Google makes another breakthrough in AI. (Photo : Getty Images)
Google has recently confirmed its acquisition of Eyefluence, a three-year-old startup that specializes in turning eye movements into virtual actions, in order to materialize the company's vision of delivering a new experience apart from current VR headsets and which "blurs the line between virtual and augmented reality."
Eyefluence shared the announcement of its recent collaboration with Google in a blog post, saying: "Today, we are excited to announce that the Eyefluence team is joining Google! With our forces combined, we will continue to advance eye-interaction technology to expand human potential and empathy on an even larger scale. We look forward to the life-changing innovations we'll create together!"
In July, Engadget reported the news about Google's secret production of a new high-end standalone headset, which will incorporate eye tracking and use sensors to help users interact with the virtual spaces in front of them.
Google's continuing interest in augmented reality and virtual reality applications led to the company's acquisition of Eyefluence into its future VR headsets. Eyefluence, founded in 2013 by Jim Marggraff, a serial entrepreneur who previously founded Livescribe, a smart pen company that was acquired by Anoto, will enable users wearing head-mounted virtual reality or augmented glasses to use their eyes as a mouse and making selections only with their eye movements, TechCrunch has learned.
Functional eye-tracking is a craved-for technology in virtual reality and augmented reality today. The eye-tracking function also controls some of the latency and accessibility issues and foveated rendering, which allows high-density displays to selectively choose areas of the screen to display images at lower-resolution based on where the user's focus actually is on the display.
Jim Marggraff started Eyefluence after buying up assets from neurological research firm Eye-Com. He pledged that the startup would allow people to manipulate objects and digital screens with their eye movements.
Since the upcoming VR headset technology might be a plausible idea for Google, it will advance the company's reputation on delivering augmented reality together with its other technologies, including the $79 Daydream View, which will work with the company's new Pixel phones when it goes on sale in November. Separately, the company has partnered with Lenovo to create a phone with its Tango augmented-reality tech, which also comes out in November.
