Gaze-Based Virtual Content Visibility Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current artificial reality systems lack effective methods for users to manipulate virtual content using eye gaze data from eye-tracking devices, limiting intuitive interaction with digital environments.
Innovation Solution
The system uses eye-tracking data to identify and respond to a user's gaze, increasing the visibility of focused virtual elements by bringing them closer or moving them to the forefront within the user's field of view, potentially through enlargement or reducing opacity of overlapping elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If eye-tracking data is used to identify and respond to user gaze, then user interaction intuitiveness is improved, but device complexity increases due to integration of sensors and processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the user's own eye gaze to automatically control virtual content manipulation. The eye-tracking sensors detect where the user is looking, and the system automatically brings the gazed virtual content to the forefront or enlarges it, eliminating the need for manual controls and making interaction as intuitive as natural vision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical interaction methods (buttons, controllers, hand gestures) with an optical-based eye-tracking system. Sensors detect eye position and gaze direction, and processing algorithms translate this data into automatic content manipulation, substituting physical mechanical interfaces with optical detection and computational control.
2Illumination intensity
If virtual element visibility is increased by bringing it closer or enlarging it, then content visibility is improved, but field of view coverage decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the position, size, and opacity of virtual content elements based on real-time eye-tracking data. When a user gazes at a particular virtual element, the system enlarges it and brings it to the forefront while adjusting other elements' positions and opacities to maintain overall scene coherence and maximize the user's field of view coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes depth positioning in the virtual environment to manage visibility. By adjusting the virtual distance of content elements from the user and manipulating opacity levels, the system creates layered visibility where important gazed content appears in the foreground with high visibility, while other content remains accessible in the background, effectively using the depth dimension to resolve the visibility-coverage trade-off.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for enabling gaze-based virtual content control may include (1) displaying an artificial scene with one or more virtual elements to a user wearing a head-mounted display system, (2) identifying the user's eye gaze based on gazing data collected by one or more sensors in the head-mounted display system, (3) determining that the user's eye gaze is focused on a specific virtual element, and (4) in response to determining that the user's eye gaze is focused on the specific virtual element, increasing the specific virtual element's visibility to the user. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.