There are several technologies likely to make more of an impact over the next year in the virtual reality (VR) industry, with eye-tracking on of the top contenders. Recently its been confirmed that Oculus has acquired eye-tracking specialist The Eye Tribe.
Reported by Techcrunch, details of the deal haven’t been released so its unclear how much Oculus paid, what will happen in terms of supporting The Eye Tribe’s current user base and how Oculus plans to integrate the eye-tracking team into its business.
The Dutch startup formed back in 2011, after the founders met at the IT University of Copenhagen in 2007. The Eye Tribe raised $3 million USD while in the Startup Bootcamp accelerator, and received a $2.3 million grant from The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation which helped the startup develop its first an eye-tracking dev kit, available for $99 USD and attaches to PC’s. The company also created foveated rendering technology enabling PC’s to run immersive VR software with less graphical processing required.
Oculus isn’t the only VR company looking into eye-tracking. Back in October last year Google acquired Eyefluence, another eye-tracking specialist, with the company saying: “With our forces combined, we will continue to advance eye-interaction technology to expand human potential and empathy on an even larger scale.” Also due to launch this year is FOVE 0, a Kickstarter funded VR head-mounted display (HMD) that’s set to be the first consumer model with eye-tracking built in.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Oculus’ eye-tracking developments, reporting back with any further updates.