Nicola Anderson | Post-doctoral Researcher, UBC
Eye tracking in VR
Eye tracking in VR is a relatively new technological advancement. While it was initially developed in order to save processing resources (only rendering in high detail where the point of gaze is), it can provide eye movement and attention researchers with an interesting opportunity. Traditional eye movement research requires a trade-off between good data from a small, unrealistically constrained area (e.g., a computer screen), or hard to analyze data from an unconstrained real-world environment. VR may allow us to have the best of both worlds: a large realistic but ultimately controlled environment within which eye movements occur. In this presentation we will introduce some of what we are beginning to do in the lab — specifically eye movement investigations in the context of VR — as well as discuss future projects using our HTC-Vive with a built-in eye tracker. Eye tracking in VR is a relatively new technological advancement. While it was initially developed in order to save processing resources (only rendering in high detail where the point of gaze is), it can provide eye movement and attention researchers with an interesting opportunity. Traditional eye movement research requires a trade-off between good data from a small, unrealistically constrained area (e.g., a computer screen), or hard to analyze data from an unconstrained real-world environment. VR may allow us to have the best of both worlds: a large realistic but ultimately controlled environment within which eye movements occur. In this presentation we will introduce some of what we are beginning to do in the lab — specifically eye movement investigations in the context of VR — as well as discuss future projects using our HTC-Vive with a built-in eye tracker.