Samsung Electronics Ltd is moving to a new phase in its venture to produce a standalone virtual reality headset as the company has successfully provided the next-generation device with support to eye-tracking technology.
Samsung's upcoming standalone virtual reality headset is now supported by an eye-tracking technology which can also be applied to a smartphone-connected VR headset. This will soon be followed by hand tracking, facial expression recognition, and voice recognition technologies.
In a press statement issued on Monday by the South Korean information and communication technology unit, it announced that a VR eye-tracking technology will be integrated on Samsung's forthcoming Exynos VR HMD (head-mounted display), called Exynos 3, an all-in-one VR headset that does not need a smartphone.
The eye-tracking technology is a product of Visual Camp who presented it at Samsung's booth at the recent Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017 in China. Samsung also unveiled the Exynos 3 VR HMD at the said event.
Samsung is now leading the use of eye-tracking in a virtual reality platform as Apple has not yet announced any progress yet since it acquired SensoMotoric which specialises in the same field. Eye-tracking in virtual and augmented reality technologies creates the so-called "foveated rendering" wherein the resolution of the displayed screen is refined, particularly on the area being viewed by a user's eyes, while the rest is being reduced.
This has been considered a milestone for Visual Camp by Samsung and the Korean government as the start-up company has now claimed its well-deserved attention in the global technology space. Born2Global Centre chief executive director Kim Jong-kap said it has "high expectations" for what will come ahead of Visual Camp down the road.
"The recent buyouts by Apple, Google, and Facebook of companies that possess eye-tracking technology show that this technology is receiving a great deal of interest within the VR industry," says Kim. "We therefore have high expectations for the future of Visual Camp, which has demonstrated its highly promising VR-related technology."
