Gaze-Depth Responsive UI for Precise VR/AR Target Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), determining a user's gaze direction alone is insufficient to accurately identify the intended interaction target due to multiple items at different depths, leading to suboptimal user interface (UI) interactions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing eye tracking to detect gaze depth, which is the distance of convergence of the user's eyes, and modifying the UI responsive to changes in gaze depth to enhance interaction by adjusting visibility and content based on the detected depth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If gaze direction alone is used to identify interaction target, then the system is simple to operate, but the accuracy of target identification deteriorates due to multiple items at different depths
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from 2D gaze direction tracking to 3D gaze depth tracking by incorporating depth information from the view. This dimensional enhancement allows the system to distinguish between multiple items at different depths along the same gaze direction, thereby improving target identification accuracy without requiring more complex hardware
2Illumination intensity
If UI is always prominently displayed, then the UI is easily visible, but the user's view of distant objects is obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The UI's visual prominence is made dynamic rather than static. The system continuously adjusts UI prominence based on real-time gaze depth detection, making the UI more prominent when the user focuses on closer objects and less prominent when viewing distant objects, thereby balancing visibility with view obstruction minimization
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback loop where gaze depth information from the view is continuously monitored and used to adjust UI prominence. This closed-loop control ensures the UI adapts to the user's current focus, reducing obstruction when the user is viewing distant content while maintaining visibility when appropriate
3Ease of operation
If UI prominence is increased for closer objects, then interaction with close objects is enhanced, but distant objects become harder to see
Solution Approach 1:
The UI prominence is dynamically adjusted based on gaze depth rather than maintained at a fixed level. This dynamic adjustment ensures that UI enhancement for close objects does not permanently obstruct the view, as the UI automatically becomes less prominent when the user shifts focus to distant objects
Data Source
AI summary
In virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), eye tracking may be performed to determine the user's gaze direction. The gaze direction may be used to enhance user interaction. However, when a user gazes in a particular direction, it could sometimes be the case that there are multiple items located in that gaze direction, each at a different depth. The gaze of direction alone might not be indicative of the item at which the user is looking. Therefore, in some embodiments, to try to further enhance user interaction, a gaze depth of the gaze may be determined. Some embodiments are directed to performing eye tracking to detect a gaze depth of a human's gaze and modifying a user interface (UI) responsive to a change in the gaze depth.