me separately to weigh nearly nothing-was hidden in the body of the headset. Two specially treated pieces of glass reflect the image of the eye to a small pair of cameras placed on either side of the headset. Like the previous usecase we saw- integrated into the DK2 to demonstrate the processing power-saving abilities of foveated rendering–it’s the same 250hz eye tracking kit, but neatly fit into the shell of the Gear VR. I met Villwock in the lobby of the Fira Congress Hotel to try on a modified Gear VR, which was packing the company’s eye tracking kit. At MWC I sat down with Christian Villwock, director of OEM sales, to learn more about the company’s eye tracking technology and to see for myself how it works with mobile VR. SensoMotoric Instruments ( SMI) is a Berlin based company involved in creating eye tracking solutions across several industries, and has been doing so for the past 25 years.
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