“Today the US Patent and Trademark Office revealed a new Apple invention covering eye tracking that will apply to all future iDevices, the MacBook and more importantly, for use in your car, in a future gaming console or entertainment system,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “Controlling a system using advanced eye tracking is tricky and Apple’s patent discusses how their system will overcome the number one problem facing eye tracking systems today: Troxler fading.”
“Troxler fading is a phenomenon of visual perception that the human brain uses to cope with blind spots on the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue lining of the inner surface of the eye. One result of this phenomenon is that when one fixates on a particular point, objects in one’s peripheral vision will fade away and disappear,” Purcher reports. “Another result related to this phenomenon is the perceived fading of a fixated stimulus when its retinal image is made stationary on the retina, which is otherwise known as a stabilized retinal image. This perceived fading causes the stimulus to fade away after a short time and effectively disappear to the viewer (i.e., the person whose retina is capturing and perceiving the fixed stimulus).”
Purcher reports, “Apple’s invention in various implementations provides systems, methods, and devices that provide a user of a GUI with one or more measures to counteract a perceptual fading of a cursor with respect to the GUI.”
Much more info, and Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iEye, captain!
Yet Samdung fans will find a way to shoot this down and say the Koreans did it first.
This could be the iWatch that everybody is talking about. Wouldn’t it be a shame that Samsung has copied the wrong rumour ?
In a way they did and it SUCKS. Yet the trolls use it for bragging rights and a feature Apple doesn’t have. Sure it’s a feature but a stupid one.
Far-seeing Apple, gazing beyond the very horizon
ar???? Greek to me!!! But lead on, Apple and I will follow. Cue the lemming jokes. Lol.
“Troxler fading is a phenomenon of visual perception that the human brain uses to cope with blind spots on the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue lining of the inner surface of the eye.”
He had to explain what the retina is?
Is the Troxler fade what figure skaters experience when spinning?
Sounds awes… Zzzz
In mid 90s Canon made EOS 3 with eye tracking focus control. I use the camera for some time, it worked 50% of the time.
Consumer tech companies are going crazy about eye tracking or what? I mean the new patent for ‘pay-per-gaze’ business model by Google?!?
Read recently the much rumored Amazon phone is going to have 4-camera-3D-eye tracking…
Can’t wait to try some cool applications. Have German friends at myGaze who work with the technology, they tell me developers are rushing in to test their SDKs , guess that’s a closing window to get in that game with the big guys…