How do you enable eye tracking in VR applications?

Our relationship with media is becoming more direct thanks to new technology. We have come a long way from the one-way route of television. We now consume media through interactive platforms and experience further immersion in virtual reality. Eye tracking is an opportunity to increase our control of a virtual environment, but also to better understand users. Kevin Oomen researched it for his research internship.

Unity tooling

To that end, Kevin developed a Unity package, which can be added into Unity projects to generate eye tracking data. What that means is that he created a tool for developers to make eye tracking part of their virtual environments. Unity is a game engine, which is deployed for various devices and platforms, but is also in use far beyond the game industry for VR applications.

Eye tracking as the next step in VR

Virtual Reality, or increasingly Extended Reality, is in the spotlight. Rapid technological developments are making more and more possible in digital worlds. Yet input possibilities remain limited by the amount of hardware that can be deployed. Motion, and in some cases voice, could therefore enrich this. Eye tracking can enable users to experience a virtual world in new ways. The impact could also be great on the entertainment industry.

Research group project

The assignment for the project comes from the research group Interaction Design. They are looking for ways to generate eye tracking data that data analysts can work with. As an ICT & Software Engineering student, this project fits well with Kevin's skillset, who also has a specialization in Game Design. His experience with VR was limited and eye tracking was completely new. Combining two technologies was therefore the big challenge for Kevin. He tells more about it in the video.

Students interested in graduating with a lectureship project within the Fontys ICT InnovationLab can contact Bart van Gennip and/or Teague Murray Marshall for the possibilities.