Imagine zooming in a photo just by looking at it. One of the projects of the Immersive Communication team combines gaze tracking to a near-to-eye display (NED). The goal is to achieve a hands-free solution that is able to display images larger than the display itself. Last year, at the Nokia World, the team showed an early prototype that demonstrated the possibilities of interaction via gaze, with a near-to-eye display. The future possible applications of this technology are many. On an interface it can be used to click icons or typing on a virtual keyboard. 3-D games could also benefit from this technology.

The presented prototype is very simple. It consists of a set of glasses attached to a baseball cap, with a NED built in, as well as a mini camera to track the eye movements.

Using this prototype, at Nokia World 2007 the team demonstrated an image navigation application. It allowed the user to see a 360 degree panorama photograph and control how it was displayed, utilizing his gaze. When looking towards the edges of the screen within the glasses, the photograph would pan right, left, up or down. If the gaze would focus on an object, the photograph would zoom it. The following video illustrates the demo.

The next steps of the research are towards the development of the see-through capability of the system. It means that the next prototype would include the possibility of seeing the real world through the virtual image. This would make it possible to create augmented reality applications by mixing virtual and real objects.

With further developments, the possibility to construct an affordable and wearable mobile terminal with immersive nature and full interaction capabilities can be reality.

Publications

T. Järvenpää, V. Aaltonen, Compact near-to-eye display with integrated gaze tracker, SPIE Photonics Europe, Photonics in Multimedia II, Volume 7001, 2008