Well over a year ago, I tried a Kickstarter-funded virtual reality headset that could track not just your head, but your pupils. It was called Fove, and it’s now open for preorders, with a price of $599 and a shipping date of early 2017. (Kickstarter backers will get their versions toward the end of 2016, and people who preorder in the first week will get a discounted price of $549.) At the VR Developers Conference in San Francisco, I was able to test out the latest version, and it’s come a long way — even if its creators admit that it’s ready for everyday use just yet.
Outside VR, eye tracking in entertainment is usually an aid for aiming and navigating in video games, whether that’s shifting the camera in an action game playing Asteroids with your eyes. Inside VR, it’s most practical for foveated rendering, where a headset saves processing power by rendering the part of a screen you’re directly watching in fine detail and blurring everything else. This could let people make more complex and beautiful VR experiences, or drive down the cost of VR-ready PCs, and multiple companies are working on it. Read More...