In Beijing, I have visited again my friends of 7Invensun, one of the worldwide leaders in eye tracking technologies. During my first visit, they showed me some cool prototypes: a prototypical eye tracking add-on for HoloLens and a prototypical Vive Focus with embedded eye tracking.
This time, they showed me a full roster of eye tracking solutions for both standalone and PC headsets.
Pico G2 4K with eye tracking
The product that surprised me the most has been a Pico Goblin 2 4K with embedded eye tracking. I thought that this was another prototype that they made to showcase their expertise, but actually, Richard of 7Invensun told me that it is a product that the company is already selling in China.
It looks exactly like a Pico G2, but there are two noticeable differences: the first one is a cable that goes out from the facemask and gets plugged into the USB port of the device. The second one is the two eye-tracking inserts around the lenses.
I asked why the need of that cable coming out from the headset: since this product has been made in partnership with Pico, I thought that everything should be embedded into the device. The guys at 7Invensun answered me that this product has been developed only after the Pico G2 had already been engineered. This means that the PCB of the device was already been produced and it didn’t feature the connectors where to attach the eye tracking devices. So, the eye tracking system could only be connected to the USB port of the headset. But in future versions this hack should disappear, and you will be able to buy standalone headsets with completely integrated eye tracking.
I went on to try the device and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The eye tracking addition didn’t made the device more uncomfortable, it was for me exactly as a Pico G2. After I wore it, I started a calibration procedure, and I had to follow some points on the screen by just moving my eyes. The calibration for eye tracking is always quite short (it lasts 30 seconds), but it is still, in my opinion, a step that has to be removed to make eye tracking more usable and widespread. In some contexts, like for instance exhibitions, it is really a big nuisance.
After the calibration, I have been able to try some experiences:
- In the first one, I was looking into a mirror, seeing myself as a female avatar. I could move my eyes and the avatar in the mirror could follow those movements. The eye blinking was also tracked: not only the eyelid opened/closed status, but also various intermediate statuses;
- In the second one, I could play a whack-a-mole game by just looking at the moles;
- In the third one, I could see some bullseyes in front of me, and looking at their centers, I could spot if the eye tracking was precise enough.
From these tests, I could see that the eye tracking performed really well. In my last year’s tests, the tracking on the standalone headset was already quite good, but this year it was absolutely faster and more precise, especially if I looked in the periphery of my vision. I was impressed.
7Invensun claims having only 1 degree of error in the perception of the gaze direction and I think that if your eyes are looking straight in front of you, this claim is right. If you are looking at the periphery of your vision, the precision seems less… but it is anyway far better than how it was one year ago. I think that now standalone headsets with eye tracking are finally usable.
The only problem that I found in my demo was a slight delay in the blink detection, that seemed to be performed by the avatar some instants after my actual blink. 7Invensun guys answered me that they have reduced the tracking framerate to 30Hz to spare the mobile device battery, and so the tracking could have a slight delay and may also miss some fast eye-lid movements.
I so asked them what is the power consumption of having eye tracking on a standalone headset. They answered that since all the algorithms run on a dedicated DSP, the consumption is not that much. The headset can run for more or less 2 hours, a time that is not that distant from the duration of the battery of the Pico G2 without eye tracking.
The Pico G2 4K with integrated eye tracking is on sale in China for 10,000 yuan (more or less $1500). Typical customers of this device are companies interested in training, education, rehabilitation. If you are interested in buying it, you should know that 7Invensun is open to ship the device worldwide to interested customers. Just contact them directly to purchase your device or contact me and I will be very happy to help you with the introductions.
Vive Pro with eye tracking
I have already described you my experience with the Vive Pro Eye, that is a Vive Pro that has embedded the eye tracking by Tobii. 7Invensun wanted to make me try a Vive Pro with the eye tracking provided by them.
From the short demos that I have tried on both, I can tell you that the performances are really comparable. On PC, I have not even experienced the lag on the blinking detection that I have found on the standalone headset. This is because thanks to the high computational power of the desktop PC, the eye tracking can run at 120 Hz and so be more precise and reactive.
For software developers, the good news is that all applications that are developed with HTC’s SRanipal SDK, the one used to implement lip and eye tracking in applications for Vive devices, work in the same way with Tobii’s and 7Invensun’s eye tracking accessories. This means that an app developed for the Vive Pro Eye can work without a single change with the Vive Pro + 7Invensun eye tracking add-on.
Standard glasses with eye tracking
What about attaching an eye-tracking device to a pair of standard glasses? 7Invensun is experimenting with this as well.
It has developed an add-on that you can attach to certain frames of glasses to see what the wearer is looking at. This special eye-tracking frame can be connected to a PC or to a phone to analyze the gaze data of the user.
I have tried it and it worked quite well. I followed the finger of one of 7Invensun’s employees for some seconds, then we looked at the data collected by the device. I could see clearly a recording of what I was looking at in a video, with a heatmap indicating the parts of the images I was focusing on and in what order.
This may be useful for jealous women that want to check if their boyfriends are looking at other women 😀 Jokes apart, it can be useful for companies wanting to analyze users’ behavior. For instance, some people of a test group can be sent in a supermarket to buy some stuff with these special glasses on. After that, some experts will analyze their gaze data to understand what is the user behaviour inside the shop and modify the disposition of the sold items so that to increase the sales.
As every time I visit 7Invensun, I came out from my visit very satisfied both from a professional and personal standpoint. I really thank Lee and Richard for the time that we have spent together.
And even if I shouldn’t tell you, the company showed me some of its future products that will be revealed soon and that are great! Stay tuned for future updates on this company… 😉