AGlass

Intro

7invensun, a Beijing based company that was accepted under HTC Vive X accelerator program, has further pushed the boundary of virtual reality by introducing an eye tracking accessories for the HTC Vive.

Known as aGlass, this eyepiece allows eye tracking in real time and brings with it exciting possibilities to users of HTC Vive. The aGlass development kit is now available for purchase in China at around $220 a unit, with the commercial versions to be released somewhere later in 2017.

Features

The aGlass’s world class eye tracking of less than 0.5° allows foveated rendering in virtual reality applications. Foveated rendering works by reducing resolutions around a user’s peripheral vision. Users will get detailed graphics where they focused on, just as the eye does in real life.

Besides reducing hardware processing power with foveated rendering, the aGlass enables realistic animation of they eyes of VR character to correspond to the user’s eye movement. This provides an extra depth of experience to the users by adding a touch of emotion into the VR character.

Hardware

The aGlass is a set of the eyepiece that is fitted to the HTC Vive facemask headset. A ring of infrared LED illuminates the user's eye while a small camera record and tracks the movement of the eyes and eyelids. It is powered with an extra USB port under the cable retainer at the top of the Vive headset.

The design also takes people with myopic issues into consideration. Along with the eyepiece, three sets of myopic lenses of 200-, 400-, and 600- degree are provided. These myopic lenses can be slot into the eyepiece easily. The company also mentioned that customized myopic lense based on the needs of users will also be supported.

Technical Specifications

• FOV : 110°
• Tracking Precision : Less than 0.5°
• Tracking Speed : 120-380Hz
• Tracking Latency : less than 0.5ms

Developer

Developers who are interested to in working on applications that leverage on the feature of aGlass can download the SDK and relevant documentation from this link upon registration

http://www.aglass.com/development

Background

With its tagline “Connect the world with your Eye”, 7Invensun was founded in 2009 at Beijing. The company focuses on the R&D and innovation of eye-tracking, eye-motion control, head-tracking, gaze point tracking, and facial identification solutions in the field of machine vision

References

• https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/30/htc-vive-will-get-a-220-plug-and-play-eye-tracking-aglass-device-in-may/
• https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/1/15503932/htc-vive-x-7invensun-aglass-eye-tracking-upgrade
• http://www.aglass.com/
• http://newatlas.com/htc-vive-eye-tracking-aglass-accessory/49299/
• https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/27/next-gen-vr-enhancements/
• https://www.wareable.com/vr/htc-vive-7invensun-aglass-eye-tracking-accessory-9281
• https://www.roadtovr.com/vive-get-eye-tracking-add-optional-corrective-lenses/