HTC Vive to get Eye Tracking Peripheral Add On

[dburne]

We know that Oculus has stated they are working on eye tracking for the CV2, as they had earlier purchased a company that specialized in that tech. Oculus prefers to keep their development in house.

 

Well it appears HTC will be getting a third party add on for the Vive here soon, that offers eye tracking and Foveated Rendering for the Vive. It will be offered by a Chinese start up company, by the name of 7invensun.  Foveated Rendering is a process that allows the GPU to work more on the graphics of where one's eyes are focused, rather than the whole screen which allows more performance.

Pre-Orders may be offered in parts of the world next month, with more of a major launch later this year.

 

This third party add-on, the aGlass, will be thin lenses one can install inside their Vive headset, powered by USB.

The add-on is slated for a price tag of 220.00 USD.

You can read more about it here:

https://uploadvr.com/7invensun-eye-tracker-for-vive/

 

In any event, it is interesting to see the technology develop as it continues to grow, undoubtedly the next few years will be very exciting for the world of VR.

Edited April 29, 2017 by dburne

[Wolf8312]

Yeah one reason I really am glad I went with the VIVE is that although it might be a bit behind I think its a case of the 'slow one now will later be fast' what with this and wireless, it seems like we're going to be able to upgrade the headset significantly in the first generation. Doubt I'd get wireless (1 hour or so battery life apparently) but anything that can tangibly increase performance I will happily lay down 200 notes.

Edited April 29, 2017 by TheNoobleWurtha

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

It is fantastic news, because if the technology is proven and included as an addon for Vive1, it almost ensures that foveated rendering will be on its way and standard in the Gen2 headsets.

[Bearfoot]

We know that Oculus has stated they are working on eye tracking for the CV2, as they had earlier purchased a company that specialized in that tech. Oculus prefers to keep their development in house.

 

Well it appears HTC will be getting a third party add on for the Vive here soon, that offers eye tracking and Foveated Rendering for the Vive. It will be offered by a Chinese start up company, by the name of 7invensun.  Foveated Rendering is a process that allows the GPU to work more on the graphics of where one's eyes are focused, rather than the whole screen which allows more performance.

Pre-Orders may be offered in parts of the world next month, with more of a major launch later this year.

 

This third party add-on, the aGlass, will be thin lenses one can install inside their Vive headset, powered by USB.

The add-on is slated for a price tag of 220.00 USD.

You can read more about it here:

https://uploadvr.com/7invensun-eye-tracker-for-vive/

 

In any event, it is interesting to see the technology develop as it continues to grow, undoubtedly the next few years will be very exciting for the world of VR.

 

So this is targeted at better/more efficiently using the GPU, or does it actually change the way we use the headset, e.g., avoiding the need to turn our entire head to focus on a spot, but allow us to selectively focus on anything in our FOV by glancing left/right/up/down?

[dburne]

So this is targeted at better/more efficiently using the GPU, or does it actually change the way we use the headset, e.g., avoiding the need to turn our entire head to focus on a spot, but allow us to selectively focus on anything in our FOV by glancing left/right/up/down?

 

That is the way I understand it, it would follow natural eye movement just as in reality.

Plus the foveated rendering would only have to project a clear image at what one is looking at, therefore reducing the GPU load which would give greater performance.

 

I knew Oculus was working on it as well, which undoubtedly will be part of their CV2 offering down the road.

[Gunsmith86]

You have to turn your head as before to look around but it saves performance which will be good for weaker PC and you will be able to get 90 fps even when there is a lot of action around you.

[vaportales]

Yes, I saw that article too. One caveat mentioned is that it reduces FOV a bit. Would be nice when these headsets get native foveated rendering. But I may have to go with the vive now. Apparently it is outselling the rift 2 to 1 which  makes it more tasty for 3rd party development like this.

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

I already have a reduced FOV due to adjusting the display back to work with glasses. I also have the option of wearing contacts (which I do time to time) with the screen as close as possible. The difference in FOV in my opinion isn't that dramatic.

[Jason_Williams]

As long as it doesn't require us to do anything I am all for it.

 

Jason

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

The article indicates that this occurs at the driver level so perhaps you wont have to do anything, but lets wait and see eh.

[-IRRE-Wibration]

I'm 200% on it!!! Eye tracking is what VR need right now, and it's open the door for better resolution. I'm very happy to see that on Vive 1 without waiting more than one year to bought that!

[GrendelsDad]

I'm 200% on it!!! Eye tracking is what VR need right now, and it's open the door for better resolution. I'm very happy to see that on Vive 1 without waiting more than one year to bought that!

FPS may be better but resolution will not improve with this device unless I am missing something?

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

Benefit will be the ability to run higher levels of super sampling (to improve image quality) as you will have GPU power to spare with foveated rendering.

[Beazil]

As long as it doesn't require us to do anything I am all for it.

 

Jason

I laughed.  :D

 

The easier developers of hardware can make it for (game) developers to use, the easier and more accessible it will be.  I certainly hope that is the case here.

 

Very interesting news anyway.

[=IL2AU=chappyj]

any actual figures on how much of a performance improvement theyre seeing?

 

their comment about jumping from 45 to 90 fps seems too much of a coincidental figure when throwing in reprojection. i doubt that 45fps was actually the real GPU performance at the time. maybe more like 60-70  >  jump to 90?

Edited May 2, 2017 by =WFPK=chappyj

[-IRRE-Wibration]

FPS may be better but resolution will not improve with this device unless I am missing something?

 

No you'r right, but what I mean it's this tech open the door for 4K screen for the Vive 2 (or Oculus 2, PSVR 2, etc...).

 

If your CG card need to render 2x 4K resolution (for each eye) you will play games at 10FPS. But with this tech, the game can render 4K where your eye look at and render in minus resolution the rest of the screen.

 

For now, this tech (and this device) just help to gain FPS but it's a very good improve for the future of VR !

 

 

 

And by the way, I encourage everyone to look at this video (especially at 2:30 and 6:12) :

 

Edited May 2, 2017 by -IRRE-Wibration

[dburne]

Fwiw,

 

Apparently there is a form of foveated rending currently for VR devices, it is supported at the driver level by Nvidia however it also requires some support added by the game developer as well. Batman Arkham VR which was developed exclusively for VR has this feature implemented into the game, have not seen many reports though on how well it is working.

 

I think the key though will be in next generation devices for Oculus and HTC,  which undoubtedly will have native support for that along with eye tracking as well. It will go a long way in the VR performance department.

Along with of course any newer entries into the VR tech market.

 

I think a couple of years out we will see some fairly significant changes in our VR devices.