SMI Eye Tracking Enables Foveated Rendering on Mobile Virtual Reality Platform at GDC

SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI), a world leader in eye tracking technology, will premiere its mobile eye tracking technology on an ARM^®-based mobile virtual reality (VR) platform at GDC 2017.

SMI eye tracking is a proven technology found in smart devices, including computer and tablet screens, eye tracking glasses and AR/VR.

The VR demo, which uses a Samsung Gear VR headset with the Samsung Galaxy S7, features an Exynos 8890 SoC with an ARM Mali^™ GPU and will showcase the benefits of eye tracking for mobile VR, including foveated rendering. As well as delivering a superior visual experience to the user, foveated rendering alleviates the power demand issues common to mobile VR. Addressing the demand VR places on chips in smartphones is crucial for the continued growth of this market and enabling next generation mobile VR.

“Eye tracking technology will bring yet another level of sharpness and detail to untethered VR worlds,” said Pablo Fraile, director of ecosystems, mobile compute, ARM. “Our demonstration of SMI mobile eye tracking technology on ARM-based devices highlights how foveated rendering will increase the efficiency of mobile VR experiences without compromising frame rates or visual quality.”

SMI has delivered more than 10 eye tracking integrations for AR and VR in the past 12 months – covering tethered VR HMDs, standalone and mobile VR headsets.

“Given ARM’s global position as a mobile technology provider we are very pleased with the success of this collaboration,” said SMI Director OEM Business Christian Villwock. “We have long believed that eye tracking is central to the future of all VR – including mobile – and having a company such as ARM align with this view is to us, a vindication of that long-held belief.”

Key benefits of eye tracking for VR include:

• Foveated rendering- providing a richer visual experience with a lower processing load
• Social presence- the SMI Social Eye, launched earlier this year, creates a realistic eye-to-eye experience when avatars meet in virtual worlds
• Gaze interaction- select content by simply looking at a menu option
• Personal display calibration- providing a VR experience more comfortable for the eye
• Analytical insights- which are of great value to games developers, corporate users and researchers

Experience ARM’s eye tracking demo at GDC 2017, booth 1924. The demo will teleport the user into the heart of a smartphone, exploring the inside – from chip to camera to speakers – from an entirely new perspective, guided by a friendly robot companion.