Apple just bought a company that made eye-tracking 'smart' glasses
The company, SensoMotoric Instruments, previously made a specialized pair of glasses that used eye tracking for a variety of applications, including athletics.
The company used the domain name eyetracking-glasses.com. They claimed their eye-tracking technology had over 100,000 users.
Eye tracking is a core technology that many working on virtual and augmented reality believe will be essential to truly immersive eyewear.
Headsets with eye-tracking can use the technology as a component in a user interface, so that where you're clicking in a virtual world lines up with where you're actually looking in the real world. Eye-tracking can also be used to reduce the amount of processing power needed to render a virtual world, or make virtual characters seem more real.
Last year, Google bought Eyefluence, another company specializing in eye-tracking. AR startup Magic Leap, which has raised $1.39 billion, uses eye tracking in its prototype headset.
"I do think that a significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day," Cook said last year.
Apple has bought a ton of companies with applications in AR or VR, including:
- Metaio, which made AR software
- Primesense, which made a 3D sensor which could be great for AR
- Faceshift, a facial mapping company
- FlyBy Media, which made tech that can track the 3D motion of an object.
Apple confirmed the purchase to Axios. The price Apple paid for the reportedly 60-person company is unknown.